By Kara McDowell
The Prince and the Apocalypse Book 1
Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice rating: 🌶️
Blurb
An American teen stranded in London is forced to team up with the British crown prince if she wants to make it back home before the end of the world in this delightfully rompy high-stakes rom-com.
Wren Wheeler has flown five thousand miles across the ocean to discover she’s the worst kind of traveler: the kind who just wants to go home. Her senior-year trip to London was supposed to be life-changing, but by the last day, Wren’s perfectly-planned itinerary is in tatters. There's only one item left to check off: breakfast at The World’s End restaurant. The one thing she can still get right.
The restaurant is closed for renovations—of course—but there's a boy there, too. A very cute boy with a posh British accent who looks remarkably like the errant Prince Theo, on the run from the palace and his controlling mother. When Wren helps him escape a pack of tourists, the Prince scribbles down his number and offers her one favor in return. She doesn’t plan to take him up on it—until she gets to the airport and sees cancelled flights and chaos. A comet is approaching Earth, and the world is ending in eight days. Suddenly, that favor could be her only chance to get home to her family before the end of the world.
Wren strikes a bargain with the runaway prince: if she’ll be his bodyguard from London to his family’s compound in Santorini, he can charter her a private jet home in time to say goodbye. Traveling through Europe by boat, train, and accidentally stolen automobile, Wren finds herself drawn to the dryly sarcastic, surprisingly vulnerable Theo. But the Prince has his own agenda, one that could derail both their plans. When life as they know it will be over in days, is it possible to find a happy ending?
Genre: YA fiction
Read if you Like:
☄️ YA romance
☄️ Cute dog
☄️ Royalty
☄️ 8 days to live
☄️ On the run
My Thoughts:
There is something about the combination of the British monarchy and the apocalypse that sounded so completely opposite that I had to give it a shot! I really enjoyed this story though I don't think it completely fits the romcom mold.
Trying to figure out how to get home with an approaching apocalypse doesn't exactly sound like an ideal setting to fall in love but Kara McDowell makes it work. She does a good job balancing the real emotions people would have to handle finding out they are going to die with lighter moments. I loved how the trip forced Theo and Wren to bond. Most royal romances are very consequence driven but Theo has no reason to keep the monarchy's secrets from Wren. At the same time, even at the end of the world, having money and power makes things different.
I don't know if this book would have appealed to me as much before COVID-19. While we didn't think the world would end, it felt slightly dystopian at times. I related to characters suddenly having their world turned upside down and learning that sometimes plans have to change.
I recommend this one if you like a road trip or more accurately fugitive romcom especially if you enjoy a celebrity aspect. This is the first book in a series and I might have enjoyed it less if I didn't know there was a sequel. I'm excited to read the next one and see how everything is resolved!
🌶️ - I would describe this book as door a tiny bit ajar. Things fade to black but you see a bit more than in some other YA books. There is intense kissing and other foreplay that is not described in detail.
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