Giveaway + Review A ROYAL PAIN by MEGAN MULRY @MeganMulry @sbkslandmark

November 5, 2012 By Mary 31 Comments

Book Description

Release Date: November 1, 2012

Bronte Talbott follows all of the exploits of the British royals. After all, they’re the world’s most preeminent dysfunctional family. And who is she to judge? Bronte’s own search for love isn’t going all that well, especially after her smooth-talking Texan boyfriend abruptly leaves her in the dust.

Bronte keeps a lookout for a rebound to help mend her broken heart, and when she meets Max Heyworth, she’s certain he’s the perfect transition man. But when she discovers he’s a duke, she has to decide if she wants to stay with him for the long haul and deal with the opportunities– and challenges– of becoming a royal.

About the Author
(from the author’s website)
I enjoyed this so much that I wanted to share. I know it is not the *approved* bio from the publisher, but it was just too much fun not to share.

……
Then I went to grade school on Long Island.
My favorite teacher smelled of mint chewing gum and Halston perfume and wore a navy blue Vacarro turtleneck.
I lost the Third Grade Spelling Bee when I misspelled minute: m-i-n-u-t.
Especially galling since I had just spelt San Francisco without incident.
Then I went to middle school in New York City for a couple of years.
The nuns, the architecture, the mischief.
Then I went to boarding school.
Four years of excellent educational opportunity foolishly taken for granted.
Oh, what I would give today to read Austen, Twain, Dickens, Chaucer, Eliot, Conrad, Steinbeck, and Shakespeare while moping around in a faux-sheepskin collared jean jacket.
Then I went to university.
Four more years of excellent educational opportunity, not wasted exactly,
but certainly not plumbed; highlights included Garry Wills telling me my final project was “jejune” …and then having to go look it up.
Then I waited tables in Nantucket and traveled to Thailand, India, Nepal, China, UK, and Greece.
My husband says I always have to throw in that I went “backpacking in Nepal”
and I say he always has to throw in that he “grew up on a farm.”
Then I worked in a variety of interesting and not-so-interesting places and moved around a lot, and got married, and moved around some more. Eventually, we moved to London (for nearly four years)
and then back to Chicago and now Florida for lo these many years.
Details about employers, emotional entanglements, and life’s little trials may or may not be forthcoming.
In any case, all of the above led to the fiction writing.
Which is what this IS all about.
I write novels. I think about writing novels. I plot novels. I read (way too many) novels.
This is a relatively late-in-life development, especially when I read about authors who wrote their first book in college.
I did not do that. I am not saying I’m Grandma Moses or anything, but I wrote my first manuscript from 2004-2006,
then let it stew for a while (that’s code for ‘had another baby’).
In 2010, I started writing in earnest. I aim to write three full-length novels per year.

So far so good.

Find Megan:
Blog
GoodReads
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SOURCE: PUBLISHER

MY THOUGHTS
LOVED IT

Bronte really isn’t looking for Mr. Right, she just wants someone. After dating Mr. Texas, she finds that although he is charming, he just isn’t the right guy for her, even after moving to Chicago to see if the romance will go anywhere. She buckles down and becomes Career Girl. And to her surprise she meets an English guy. Now to fully understand Bronte, you need to know that she has a closet addiction to British royalty. She was enthralled when Diana married Charles, devastated when they divorce and distraught when she died. So meeting a guy with an English accent is probably the most attractive thing in a man she can find. She tells her new British guy, Max, all about her obsession, leaving nothing out. She figures that Max will be out of her life in the next month when he returns to England. Yep, Bronte has nothing to lose by being exactly who she is.

The only problem with her plan is that Max, falls in love with her. Something she never imagined. And then he springs the bomb on her: he has to leave to Chicago because he has to go home to attend family business and an ill father. The family business being that he is a Duke! For all of Bronte’s fearlessness, she comes off as a very sweet girl, one that Max would like to take home to meet his mother. His mother, Sylvia, is not amused by her son’s choice. So should Bronte pick up and move for a guy again or stay put and not take a chance? Of course, she doesn’t back down.

I truly enjoyed this Cinderella retelling for a modern age. It was full of humor and wit– lots of wonderful dialogue — with great characters. There are parts of Bronte that any one can relate to — especially when it comes to her father. He is particularly demanding of her and her only way to rebel is to become infatuated with royals. I found that immensely amusing. This is one of the better Chick Lit contemporaries that I have read in a long time! I am looking forward to more from Mulry.