Hallmark Publishing has been on a kick recently, publishing a lot of fun, fluffy romances for fans of their movies. They recently sent me a courtesy copy of “A Royal Christmas Wish” by Lizzie Shane, asking me to provide an unbiased review.
Continuing their trend of supplying readers with sweet, cheerful stories, “A Royal Christmas Wish” started with such great promise, and then lost me about 1/2 way through. I stuck with the book, and in the end I enjoyed it, but I had issue with the middle section. As such, my rating was slightly lower than some other of the Hallmark books that I’ve read this year.
The book-jacket description is pure holiday princess romance fodder:
Jenny knows she isn’t the princess type. Sure, she’s friendly and caring, but with her clumsiness and lack of self-confidence, glass slippers would only make her trip. When Dom, the cute guy she runs into in the park, turns out to be the prince of San Noelle, she figures he must not be her happy ever after.
But a mysterious countess grants Jenny’s one wish, and she finds herself married to this handsome prince! Unfortunately, at the stroke of midnight on Christmas night, her life will go back to normal.
Author Lizzie Shane started out really well with her book – I was immediately a fan of Jenny, who was well-written and made me laugh (always a good way to feel sympathy for a character and cheer her on). I even liked Dom during the first few chapters of the book. However, once Jenny was transported into the wished-for world, Jenny and Dom had almost no moments together until over halfway through the book. Dom was always off doing something, or seemed distant, or seemed displeased. The result is that I began to not be interested in their story.
However, after that halfway point, the two lead characters finally began having moments together, and building their relationship. It was then I became re-engaged in the story, and began rooting for these two characters again. I think the author could have removed some of the fish out of water aspects and dove directly into the romance and I would have liked it a little bit more. After all, isn’t a romance novel supposed to be….romantic? I will say that the ONLY Hallmark actor I envision playing Dom is Tyler Hynes. From the very first description, he is who I pictured as Dom. No one else would do.
All in all, “A Royal Christmas Wish” is a nice, quick read this upcoming holiday season. I give it 3 1/2 nutcracker ornaments out of 5.
I received an advanced copy from Hallmark Publishing via BookFunnel in order to provide an honest review of the book. All opinions in this review are my own.
