Prince of Solana

The Prince of Solana is a surprisingly well-written romantic suspense book written by author Susan Sheehey. There's a lot of action, romance and political intrigue. I am looking forward to reading the next story. Thanks to NetGalley and Y&R publishing for the advance copy.

Enjoyed reading this book. Great story about relationships.

The Prince has denied his heritage and been a playboy. In an instant he has to grow up and go on the run. He hides on a small ranch and runs into a girl that really doesn't know who he is and doesn't really like him. Watching opposites attract and earn each other's love was fun.

Captivating plot,strong characters and thrilling plot. The book was a one sit read for me. I loved it and would recommend it to everyone. The book is a perfect read for every romance reader

Prince of Solana is quite a different take on the royal genre. Prince André of Solana (a fictional island nation in the South Pacific) has been in exile for the past 8 years, spending his days drinking, gambling and sleeping with every female with a pulse. He's a disgrace to the Peralta name, and it's why his father cast him out and gave the title of Crown Prince to his younger brother, Tulio. Now, he's informed that he is the new King of Solana, as his father and brother have been killed by the Lozano cartel out of the Philippines. His sister is missing, so it's all on André to take upon the role of king until his sister has been found. But, there's a price on his head, so his security takes him out of Nevada and to Texas, where Stefano (André's head of security) has a friend, Reyna, who will put them up until Alanna can be found and André can get back to wasting his life away.

It's there in Texas where André meets Gemma, a feisty, kickass woman who is a ranch hand on Reyna's ranch. It's not love at first sight for our couple, though, as Gemma takes an immediate dislike to the obviously out of place prince, and he is seemingly both amused and disgusted by her. This is the reason I couldn't give Prince of Solana 5 stars, Gemma dislikes André so much, yet seemingly minutes later, she's sleeping with him. Now, I know you don't have to love someone, even like them, to sleep with them, but here the contradiction is so vivid that I had a hard time understanding where their relationship even started. If Gemma truly disliked André as much as she seemed to, there's no way she'd sleep with him that quickly, no matter how much she was attracted to him. Sure, their chemistry is pretty electric, but that's all it was, chemistry. Their emotional bond didn't seem real, regardless of how much they steamed up the sheets.

I did like the action, though, it's suspenseful, and I LOVED the fact that the villains are Filipino, as the Philippines is my birthplace and I rarely, if ever, see it featured in romances. And Solana sounds absolutely gorgeous, the scenery descriptions are so clear and bold, brava to Susan Sheehey for her beautiful, lush setting.

I do plan on reading the next installments of The Royals of Solana series, can't wait for the next one!

A story about Andre, a carefree playboy Prince who unexpectedly finds himself next in line to the throne. To avoid being assassinated as his family had been, he found a hiding place at a ranch in Texas which is where he met Gemma, our FMC.

Gemma has little time and respect for the playboy Prince, disliking him at first sight. Unfortunately, I too had little love for Andre, wondering how someone so privileged could be this frivolous. To be honest, I finished this book still not liking Andre. He simply wasn't forceful- or intelligent- enough, Gemma certainly was more alpha than he was.

Anyway, life takes a dark turn, the evil cartel comes after Andre while inadvertently attacking those dear to Gemma. What follows is a rollercoaster ride, with both Andre and Gemma out for vengeance. While I enjoyed this as a whole, there were parts that were unexciting. Seeing as I love suspense and action books, I'll say this book was an average read.

Do I want to read the second book, Jewel of Solana? Yes. Simply because the author's writing is engaging; her characters, though, need more gravitas.

This is the first in a three-book series called The Royals of Solana; the second book, Jewel Of Solana, is released on March 17.

Solana is a fictional island kingdom in the South Pacific, which makes it an interesting departure from most fictional romance book royal kingdoms; they are usually European in scope. Solana's history is explained during the story, though not in an info-dump sort of way, just a few light remarks which nevertheless give the kingdom a reasonably logical 'origin story'.

Being from the South Pacific, Solana's natives are described as 'Polynesian-like' in appearance, which has me slightly bemused as to how Prince André thinks for five minutes he can pass himself off as being Colombian to an actual Colombian. That and the fact that a drug cartel from the Philippines apparently convinced themselves that they could take over a strategically important location in the South Pacific and keep it were some fairly major logical inconsistencies in the book. Still, those things can be reasonably hand-waved away for the sake of the romance in the story.

I enjoyed both Prince André and Gemma's characterization; the only issue I had was that I didn't quite buy them as a couple. We spent much of the romance in Gemma's point of view and there seemed to be an odd sort of disconnect in her despising André as a wasteful playboy and wanting to get in his pants. Physical attraction alone does not a solid relationship make; she never really seems to develop all that much respect for him.

The second book in the series follows Princess Alanna, André's younger sister. The third book, Crown of Solana, I'm assuming will be both of them since there are no other members of the royal family living. In that one, we might see more of a long-term believable relationship between André and Gemma.

While this story isn't without its flaws, I did actually thoroughly enjoy it. The action and pacing are excellent, the sex scenes are hot and the description of Solana and the Texas ranch which are the two major settings are beautifully done. I find myself very keen to read the remainder of the trilogy to find out what has happened to Alanna and who ends up taking the crown of Solana in the end.

Four stars.