Susan Mallery, The Marcelli Princess

The Marcelli Princess

Susan Mallery

Pocket, Mar 2007, $6.99

ISBN 0743499581

In California, Mia Marcelli is used to sleeping alone, ever since her beloved Diego died several years ago. So when she awakens to find a man in her bed she threatens to harm him as her brother is a SEAL. Her two grandmothers charge into the room with Grandma Tessa holding a fire poker and Grammy M a rolling pin. He says to her let us talk over breakfast insisting he is alive and is Rafael, Crown Prince of Calandria.

He explains his death was a fake but he also hides the reason for his reappearance from her and her Marcelli clan because he knows they will strongly object that he has come to take home their offspring Danny, his four-year-old, second-in-line to the throne. He even pretends not knowing he sired a son with her when she was in Calandria. If he gets the kid back to his kingdom, Mia has no legal rights there, unlike here in California. As he continues his sham, he falls in love with the commoner, making his duty feel shameful.

The final Marcelli tale is an interesting, contemporary romance starring a likable, courageous heroine and a royal with an agenda that makes him seem despicable. Thus the audience will dislike Rafael for staging his death though he has good cause to do so and for his efforts to abduct the child. Still, this is a well-written, contemporary tale in which the audience will be spellbound as the Prince must choose between love and duty.

Harriet Klausner