Reviewed for THC Reviews"4.5 stars" I first read Prince Charming many years ago when I was pregnant with my son (I ended up naming him Lucas in part because of this book.:-)). In spite of that, I still didn't recall much about the story. In fact, I thought I remembered a couple of things and then ended up being completely wrong. My memory may have failed me, but Julie Garwood certainly didn't. This book turned out to be one that was well worth the re-read.Prince Charming is a story that is rather unique to the historical sub-genre of romance. First, the setting kind of moves all over the place. It begins in Victorian England, but Lucas and Taylor leave for America rather quickly. Then there is a bit of high seas adventure before the pair land in Boston. They spend some time there as well as in the city of Cincinnati before finally ending up in the tiny frontier town of Redemption, Montana. Also, Taylor is a titled English lady from an aristocratic family while Lucas is an American frontiersman who is the bastard son of a Englishman. Overall, not the types of settings and characters that one would typically expect from a historical romance, but in spite of the seeming incongruousness, it all ended up working together to create a very enjoyable story.Taylor is an outwardly poised and confident young woman who knows what she needs to do and is very determined to see it through. She was jilted by her fiancé who then married her evil cousin, and when she receives the news that her sister and brother-in-law have died in America, leaving behind her two small nieces, Taylor will do anything to keep them from the clutches of her abusive uncle. Taylor trusts her beloved grandmother’s judgment implicitly, so when the lady, on her deathbed, arranges a temporary marriage in name only to an American who she believes will keep Taylor and the babies safe, Taylor is eager to go along with the plan. Taylor is sweet and demure while still being quite strong and spirited. Her eccentric great-uncle who she adored taught her all about frontier life in America, and Taylor became completely enamored of Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. He also taught her how to shoot with uncanny accuracy, yet she's not exactly a kick-butt heroine per se. Instead, she has a very dichotomous personality. Taylor is kind, caring, compassionate, and very forgiving and non-judgmental of others' shortcomings. She becomes a loyal friend and staunch ally of a woman who is pregnant out of wedlock and doesn't bat an eyelash when she finds out that Lucas's best friend is a half-breed. She is fiercely protective of those she loves, and knows that she is going to raise her sister's children as her own before she even locates them. It was really cute and funny when she defended Lucas from his half-brother's attacks against his character, thinking that he wasn't going to stand up for himself. She talks a little too much, especially when she's nervous or scared, but frequently surprises Lucas with things she says or does that often amuse him. It was rather sweet how Taylor plans all along to follow Lucas to Redemption but never tells him because she knows he doesn't want to be married. She's very intelligent and clear-headed and can certainly take care of herself when the situation calls for it. Even though she feels inept at it, Taylor definitely has a natural knack for motherhood too. When she ends up with three children to care for instead of the two she was expecting, she doesn't even hesitate. She just has a big heart and a lot of spunk.Taylor's grandmother couldn't have picked a better groom for her than Lucas. He is generally a man of few words who prefers to observe and only act when it's the most opportune time. He is a man who is every bit as protective of those he loves as Taylor is, and a man who is committed to seeing justice served on those who prey upon others. Even though he didn't know his younger half-brothers, Lucas willingly and generously helped them to get away from his evil older half-brother to build a new life in America. He has also been hunting down the man responsible for killing all of his men during the Civil War. When he finally learns of the plight of Taylor's nieces, he won't stop until they're found. It was very sweet that Lucas's protectiveness of Taylor even extended to protecting her from his own lust. I love how he's always looking out for her well-being, making sure she eats and sleeps. He comforts her in her grief and never even considered taking advantage of her while she was in that vulnerable state. He never thought he wanted to be married, but Taylor slowly gets under his skin with her beauty, poise, and kindness. When he begins to become possessive of her, it's just too cute. Having been an orphan who basically raised himself while living by his wits, he doesn't even realize what he's been missing until Taylor begins to show him her unconditional love and trust. Then he finds he can't resist her and wants to become a better man to be worthy of a wonderful woman like her.I thoroughly enjoying watching Lucas and Taylor gradually fall for one another. The jealousy that initially confounds them both is absolutely adorable, and I loved their bantering. The part where Lucas decided to prove to Taylor that women have "urges" just like men is priceless. This was classic Julie Garwood at her best. I also loved how they never got too bent out of shape when the other one was angry or irritable. Instead, they took the time to think through what the other might be feeling and usually were pretty astute in their observations and intuitive of what the other needed.Lucas's best friend, Hunter, and Taylor's new best friend, Victoria, are every bit as cute of a couple when they finally get together as Taylor and Lucas are. Victoria was duped by her beau who left her pregnant and her family disowned her. She headed for America not knowing what else to do, but ended up so depressed that she was contemplating suicide until Taylor came along and befriended her. With Taylor backing her up, Victoria became a stronger more confident woman. Her first meeting with Hunter when she threw up on his boots was hilarious. Having experienced prejudice most of his life for being a half-breed, Hunter doesn't think himself good enough for a fine, beautiful lady like Victoria, so the two end up sharing a fair bit of bantering while fighting their feelings much like Taylor and Lucas.There are some other great secondary characters too. Taylor's grandmother was a crusty but likable old lady. She was pretty stoic and perhaps somewhat restricted by the mores of the era, so she wasn't really outwardly affectionate. However, her actions made it clear that she thought the world of Taylor. The three kids were adorable. Georgie and Allie get into all kinds of mischief, and their initially nameless “brother” was so sweet the way he wanted to protect the twins. He's like a little Lucas or Hunter in the making. The men of Redemption are a hoot, and they too take to Taylor and Victoria almost instantly, wanting to help and protect them.Overall, Prince Charming was a wonderful and “charming” book. The only two things that made me knock off a half star were the head-hopping and some passive narration. Not having read many older romances in recent history, I'm not sure if these things were more acceptable back then or if this was a peculiarity of this particular book. However, neither was enough to really diminish my enjoyment of the story much. Now that I've been reminded of what a great story it is, Prince Charming has definitely earned a spot on my keeper shelf.
This book was equal parts annoying, frustrating and exhausting. The theme was repetition, the plot was boring, and the execution was poor. The paragraphs mostly consisted of short sentences that sounded like a five year old was describing things, and it was tiring to read through.What was up with the repetition? I swear every time she referred to her grandmother she called her Madam. You don’t call a Lady by the title of Madam. In front of other people you would have called her Lady so and so, but really, I think you can call her Grandmother every once in a while. And every time Lucas talked about William, his half-brother, it was to say “the son-of-a-bitch-heir. “The-son-a-bitch-heir William.” Let’s come up with another way of addressing the guy instead of using that one a million times, shall we?And I’m not quite certain why we needed the dashes in there. That was another thing; things were described with dashes in them. It would go something like this: “he would give her the look-like-he-wanted-to-kill-her expression.” “He gave her the smile-that-said-he-wanted-to-kiss-her.” “When he looked at her it gave her the oh-my-I’m-feeling-quite-faint-feeling.” If that doesn’t lend a robotic sound when read I don’t know what does.The babies. My babies. She just had to get her babies. The babies. Where were the babies? How were the babies? Who had the babies? Find another way to say that cuz I swear if I hear the word “babies” one more time I’m gonna hit something. How about “the kids, the children, the girls, my nieces.” There are alternatives out there at hand if you find yourself repeating a word all the time. Hence the invention of synonyms.And as for the twin girls, they were nothing short of a miracle. Or maybe I should say prodigies. They were jumping up and down, climbing on and off beds, crawling all over the men and basically bouncing off the walls. . .kind of like an older kid would do. . . oh wait, I forgot. THEY’RE JUST BABIES! They were recounting tales that maybe a four year old would handle, but not two year old BABIES! They were explaining in detail what had happened over the weekend and talking nonstop all about their day, which I think any normal 2 year old couldn’t do.I doubt a two year old baby could say, “Mama shot a damned snake.” As the story went on the sentences got longer and more ridiculously, unrealistically outlandish. We ended that craziness by one of the twins asking, “What the hell’s for supper, Mama?”She could have upped the twins’ ages to make it to where it to where it would have been more plausible, but then she wouldn’t have been able to say “THE BABIES” and where would we be then?It’s funny how she seemed to think twins ran in her family because her sister had twins. That has nothing to do with Taylor. For something to “run in your family” it would have had to come before you, but Taylor gave off the impression she had a chance of having twins herself. The twins could have ran in her sister’s husband’s family, therefore having no effect whatsoever on Taylor.Then we got “the boy” switching back and forth between the name David and Daniel until he settled on one or the other, because she’s so fond of the mountain men David Crocket and Daniel Boone (which got highly annoying when she kept insisting the stories and all the accounts of the west were true, from cats being afraid to swim to American women assigning different chores to every day of the week. When she insists to Lucas that it must be true because it’s written down, I’m not finding that charming, which I’m guessing her naiveté was supposed to be, I’m just disgusted and having a zero tolerance policy for any more of her stupidity , but then he meets old mountain man Callaghan and settled on his “father’s name.” How sweet.EXCEPT Lucas isn’t his real father. I know that they took on the role of parents when they took them of out of that house, but you’re not his dad. It was just as annoying when Taylor kept telling everyone they were hers. Fyi, THEY’RE NOT YOUR BABIES! They’re your nieces, so you might wanna reconsider the term “my babies” Finally, somebody calls them something other than babies, but Lucas quickly corrects it when he realizes they’re too tiny to be called children. And what does he correct it with? You got it folks. BABIES! It’s funny how they’re not even 3 years old yet, and they’re too young to be called ANYTHING other than babies, when they form complete sentences such as, “Are you my mama?” “Yes,” Taylor answers. Because Taylor is under the delusional belief that just because their mom is dead and she’ll be taking care of them she can claim the title of their mother. “Are you Allie’s mama, too?” “Yes.” There she goes again with that lie. And wow, what miraculous statements for a two year old BABY to utter.And to top it all off we’ve got this random person she meets on the boat and befriends. But she happens to be pregnant by a mystery man and she bursts into tears at just about every meeting she has with someone else. Victoria burst into tears. Victoria burst into tears. Victoria burst into tears. There goes that repetition again.I’ll give her props though, the whole Victoria quoting William all the time and Hunter thinking she remembered everything her dandy of a husband said, when it was really Shakespeare’s words, was cute. And the story that Lucas told about the Indian steeling his knife and it turning out to be Hunter was sweet.Her character must have had the gift of foresight, because she kept using phrases that didn’t enter the world until decades later. For example:“Hooligans.” “Slow as molasses.” “Grilling him with questions.” “I don’t give a hoot.” “Spill it.” “sassy.” “Sexy” “hitched” (as in getting married), and my personal favorite, “Do I have a sign on my forehead asking to be insulted?” Um, I’m gonna take a shot in the dark on this one and say people in the 1800s did not say that. I’m not even sure how that statement found its way into a historical book.And the phrase Hell yes seemed to surface in there, which wasn’t how they talked back then. But for some reason it came out, “Hell, yes, ….” Which if you say that, it just sounds plain weird and awkward. “Hell pause yes pause, yadda yadda yadda.” Who has ever talked like that?There were several grammar mistakes, such as all right, when it should have been alright, and a while when it was crammed together into “awhile,” which throws the whole conversation off because it doesn’t make sense.Why, if I had a dime for every ridiculous, unrealistic and historically incorrect phrase in this book I would be a very rich person right about now.
What do You think about Prince Charming (1995)?
Lady Taylor is about to lose her grandmother but before her grandmother passes away they make a deal with Lucas Ross. Taylor marries Ross so that he can protect her from her Uncle Malcolm. Malcolm wants the entire inheritance as well as control over Taylor. Taylor's sister has moved to the states with her husband and twin daughters. Unfortunately Taylor's sister and husband pass away and the twins need Taylor's protection and guardianship. This starts a series of incidents where Lucas is drawn further and further into Taylor's world and into her heart. [return][return]Not my usual guilty pleasure read but I enjoyed it much more then I thought I would.
—Melissa
While I liked this novel, I wasn't a big fan of the time period. I was under the impression that this was a regency HR novel when in fact it started off as that and then morphed into a Frontier HR novel. I found my interest waning as the book went on. I did like Taylor and Lucas together, but everything else kind of bored me a little bit. I guess I've figured out that frontier HR romances are not my thing.Other than that issue, the book did have some positives. The relationship between Lucas and Taylor was funny to watch. They both tried hard to fight off their true feelings and it was great to watch them get used to one another. The children being introduced into the story really added some humorous and touching moments. Victoria and Hunter were also a nice added aspect.
—Jess
More like a 3.5/5 rating for me. My first Garwood read about Western romance which I felt had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, was lacking a little "something" to make it a 5 star read. The storyline was great and the characters had potential to be unforgettable, however, I found parts of the book to be dragging. Taylor is desperate to get away from her disgusting uncle who is a selfish, money hungry, uncaring man. Taylor and her grandmother come up with a plan for Taylor to escape to America to elude from her uncle and all his devious ways. The plan includes her marrying a handsome, strong mountain, American, Lucas. Lucas comes with a secretive past and is anxious to leave England, however, he is presented with Taylor to marry her for a sum of money and guarantee he can deliver a safe passage to America. The plan is set in motion, however, after spending several weeks in each other's company they find it difficult to part ways when they are so infatuated with each other. Of course they run into obstacles which eventually prove their love to each other....A good story between Taylor and Lucas. But like I said earlier I just found something lacking.....
—Trang Nguyen
