A mother's love, an uncle's devotion and the secrets that could be their undoing. Revelations of a Secret Princess is a heartbreaking trek through past mistakes, present deception and the redeeming power of love. Caro and Jake are complicated. From young love to adult secrets. There's a ton of baggage they need to work through. West does away with the fairy tale and delivers hard hitting emotion that is unpredictable, relatable and unforgettable. These characters stay on your mind and in your heart, long after the last page is through.

 

Per FictFact.com's Book Release Calendar.

Circle of Ashes - Elise Kova, Lynn Larsh   #2 in Wish Quartet
Peachy Flippin' Keen - Molly Harper   #3 in Southern Eclectic
The Italian's Marriage Bargain - Annie West   #7 in Hot Italian Nights

3 stars

This book irritated me at first. Arden is a single mother, skimping to provide the best for her 3 year-old son. Her world is turned on end when she is reunited with Idris, her holiday lover and Dawud's father. Only now she learns his true identity is Idris, Sheikh of Zahrat. Discovering that he lied to her, and then abandoned her, breaks her heart all over again.

Idris is furious to learn that he has a son, and that Arden has kept him from Dawud for years. Oh, dude, you left her in Greece, after lying about your name, and not leaving her any way to contact you. Duh. I thought that Idris was a conceited jerk, and I would have thrown him out of my apartment. He seduced the young, naive Arden, never once considered that he might have gotten her pregnant after their week long affair, and then has the nerve to be upset with her for her inability to contact him? Really, I was angry with him and upset with her for not putting him promptly and firmly in his place.

Now that he knows he has an heir, and after causing a scandal of epic proportions, Idris convinces Arden to come to Zahrat and marry him. I was all set to hate this book, but found it quite pleasant, if ultimately forgettable. Idris turns out to be a decent guy, with the usual hero hangups - he'll never fall in love and be faithful because it's just not in his DNA. Never mind that DNA has nothing to do with it, and ethics and morality are all that's needed for a happy, contented marriage. He finally figures it out, but because he's too stubborn to admit his feelings, he almost loses Arden, who is fearful of Idris parading his lovers in front of her and their son (not that were any lovers).

Arden grew on me, and was very relatable. She's just your typical single mom working hard for a better life for herself and her son. When she's given the opportunity to become an honest to goodness queen, she initially turns it down. She has no experience with politics, appeasing diplomats, or high-fashion clothes, and she really doesn't want to learn. She's content with who she is and comfortable with her apartment, job, and life. When Idris convinces her that it will be best for Dawud to know the people he will eventually rule, and that he will be accepted only if they get to know him, she reluctantly agrees. Her journey from shop help to queen was engaging, as she tries not to step on any toes, or to offend anybody.

Overall, a solid weekend read, despite massive irritations at the beginning.

I'm estimating on the date I read this. Sometime in early June. It took me this long to get around to writing my review. This was well-written, I just wasn't that fond of Alessandro. He's a bit of the poor little rich boy type. Raised by uncaring parents, his mother left him when he was young and so he thinks every woman is a good digger. A lack of trust between Alessandro and Carys lead to the downfall of their relationship, that and his growing emotional remoteness from her. Carys is somewhat insecure, due to her learning disability and not fitting in with her overachieving parents and siblings. She was almost too easy for a man like Alessandro to seduce to fall into a relationship with him because she craved being loved by someone. That's part of why I didn't care for the way Alessandro treated her. The amnesia aspect was a bit of a twist, but it didn't really make me more sympathetic to him. I wish that he had to work harder to gain Carys' love than he did. Ultimately, he does show how much she means to him, but I would have liked more demonstrativeness from him. I did see a lot of sexual chemistry between them, but the emotional connection is more important I think. I did love how he supported Carys in what she does, in light of her dyslexia. The baby was cute as well.

Not a favorite of mine by the author, but pretty good.

Overall rating: 3.5/5.0 stars.

I would definitely take off points because the hero is a mega-jerk. He is so hateful to Tessa. I can understand his cyncism about women, but it's almost like he was angry that Tessa hadn't died as he thought previously. I think that Tessa was remarkably tolerant of Stavros. I really wanted her to stab him with a fork. No matter what she did, he perceived it in the worst light. I'm assuming he was sleeping around with other women while she was gone, but it's not directly stated. In this case, I wouldn't hold that against him, per se, because he thought she was dead. My big issue is how he's such a tool to her when it's apparent she couldn't be more different from the women in his past and his father's ex-wives. This is one of those books where I wished that the heroine had really left him and he had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get her back. Not enough groveling for my tastes. I thought the imagery was good, and Stavros had a really dark aura that scared Tessa, what you'd expect from a hero who was a very bad man, not just a tool. That was kind of interesting. I really like Anne West's books. She's a good writer. The hero was just too mean for my tastes in this one.

Overall rating: 3.5/5.0 stars