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The Princess and the Prix

de Nell Stark

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Sèrie: A Princess Affair Novel (2)

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2231,011,415 (3.75)Cap
Her Serene Highness Pommelina Alix Louise Canella of Monaco has lived her life as the "ugly duckling" of her glamorous family. But graduate school has kept her too busy to pine for a relationship, and being ignored by the media allows her to devote time to humanitarian projects without interference. Prima donna Formula One racer Thalia d'Angelis knows she's been hired as a publicity stunt, but that only fuels her desire to be the first woman on an F1 podium. She mightbe on the verge of making history, but her behavior off the track is as risky as her driving. The approaching Monaco Grand Prix--the crown jewel of the Formula One circuit--brings them together, but will these opposite and headstrong stars collide, or are they destined to cross?… (més)
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My second book by Stark, and second in this series.

I was both eager and somewhat hesitant to read this book. I had liked the first book I had read, despite some of the negative reviews I had read, and everything about the second one seemed to make it something that would interest me. Some of the initial reviews of this specific book here were quite negative. Then I started to see some positive ones, but all these reviews were coming in while the book was still not available to me. So by the time the book actually came out, I still took . . . hmm, almost three months to try it. Wait, three months? I didn’t have access to it in November. Hmm. Maybe I did? Bah, whatever, not important.

The book features Princess Pommelina Alix Canella of Monaco, the middle child, and Thalia d’Angelis, a race car driver of mixed US and UK birth. Despite being a princess of Monaco, Alix cares nothing for the Monaco Grand Prix, motorsports, and potentially sports in general (I forget if this attitude extended to other sports; Alix gets called Pomme, Pommelina, and Alix in the book, she prefers Alix). Instead she is more concerned for helping others, like women in Africa. When that specific bit of information came to light, I was vaguely disappointed in one specific way – I don’t particularly like reading about people of privilege who are quite disdainful of their own privilege and/or if not disdainful, then they are ashamed of it and wish to do everything they can to work tirelessly for others. It is somewhat tiring to read a book with such a character. Luckily, while Alix does have a certain amount of . . . maybe not shame, but something approaching that, and while she does have desire to help others, she isn’t the annoying/tiring type. She is the bookish middle child who has a certain amount of introversion and prefers not to be in crowds but can ‘turn it on’ when she has to (by turn it on – be the good princess/hostess/etc.).

In an effort to figure out how to go about setting up a foundation, Alix takes an opportunity presented to her to go be the Monaco representative at a royal wedding in England. The wedding of Princess Sasha and Kerry Donovan – the two lead characters from the prior book. She takes the opportunity because she wishes to talk with the Princess of Wales, who set up a foundation of her own (Ashleigh – the wife of Sasha’s brother Arthur). She does make a connection, and this does become a theme that continues throughout the book. Well, not the connection specifically to Ashleigh, but the setting up and then opening a foundation. At the same event, Alix meets Thalia. Up to this moment Alix was, for the most part, asexual. As in, didn’t care about sex, developing a sex life, or romance in general. Thalia, on the other hand, well, we will get to Thalia.

I’m not sure why I started with Alix first, since Thalia’s point of view opens the book. No matter.

Thalia D’Angelis is an accomplished race car driver who dominates the (a?) lower Formula One like race circuit – GB2 I think she kept calling it. She’s put up with the male misogynistic nature of the sport for several years, but finally breaks after winning the first race of the season and gets asked, yet again, how she feels about her teammate, her lesser teammate (and everyone is lesser, since Thalia had been last year’s champion) got promoted over her to the Formula One Ferrari team. She’s 26. She’s a proven champion. She bit her lips and ‘took’ everyone’s advice to ‘be patient’, while the men around her were pushed to stretch and go for their goals. But, while being interviewed after the race, she lets loose about her real thoughts.

Thalia returns to her home in London assuming that she’s now out of a job, and probably blackballed from racing. Picks up a woman to play with, and goes back to her place. Yeah, I said I’d get to Thalia – she doesn’t believe in relationships, at least not deep relationships. She’s more of a causal type, not necessarily one and done, but close to that. Well, while humping, literally in the middle of ‘sexing up’ a hot young woman, Thalia phone rings. She ignores it but eventually takes it after the third interruption. A Formula One team wants to hire her. So, her life isn’t actually over, and instead, her dream is about to become true.

Somewhere in between winning the first race in that under-circuit, getting hired by a Formula One team, and the first Formula One race, Thalia attends a wedding. The one I already mentioned above. While there she spots Alix. Well, they spot each other. At the wedding itself, Thalia is gazing about, people watching. Spots a woman pop in starring up. Then walking into the ‘royal’ only part of the church, then realizes that she was watching a royal, a princess. Later, at the reception/after party/whatever they called it; Alix is at her table, by herself, while everyone else dances. She people watches. Thalia suddenly is next to her, and they talk, briefly. Then some guy named, I think, Sebastian shows up and drapes himself over Alix. Alix doesn’t want anything to do with Sebastian but can’t get him to leave her alone. Sebastian tells her they will dance, and then leaves to take a call. Thalia, somehow or another, decides to teach Alix how to dance. Right there and then. I’ve mentioned all of this to get to this part – the fact that Alix and Thalia meet, interact, and some connection develops. Plus, this leads Thalia to invite Alix to watch the Formula One race, since Lady [insert name here – the wife of the guy who owns Thalia’s Formula One team] will be there and is big into charity work.

So, that’s the first part of the book. Thalia and Alix have a vaguely friend/acquaintance/what-the-heck-are-we thing going on. Thalia races. Alix watches, while mostly attempting to set up her foundation. Alix has feelings she didn’t expect to have. Ones she has certain issues with. She, being a scientist, knows that humans are not the only species that have homosexual relationships, but she is from one of the last bastions of conservativism in Europe. And while she doesn’t believe in the same things her parents do, regarding religion/sexual orientation/etc., she still spends most of the book trying to figure out if she is homophobic, and whether or not some of the feelings she is having might have some connection to that. So you have that ‘blocking/slowing’ things on one side of the potential relationship; while you have someone who can’t allow themselves to be in a deeper, less than shallow relationship on the other – one with a bad reputation splashed across the newspapers.

I’ve read many sports books in my time. They tend to go one of three ways. One – one of the people involved in the book, most of the time the main character, is an athlete in some sport. While the book might include aspects of that part of the character’s life, most of the action takes place outside the actual ‘field/pitch/track/etc.’ It’s just that person’s job. Two – see above, stop at ‘most of the action’, change to ‘most of the action takes place on the field . . .’ Three – one of the main characters is an athlete or an ex athlete. The book has nothing to do with that aspect of their lives, for the most part, but with their . . . amazing amateur investigative skills (I’ve read a lot of mysteries in my day). The difference between one and three mostly deals with the specific character – the character in one is an active professional; the one in the third ‘way’, mostly, is an ex-professional athlete. This book goes a way I haven’t really seen before. I don’t mean that it is super original, for all I know it is/or isn’t. No, it’s the part where there are more than one point of view, while everything I’ve read for 1-3 above have mostly only one point of view. So this is a mixture of one and two. There is extensive action that takes place outside the sport, and a lot of action in the sport.

That was very wordy. Let me try again. Sports books go two ways. They have detailed descriptions of the sport (the game/race/match/etc.), or they don’t. This book includes detailed descriptions, though not every race has the same level of detail. Some occur ‘off the page’. None follow a complete race from start to finish; that would probably add about a thousand pages. The race activity was actually quite thrilling, exciting to read. I really felt like I was inside the car. Oh, right, I was going to mention this ‘realness’ elsewhere. So, yes, the races felt real.

As do the characters. I had the strong feeling that Alix and Thalia were real. And I was reading about full-bodied three dimensional people. They are the focus, so they felt the most real,

So, long and short, I loved the book. You do not have to have read the prior book to read this one, nor should you refrain from reading the prior book if you skipped right to this one. The characters from the prior book pop up in this one, but their trials and tribulations are not discussed, at least not in detail, in this book. So you won’t be ‘spoiled’, again for the most part if you read the second before the first.

Hmm, for the purposes of the prior paragraph, I just reread my review for the first book. I’d forgotten certain issues I had had, ones that I was able to get past, somewhat easily, but which were there. I mention because some of those issues actually pop up in this one. And I didn’t even have a single problem with them. Mostly because of the nature of the people involved in this book. I’m being vague. Mostly because I realize that if I am specific, then I might actually fall into accidentally spoiling the first book. So I’ll refrain. And depart.

January 6 2016 ( )
  Lexxi | Jun 26, 2016 |
The story wasn't bad. And I really liked all the stuff that was in there about Formula 1, as well as the stuff that took place on the track as well. It was great. What I really didn't like was the tone of the story. I very much didn't like the tone.

It's the story of Alix, a Princess of Monaco, who is also starting a charity to help Ugandan women. And Thalia, who is a Formula One driver who wants to be the first women to win a Formula One race (and be the first one to do so). They meet at the wedding of an English Princess (from a previous book in the sorta series), and her wife. And from there their relationship goes back and forth as the F1 season progresses around the world. The question is, will the perfectly perfect Alix lower herself to Thalia's level so they can have a proper relationship?

Yes. That last sentence was pure sarcasm. That's how I felt about most of this book. Oddly offended for being human, and like only my sarcasm could save my reading of it. So, for most of the book that makes me a disgusting sub-human being. Like Thalia I'm not perfect in every way. Oh, also according to the characters apparently if you work hard at your job and want to get to the top echelons of it you're a selfish jerkwad. Good to know.

Now, I know that those opinions in the book are the opinions of the characters, not the author necessarily, but here was my problem with the opinons in the book. They never changed. If there had been movement in the narrative it would have been interesting. But Thalia was wrong, wrong, wrong all the time and Alix was right, right, right. Thalia was always the one who had to apologize, and that was true from the first word to the last. And she was sometimes apologizing for what, having emotions? Being human? It was a totally one sided relationship and narrative and honestly Thalia deserved better than Alix.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books. ( )
  DanieXJ | Nov 15, 2015 |
This was, just like the first part of the series, a light and fun read. The writing was solid and effortless to follow, the characters were likeable and easy to identify with and the story was nice enough. I mean, I'm not really a fan of Formula One but with all that "behind the scences" info it was actually quite interesting. The romance and the drama were a bit too much, too fast, too... well, it is a typical romance with some hot steamy sex thrown in. I liked it, even though it wasn't perfect, and I hope there will be more novels in this series. ( )
  FiliaLibri | Nov 10, 2015 |
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Her Serene Highness Pommelina Alix Louise Canella of Monaco has lived her life as the "ugly duckling" of her glamorous family. But graduate school has kept her too busy to pine for a relationship, and being ignored by the media allows her to devote time to humanitarian projects without interference. Prima donna Formula One racer Thalia d'Angelis knows she's been hired as a publicity stunt, but that only fuels her desire to be the first woman on an F1 podium. She mightbe on the verge of making history, but her behavior off the track is as risky as her driving. The approaching Monaco Grand Prix--the crown jewel of the Formula One circuit--brings them together, but will these opposite and headstrong stars collide, or are they destined to cross?

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