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Un Héritier Pour Le Prince (2013)

by Lucy Monroe(Favorite Author)

3.35 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Harlequin

series

By His Royal Decree

review 1: I enjoyed this book but felt it suffered from the same problem that the second book in the series has: the hero just never seems to express enough remorse or even fully understand how he's wronged the heroine. In this case Maks broke things off with Gillian because she had infertility problems and as future king, he would need an heir. So imagine everyone's surprise when their last night together results in a pregnancy. He of course rushes to marry her so the heir will be legitimate. I just never thought he "got" why she was so upset. An enjoyable read, but not my favorite of Ms. Monroe's books.
review 2: If you've read one Harlequin book about an unexpected baby bringing the main characters together again, then there's little that could technically count as a ... morespoiler for this one, but just to be on the safe side, I'm using the "hide" function for this review.Maksim finds out that Gillian may be unable to have children so he feels he must end their relationship so that he can choose a wife who can provide him with an heir and a spare (his words). Of course, the fact that that very night he'd been planning to propose to Gillian doesn't give him all that much pause, and he assumes that she knows what's going to happen, so he sleeps with her one last time which results in - you guessed it - a baby. After he learns about it, he decides he can marry her after all and things progress from there.There are some problems with this book - including the aforementioned overly familiar story. Plus, there are so many repetitive conversations between Maksim and Gilliam that revolve around how he will not let love into his life but she wants to be loved, etc. etc. They go around in circles on this point time and time again and only make some forward progress at the end, after the intervention of a family member.That intervention brings me to another issue: for an arrogant, powerful alpha male, Maksim is kind of on the passive side. Someone else keeps tabs on Gillian and informs him of the baby, just as someone else provides the impetus for Maksim's eventual epiphany and the story reaching its HEA. The one thing that he does that literally made me my jaw drop (which is not a common occurrence for me while reading a book, and it's a good thing that I was alone at the time because I'm sure my expression was somewhat less-than-attractive) is that he makes an issue - several times - of the fact that Gillian didn't "fight" for him when he broke things off with her. Maybe it's just me, but I couldn't believe the sheer gall it takes (given how he had hurt her) to repeatedly throw that in her face as a way to "prove" that she doesn't really love him.The HEA itself is relatively nice in that it provides resolution and things finally move forward. However, for all that Maksim puts Gillian through, he doesn't do much - if anything - in the way of groveling or making it up to her, so this story doesn't offer much emotional payoff from that perspective.As for the good aspects of the story, Gillian is a great heroine - she's got smarts and a spine and she doesn't let Maksim walk all over her. In fact, during their initial breakup, the way she reacts is strong and confident and I think it's the first time that I've ever read a Harlequin breakup where such a thing has happened.So, this one has more than its fair share of downsides, but I'm a Lucy Monroe fan and the fact that, even with all of those factors in play, she still made me care about the characters and their journey says a lot for the kind of writer that she is. Additionally, I found that the love scenes in this one had a bit more heat than such scenes in Harlequin books usually contain, which was a nice change of pace. All in all, this doesn't break new ground and if you're a frequent reader of Harlequin books, this isn't anything you haven't read before. However, Lucy Monroe put her spin on the formula and makes it readable, so if you're in the mood for a Harlequin, I'd suggest giving this one a try. less

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