A review by archeve
Princess and Country by Emmanuelle Snow

1.0

The moment I finished reading, I’m not even sure if I can count this as a romance book... I can’t sense an actual romantic attraction between the main characters (the combination of lust > love and telling > showing that is), the plot twist happened out of the blue, and the plot itself really feels all over the place. Not to mention the cheating trope and the accidental pregnancy without knowing who’s the father trope... No, just no. Even if I can get over these pet peeves of mine, I really don’t know how to react to this: first, Dahlia told Jeff that they don’t need a paternity test because she can “feel it in her heart” that Jeff is the father (okay, I get that this might be a metaphor, but this is lowkey cruel to another guy who LOVES her and MIGHT be the baby’s dad). Later on, when Jeff died, Dahlia thought about how “the baby deserves better than a dead father” and “she deserves better than becoming a widow” at Jeff’s funeral. I understand that she eventually have to move on, but when it is portrayed in this way, I can’t help but to question her love to Jeff. It’s like she just skipped through the whole grieving phase when she’s supposed to be so in love with this guy for years. Besides the plot, I feel like the writing can be improved as well. I’m okay with the time jumps, but I don’t think it really serves a purpose here. There’s no obvious relationship or character development in each time jumps. The portrayal of Jeff’s PTSD and Dahlia’s music career also tend to feel vague.