When different worlds collide……sparks fly!
With her family name on the line, wedding planner Bianca Bartolini needs this royal wedding to go perfectly -- she can't afford distractions. Too bad the bride's dashing brother has other plans! Duty-bound Crown Prince Leo has mere weeks to announce his own engagement, but none of the candidates measure up to Bianca. They're the most unlikely match, but might that just make them perfect for one another.
Good book. Bianca's life has been upended. Her parents' recent death left her and her brother and sister reeling. The terms of their parents' will state that the sibling whose business prospers most will inherit, pitting the siblings against each other. Then Bianca discovers an entry in her mother's journal, revealing that one of the siblings is the product of an affair. Bianca, who frequently feels out of step with her family, believes that she is the one. All three agree that a DNA test is the only way to know for sure.
Meanwhile, Bianca is determined to grow her wedding planning business. While working at her most recent wedding, Bianca meets Prince Leo, who asks her to assist in the planning of his sister's wedding. Doing well at this wedding would give her business a tremendous boost.
I enjoyed seeing the relationship between Bianca and Leo develop. There were sparks between them from the moment they met. Leo whisks Bianca away to his home, counting on her to help bridge the gap between his sister and his mother's ideas of the perfect wedding. He also hopes to get to know Bianca better. But Leo is caught between a rock and a hard place. To become king, he must be married, something he has been putting off. To gain his mother's cooperation in working with Bianca, he agrees to pick a bride by Giselle's wedding, or his mother will choose one for him. Leo doesn't want a political marriage; he wants one like his sister's. He can't stop thinking about Bianca and finds any excuse to spend time with her.
Bianca is equally attracted to Leo, but with her possibly questionable heritage, she is sure that a fairy-tale ending is not possible. That doesn't stop her from dreaming. There are some sweet scenes between the two of them walking in the garden, private dinners disguised as business, and my favorite, a hot-air balloon ride. I loved seeing Leo able to share his deepest secret with Bianca and how she helped him see it in a new way. I liked seeing Leo realize the depth of his feelings for Bianca and wanted to shake him when he allowed her fears to send her running. He redeemed himself quite nicely, standing up to those who might come between them. His big moment at the end was fantastic.
The secondary characters were terrific too. Bianca's
brother and sister were equally devastated by the loss of their parents and the
questions raised by their mother's journal. Even so, they were steadfast in
their support of Bianca. I loved seeing them close ranks around Bianca after
her return, and their protectiveness when Leo came looking for her. On Leo's
side, I loved his sister Giselle. She clearly adores her big brother and
worries about him even amid her own happiness. She is strong-willed, which
enables her to stand up to her mother in defense of her preferences. The queen
was hard to like at first. Her strict adherence to tradition and her attitude
toward Bianca made me wonder how anything would get done. I also didn't like
the way she manipulated Leo into picking a wife. I did soften toward her at the
end when Leo talked to her about his father and Bianca.
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