A Prince on Paper/ Alyssa Cole/ 377 pgs

This is, I think, the final book in Cole's Reluctant Royals series. This is a super sweet romance between an allegedly playboy "prince" and a sheltered young lady with an intense past. Johan is not exactly a prince. He is, however, the stepson of the king of a fictional European country and the stepbrother to the heir, Lukas. Johan has spent most of his life playing the outrageous playboy, in the hope of distracting the media from focusing on his brother, a nice gesture to say the least. Nya is related to the royal family of a fictional African country. Her mother died giving birth to her. Her father used her mother's death to emotionally abuse Nya and he even poisoned his daughter to keep her submissive. Johan and Nya are thrown together at a royal wedding and decide to forge a fake engagement afterwards, for a number of reasons. These characters are so lovely, as is their romance. There's a little palace intrigue going on here, as well as navigating familial relationships. My only disappointment was that several plot threads seem to lead nowhere, though I hope that one involving two secondary characters might mean this isn't the last book in the series:-)

THE QUEEN OF THE TEARLING / Erika Johansen / 434 Pages / 10 Lords-a-Leaping (December Challenge)

THE QUEEN OF THE TEARLING is an epic fantasy with magic, mystery, adventure and the debut novel of Erika Johansen. I was fortunate to receive an Advance Reader's Copy (ARC) from the publisher.

Princess Kelsea Raleigh Glynn is a unique fantasy heroine - not beautiful OR trained from birth to be a warrior but none-the-less a queen! One who must learn how to lead despite tremendous odds against her! Kelsea's journey is compelling and will draw the reader into the story, the first in a new series.

Comparable titles might be The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory or A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.

The False Prince (The Ascendance Trilogy) BK. 1 / Jennifer A. Nielsen / 342 pgs. / Dec. Challenge "Lords-a-Leaping"

To avoid civil war (and gain power), Nobleman Conner gathers four orphans to train them for one of them to go on to impersonate the Kingdoms long-missing prince.  One orphan Sage, has the street smarts and wits to convince the nobles that he is the missing prince, but his willful nature and stubbornness may lead to his undoing.

Engaging, with lots of twist and turns as the story unfolds and you learn more and more about the plot to replace the prince.  The main character Sage is very sure of himself, similar to Eoin Colfer's "Artemis Fowl", which at times can be annoying.  However, Sage does have a softer side as he gives his opponents second chances and helps them try to save face.

Recommended to any YA reader - even young/middle YA readers.

Prisoners in the Palace/Michaela MacColl/367 Pages

This YA book tells the story of how young Princess Victoria became Queen in the early 19th century.  It isn't a story of just Princess Victoria, but also of her maid, Liza, who was recently orphaned.  She. along with other characters, work to dispel rumors about the Princess and help her to become the Queen.

I found it to be a fast, easy read with a good storyline.  It was well-researched and tells a lot about the social classes in the England of that time period.  The writing style was very nice, and switched between narrative and journal entries in a way that wasn't confusing to the reader.  This was the author's first novel, and if she writes another book I will be sure to read it.