Good Morning Everyone :)
I pray today finds you all doing well, and I want to thank you all for joining me for another book review here on The Preppy Book Princess.
I pray you all had a wonderful Christmas, and had time to reflect on the true meaning of the season, and spend some quality time with Jesus.
I want to apologize for my absence the last week and a half or so. Unfortunately, work was ridiculously crazy, I ended up getting sick, and I had a million things to finish up before all the Christmas celebrations began.
Now that thankfully I'm feeling much better, I'm looking forward to getting back to blogging, and I'm going to start working on all my yearly wrap ups in the very near future.
For today however, I'm going to share my review for a title that I was highly anticipating, and I hope you'll all enjoy getting to read my review.
I don't really get the opportunity to review for Bethany House anymore unfortunately, as they've changed their guidelines, and don't really work as much with small bloggers like myself.
So I often am not as up to date with their newer releases as I am from the many other Christian publishers.
However, when one of their titles catches my eye, I've started requesting them from my local library, and that's what I did with the one I'm about to share with you all today.
Keep reading below for my full review.
In Search of a Prince by Toni Shiloh:
Publisher: Bethany House
Publication Date: February 1st, 2022
Genre: Christian Fiction/Contemporary Romance/Royal Romance
Synopsis:
Brielle Adebayo is fully content teaching at a New York City public school and taking annual summer vacations with her mother to Martha's Vineyard. But everything changes when her mom drops the mother of all bombshells--Brielle is a princess in the kingdom of Ọlọrọ Ilé, Africa, and she must immediately assume her royal position, since the health of her grandfather, King Tiwa Jimoh Adebayo, is failing.
Distraught by her mother's betrayal, Brielle is further left spinning when the Ọlọrọ Ilé Royal Council brings up an old edict that states she must marry before assuming the throne or the crown will be passed to another. Uncertain who to choose from the council's list of bachelors, she struggles with the decision along with the weight of her new role in a new country. With her world totally shaken, she must take a chance on love and brave the perils a wrong decision may bring.
(synopsis from goodreads)
My Review:
I was initially drawn to this one as I've enjoyed what I've read from Toni Shiloh in the past, and I usually love clean royal romances. I also loved the idea of this one being set in Africa, as I thought that would add an element of originality that would definitely make it stand out.
Unfortunately, this one ended up not being for me, and it definitely wasn't what I expected.
What I Liked:
Brielle's character was extremely likeable and relatable, and I found it easy to sympathize with her over the extreme twist her life takes when she finds out that she's actually the heir to to throne of a small African country. I admired her ferocity, and her desire to get to truly know her grandfather and his people before making such a life altering decision.
I loved how strong the faith element was throughout this story. It was so refreshing to read a Christian novel where every single piece of it was connected to faith, prayer and trusting Jesus no matter the outcome. It was definitely my favorite part of the story, and I'm so thankful Toni Shiloh chose to make the faith element front and center.
Lastly, I really enjoyed a lot of the writing, and I loved how descriptive and beautiful the setting was. The reader literally feels like they're experiencing everything right along with Brielle, and I highly enjoyed that aspect.
What I Didn't Like:
I actually ended up not being a fan of the romance. I didn't feel like enough attention was given to Brielle and Mori's relationship at the start, and afterwards, it turns heavily lusty, and includes a fade to black sex scene which I definitely didn't need to be reading about. There's also many mentions of passionate kisses, heat in the belly, and other issues that I didn't feel were ever necessary.
I appreciated the historical tidbits that were included throughout the story, but I often struggled to pronounce many of the words, and it kind of caused me to lose partial interest. A lot of the names of people and places were extremely complicated to follow, and while I appreciate the author was remaining true to the culture, it was something that was hard for me to navigate through at certain points.
However, the main reason I ended up not enjoying this one was the way that feminism is portrayed throughout. This novel speaks heavily of girl power, women making their way in the world and the like, and it seemed to many times not fall within a Biblical guideline of doing so. Brielle's character has a nasty encounter with a bachelor the council is considering as a potential suitor, and while I definitely didn't agree with the way his character treats her, I also didn't agree with the way she seems to take offense at the idea of a male being the spiritual leader in a household. The entire story seemed to traverse a pathway towards the feminist movement, and I was definitely not a fan of that, especially in a Christian fiction title.
Lastly, I felt this one was way longer than it needed to be, and as such the story really dragged in the middle. At the end of the story, there's a big reveal to the mystery that developed earlier on in the story, and yet, I found this part a big letdown as I'd figured who was behind everything quite awhile before.
All in all, I expected to love this one, but alas, it wasn't for me, and it isn't one I'll be either recommending or rereading in the future.
I don't personally plan on continuing on with the rest of the series, it's just not for me.
Final Rating: 2/5.
Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)
This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.
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