A Royal Kiss & Tell by Julia London – a Review

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Description:
Every prince has his secrets. And she’s determined to unravel his…

Every dashing young man in London’s ton is vying for Lady Caroline Hawke’s hand—except one. Handsome, delectable roué Prince Leopold of Alucia can’t quite remember who Caroline is, and the insult is not to be tolerated. So, Caroline does what any clever, resourceful lady of means would do to make sure a prince remembers her: sees that amusingly risqué morsels about Leo’s reputation are printed in a ladies’ gossip gazette…all the while secretly setting her cap for the rakish royal.

Someone has been painting Leo as a blackguard, but who? Socially, it could ruin him. More important, it jeopardizes his investigation into a contemptible scheme that reaches the highest levels of government in London. Now, Leo needs Lady Caroline’s help to regain access to society. But this charming prince is about to discover that enlisting the deceptively sweet and sexy Lady Caroline might just cost him his heart, his soul and both their reputations…

Review:

A Royal Kiss & Tell by Julia London is the 2^nd book in her Royal Wedding series.  I enjoyed the first book of this series, The Princess Plan and looked forward to reading the next book.  A Royal Kiss & Tell revolves around Prince Leopold (Sebastian’s brother), and Caroline (Eliza’s best friend).   With his brother marrying Eliza, Leopold is quite the ladies’ man, but when it comes to Caroline, he finds her very annoying.  Caroline tries very hard to get the prince’s attention, and she can’t understand why he ignores her.  Frankly, I found Caroline annoying also, as everything and everyone was expected to look at her being the most beautiful, the best dressed, and all should bow down to her.  At least that was how I felt throughout the first half of the book.  But Caroline does get much better later on.

After the wedding, Caroline and her brother, Beck, as well as Hollis (Eliza’s sister) all return to London; and Leopold also decides to go to London.  With his father forcing him to marry someone he hardly knows, Leo plans to have his last hurrah as a playboy, drinking and having fun every night with friends.   He becomes even better friends with Beck, and runs into Carolyn again.   She is as vain as ever, and the sarcasm between them was very noticeable to all.

Slowly things will begin to change, as Leo finds himself looking forward to the banter between him and Caroline and a slow build romance will begin to build. Attending the many banquets she attends, Carolyn will see Leo secretly talking to maids, and starts rumors to her friends that he is a rake, and making moves on the women; causing Leo’s reputation to suffer, and invitations to events are revoked.  When Leo finally explains to Caroline that nothing is going on with the maids, except he is trying to help them escape their lives as sexual slavery.  She then insists she will help him save the women, as well as get him invites again to the places he needs to be to get to the women. 

What follows is a sweet romance between an unlikely couple, and a mystery behind the attempt to discredit Leo, and saving the slaved women.  Though I was not a fan of Caroline, she did win me over in the second half, and I really did like her and Leopold together.  I loved some of the other secondary characters, and hope to see more of t hem in future books; such as Hollis, Beck, etc.

Julia London once again gives us a wonderful and fun story line, as well as making us fall hard for the couple we questioned early on. As I noted, the last half of the book was fun and exciting.  I look forward to the next book in this fun series, which you should be reading. 

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by publisher