Almost a Princess by Karen Hall
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Almost a Princess is a fun story about Prince Phillippe who is deep trouble. He is in danger of losing the kingdom he has been raised to lead all of his life to a second cousin who has nothing but bad intentions for the country. He is required to be at least engaged within 30 days of his father's death and his father is suddenly very ill. I received a copy of Almost a Princess from NetGalley in exchange for a review. I am a sucker for stories where the prince needs a princess. This story has a quirk in it that makes it a bit different from royalty marrying a non-royal. In this case, there are some pretty strict rules, which likely are designed to keep the throne within the original royal or titled families of their country. The prince must marry someone who is the member of one of these families and his intended must be at least 21 years of age. He has always been expected to marry a woman from one of these families but she is not yet 21 and she is off studying to be a nurse and traveling. Jordan, who lives in Tennessee, happens to be a descendant of one of these families and she is courted as an emergency to fill in the gap. Perry is sent to speak with Jordan and convince her to help. They immediately have an attraction to one another and it becomes a story where the reader becomes a bit torn in how they hope things will turn out.

Almost a Princess tells a great story about loyalty, friendship and having a family be not only from those you are related to by blood but, also with those are close to you emotionally and physically. It does a good job of developing these relationships. The characters are interesting and the story has a way of keeping this from being the dreaded love triangle. The ending has a huge surprise that the reader does not see coming or even guess it was even in the works.