Review: "The Prince Who Loved Me" by Abigail Sharpe

The Prince Who Loved Me by Abigail Sharpe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had mixed feelings about Abigail Sharpe's "The Prince Who Loved Me." On the one hand, the main characters, Brandi and Prince Sebastien, were both relatively likeable, and they made a cute couple. However, it frustrated me that Sebastien waited so long to tell Brandi about his feelings for her. He dropped so many hints that seemed transparently obvious to me, but Brandi was either completely oblivious or, more likely, willfully ignored them because she didn't think she was good enough for a prince.

My frustration continued even after Sebastien confessed because Brandi denied her own feelings and insisted on remaining friends, mainly because of her completely unfounded belief that Sebastien didn't support her dream of running her family's whiskey distillery as a separate business from the family inn. Her behavior towards Sebastien only seemed to get worse as the story progressed. For example, she would get angry and accuse him of not liking one of her ideas because of a single offhand comment, and then expected him to apologize to her even though he did nothing wrong. Honestly, I think Brandi needed a counselor more than she needed a boyfriend. She obviously had a lot of baggage to work through before she knew how to be in a healthy relationship.

In addition to the above issues, the end of the book felt very rushed to me. It was almost as if there was a chapter missing; the story jumped directly from Brandi playing softball with her friends and telling them that she had decided to rejoin a few dating apps to her flying to Sebastien's country to tell him that she loved him. What happened in between to change her mind about their relationship? In addition, she and Sebastien never actually seemed to work out their issues because they were so focused on standing up to his family and defending their relationship to them.

Overall, while this was not a completely terrible book, I had a tough time getting past Brandi's frustrating behavior and the oddly rushed ending that didn't give her and Sebastien enough of a chance to work out their issues. I'd recommend this book mainly for existing fans of the series who want to see how it all ends; otherwise, it's safe to give this one a pass.

*Review copy provided by the author/publisher via Hidden Gems Books. All opinions expressed are my own.

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