The Princes Affair by Nell Stark

The Princes Affair
by Nell Stark
Pages: 264
Date: March 19 2013
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: A Princess Affair (first book)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: June 29 2015

This was a difficult book in several ways (I'll just briefly note: closeted people hiding from the public; certain amount of miscommunication issues; etc.), and for the longest time I figured I'd be lucky to rate this as much as three stars. Though I never doubted I'd complete the book. In the end, though, I was able to like it enough to give it four stars.

I'm not sure if I can get myself to read another like it, though. For a long while I've been tired of the "straight woman who suddenly realizes they are actually a lesbian" theme. That's not in this book, though the Princess isn't "out". And that's the theme I'm rapidly growing tired of, the "not out" part. In this day and age, the cowering in the closet is something I'm rapidly losing patience with. At least among adult characters who are not over a certain age.

There's always a reason, of course. Mostly tied to work. Mostly I see it in acting related books (which is, in itself, funny in its way, as the perception has been long presented that the public thinks they are all wild weirdos anyway). Well, this time the reason is "royal highness", i.e., position in society.

Okay, I've read that now. I'll not "punish" this book for having the closeted theme, since I hadn't specifically read this exact storyline before (though I've run across princesses with fake images falling for a specific woman, and how that created complications, etc. etc. - though there it was a fantasy - it had to be, what with lesbianism being so open, allowed, and not questioned, heck the fake image was of the princess sleeping around, a lot, with women). I lost track of this paragraph. So I'll just conclude it with: I've read this story line now, I won't detract points based on it, but I'll try to steer clear of the theme in the future.

(I just noticed - the book wandered over Ireland, Scotland, and England; what, a day trip to Wales was too much to ask for? hehe).