I have an absolute stonker of a cold at the moment, and just couldn’t sleep last night for all the sneezing. There was a real positive though – I picked up my kindle at 3am (as you do…) and remembered I had the just perfect quick and light read. And so I had the absolute delight of reading The Prince and the Pea by Denise Deegan, now available as a Kindle Short. Denise wrote one of my favourite books of this year, Through The Barricades, and you can read my review again here; when I had the pleasure of meeting her a few weeks ago, I know she was quite excited by the impending publication of this one, and I can totally understand why.
As heir to the throne, Prince Richard is expected to marry well, and his parents are adamant that only the finest princess will do. But is royal blood really more important than the spark of true love?
His father, the king, has devised his own test of true royalty, inviting the haughtiest heiress for miles around to spend a night at the castle, balanced atop a pile of mattresses concealing a single pea. But even though she passes the test, she is too outraged by sleep deprivation to stay beyond breakfast. Meanwhile Richard can’t stop thinking about Rosie O’Toole, the charming chambermaid who has taught him how to lay a fire and find true meaning in his life…
When Rosie is unfairly dismissed and disappears without a trace, Richard is determined to find her. He must bring her back to the castle and reinstate her at once. But as he grows more desperate, Richard realises that he is no longer searching for a chambermaid, but for his one true love.
Everyone loves a fairy tale, don’t they? And this was just thoroughly gorgeous, an inspired reworking of the well-known princess’ story from the perspective of the prince – who isn’t the usual stuffy royal of conventional fairy stories, but a rather lovely guy with real sensitivity and perception. The writing flows just beautifully, the story has a lovely light humour in places that brings a smile to your face, and the perfect ending really warms your heart. It’s one for every adult who believes in true love, and I’m sure younger readers would find it easy enough to read and equally enchanting. It took me about twenty minutes to read – and I must say I loved every moment of it.
My thanks to the author and netgalley for my reading copy.
About the author
Denise Deegan lives in Dublin with her family where she regularly dreams of sunshine, a life without cooking and her novels being made into movies.
Denise has been a nurse, a china restorer, a pharmaceutical sales rep, a public relations officer, an entrepreneur and a college lecturer. Her most difficult job was being a checkout girl, although ultimately this experience did inspire a short story…
Denise writes for both adults and teenagers. Her novels have been published by Penguin, Random House, Hachette and Lake Union Publishing. Writing under the pen name Aimee Alexander, Denise’s contemporary family dramas have become international best-sellers on Kindle.
You can follow Denise on Twitter and Facebook, and she has websites for her writing as both Denise Deegan and Aimee Alexander.
The germs must be doing the rounds, Anne, I have it too ? Here’s to feeling better very soon x The book sounds perfect for sleepless early hours.
Hope you feel better soon xx
Thanks both – get well soon Cathy, and I’m glad neither of you need to witness in person my red runny nose x