My Fair Princess
The Improper Princesses #1
The Improper Princesses #1
by Vanessa Kelly
Releasing August 30th 2016.
Zebra
Zebra
First, Vanessa Kelly brought readers The
Renegade Royals. Now, in a delightfully witty new series, she introduces The
Improper Princesses—three young women descended from royalty, each bound for
her own thrilling adventure . . .
From
The Book Junkie Reads . . . My Fair Princess (The Improper Princesses, #1) . .
.
I had the most fun with this one.
This was the way to start a new series. Willful, strong, independent, capable,
sassy, witty, and a princess. Gun toting, knife wielding, bandit hunting, feisty
little sister Gillian was a bit more than the Duke of Leverton was expecting.
Gillian grandmother needed help with getting her granddaughter caught up to
what she should have already known.
Immediate dislike between the two
was clear. A perfect match for each other was even clearer. The instata love
and hop right in to bed was not this one. Thank you. Gillian carries this story
all the way to the end. Not to discount Charles’ presences. She was everything
a heroine should aspire to be. She was a peoples princess. She could ride with
the best of them. She could shoot, fight, hunt. She was all that a free woman
of strength, courage, beauty, lineage could be.
Charles found all her quality appealing
to him but not suitable for the ton. She need work and polish. She was going to
make none of it easy. She was who she was because of what she was. Confusing
but true. If she would have been raise in the home of her father she would not
have been the heroine that I love. She gave it all and then some. She didn’t
back down. She stood her ground. Charles has rarely found any one that could
change his take on the world. Gillian made that change in small increments but
she proved that she was more than just a female in breeches.
V. Kelly brought me a heroine that
will be held on to and revisited just for who she was and the strength of
character she displayed. Recommending My Fair Princess has topped my historical
romance reading this summer. Recommending reading the connecting series (The Renegade Royals) will just
make it that much better.
**This ARC
was provided via NetGalley
in exchange for an honest review.**
Blurb
Despite being the illegitimate daughter of a prince, Gillian Dryden is happily ignorant of all social graces. After growing up wild in Italy, Gillian has been ordered home to England to find a suitable husband. And Charles Valentine Penley, the excessively proper, distractingly handsome Duke of Leverton, has agreed to help transform her from a willful tomboy to a blushing debutante.
Despite being the illegitimate daughter of a prince, Gillian Dryden is happily ignorant of all social graces. After growing up wild in Italy, Gillian has been ordered home to England to find a suitable husband. And Charles Valentine Penley, the excessively proper, distractingly handsome Duke of Leverton, has agreed to help transform her from a willful tomboy to a blushing debutante.
Powerful
and sophisticated, Charles can make or break reputations with a well-placed
word. But his new protégée, with her habit of hunting bandits and punching
earls, is a walking scandal. The ton is aghast . . . but Charles is thoroughly
intrigued. Tasked with taking the hoyden in hand, he longs to take her in his
arms instead. Can such an outrageous attraction possibly lead to a fairytale
ending?
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Her grandmother let out a heavy sigh, and
even Griffin shook his head. The duke, however, simply regarded her with a
perfectly unruffled manner, as if she were some recently discovered species,
only vaguely interesting. Gillian began to get quite a bad feeling that she’d
finally met her match.
She’d been hearing for weeks how Leverton
was the key to solving Gillian’s little
problem, as her family called it. According to them, he was perfectly suited to guide her into
society’s good graces, and perfectly
capable of managing away even the most troublesome elements of her background.
He must be a bloody perfect miracle
worker, if that was the case.
As she cautiously eyed him, she couldn’t
help concluding that he did seem rather perfect in some respects. He was
certainly prettier than she was, with thick, tawny-colored hair, striking blue
eyes, and a face straight off a Greek statue. And he was certainly a good deal
more stylish than she was, although that was true of almost anyone. But even
she could appreciate the way his beautifully tailored coat showcased his broad
shoulders, and how his breeches clung to his muscled legs with nary a wrinkle.
As for his cravat, it was practically a work of art.
In fact, he was so damn perfect it made
her stomach hurt. She’d been drawn in by perfection before, and it had almost
ruined her.
“Stop trying to shock us, Gillian,” her
grandmother said. “You know quite well it won’t work.”
“Au
contraire, Lady Marbury,” Griffin said. “I find myself quite riven with
horror.”
He flashed Gillian the conspiratorial
smile that always made her feel someone truly did understand her. And, more
important, Griffin didn’t find her wanting, unlike apparently everyone else in
London. She couldn’t wait to shake the dirt of England from her boots and
return to Sicily—the sooner, the better.
“Miss Dryden is quite right,” Leverton
said.
Gillian frowned. “I am? About what,
exactly?”
He slowly crossed the room to her. He
didn’t prowl, precisely, but something in the way he moved made her think of .
. . a wolf, perhaps. Slipping silently through the night as he hunted in
silence.
An exceedingly clever wolf, she guessed.
One with very sharp teeth well suited for ripping apart a person’s carefully
ordered life.
Leverton’s height forced her to tilt back
her head to meet his gaze, and she found herself staring into eyes a beautiful
shade of cobalt. She had to admit they were really quite amazing.
“Please believe me, Miss Dryden, when I
say I meant no insult. I was merely surprised by a few details regarding your
situation. It caused me to forget my manners.” A glint of amusement lurked in
his gaze.
Her stomach twisted at the notion that he
might be laughing at her. But when he smiled, her stomach seemed to untwist and
start dancing with butterflies.
“Come, my dear girl,” he said in his
beautifully cultured voice. “I beg you to forgive me before I’m compelled to do
something drastic—like throw myself at your feet. That would be embarrassing
for both of us.”
“Bloody coxcomb,” Griffin muttered.
Leverton ignored the aside, keeping his
attention on Gillian. Her heart began to thump and heat crawled up her neck.
“Oh, very well,” she grumbled. “I forgive you.”
“You are most gracious,” Leverton said.
“Now, perhaps we can start over and leave all this awkwardness behind.”
“What a splendid idea,” Grandmamma said.
“Your Grace, my granddaughter, Miss Gillian Dryden.”
The duke bowed as if she hadn’t just
tumbled through the door, and as if they hadn’t just spent the last few minutes
insulting each other.
“Gillian, I have the pleasure of
introducing you to the Duke of Leverton,” Grandmamma added.
“Good Lord. I know who he is,” Gillian
replied, not hiding her exasperation.
“Then make him a curtsey, my dear. A proper
one.”
Repressing the urge to roll her eyes—one
curtsey was as good as another, as far as she was concerned—Gillian dipped down
and quickly came up.
Leverton’s eyebrows ticked up. On him, she
rather expected it was the equivalent of a horrified gasp.
Well, nobody ever said she was graceful,
at least when it came to that sort of silliness.
“Hmm,” he said. “We’ll have to work on
that.”
“It’s all nonsense, if you ask me,”
Gillian said. “All this bowing and scraping like a peasant before his master.
Perhaps you’d like me to polish your boots while I’m at it.”
His disapproving gaze made her blink, and
she almost took a step back. This was a man who did not like being crossed.
“Gillian Dryden, you will cease acting
like heathen,” her grandmother rapped out.
“I had no idea you had revolutionary
tendencies, Miss Dryden,” the duke said. “How very interesting. And no, I would
not like you to polish my boots. My
valet would not approve.”
Now he sounded bored. And if he was bored,
he would be more likely to go away and leave her alone. Splendid.
Still, she couldn’t help feeling irked by
his dismissive tone and demeanor. The Duke of Leverton was certainly a snob and
probably a fop. She didn’t know which was worse.
“Why would you think I have revolutionary
tendencies, sir?” she added in a sugary-sweet voice. “Is it because I think I’m
as good as anyone else, despite my unfortunate social status?”
Gillian braced herself for the expected
put-down. She’d grown used to being labeled a prince’s by-blow, or worse. It
was best to simply accept it and then do her best to avoid anyone who looked
down on her because of her parentage. She’d learned that hard lesson a long
time ago.
The duke studied her for a few moments
before replying. “Of course you are.”
“Of course I am what?” she asked.
“As good as anyone else. Any sensible
person must think so,” he said.
“That eliminates most of the ton,” Griffin said.
Leverton seemed to weigh her brother’s
droll comment. “I believe your assessment is too pessimistic, Steele. Shall we
say, perhaps fifty percent?”
The exchange was so silly that Gillian had
to laugh. Leverton’s eyebrows ticked up again, but not, she thought, with
disapproval. Then he flashed her another dazzling smile that made her feel like
the floor had just tipped sideways.
“That’s much better,” he said.
She shook her head, exasperated. “I don’t
understand any of this.”
Buy Links:
Amazon | B & N | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo
Author Info
Vanessa Kelly is an award-winning author who was named by Booklist, the review journal of the American Library Association, as one of the “New Stars of Historical Romance.” Her Regency-set historical romances have been nominated for awards in a number of contests, and her second book, Sex and The Single Earl, won the prestigious Maggie Medallion for Best Historical Romance. Her current series, The Renegade Royals is a national bestseller. Vanessa also writes USA Today bestselling contemporary romance with her husband, under the pen name of VK Sykes.
Vanessa Kelly is an award-winning author who was named by Booklist, the review journal of the American Library Association, as one of the “New Stars of Historical Romance.” Her Regency-set historical romances have been nominated for awards in a number of contests, and her second book, Sex and The Single Earl, won the prestigious Maggie Medallion for Best Historical Romance. Her current series, The Renegade Royals is a national bestseller. Vanessa also writes USA Today bestselling contemporary romance with her husband, under the pen name of VK Sykes.
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