This story is a little different - it's about the daughter of a prince thou she was born on the wrong side of the blankets. She was born and raised in Italy and comes to England to find a husband. So its a very different background we have to deal with.
Vanessa's books are always a nice read.

Great, engaging story. I haven't read anything by Vanessa Kelly before now, but I think I will be seeking her out more and more.

I really enjoyed Gillian and Charles' story!

Gillian is probably one of my favorite types of heroines. She was definitely not your typical debutant and she certainly gave Charles a run for his money. Charles was a bit stiff in the beginning but after hanging out with Gillian, he became a much more enjoyable character!

This is a wonderful start to Kelly's new series! I'm excited to read the next book in the series!

My Fair Princess by Vanessa Kelly

First in the Improper Princess series

2 stars (DNF)

Gillian Dryden is the illegitimate daughter of a prince and has just finished avenging her stepfather’s death. Vengeance isn’t as sweet as it should be and she and her mother are forced to flee Sicily and come back to London. Charles Penley is tasked with taming Gillian and making her suitable for the ton so that she can find a nice suitor and wed. Of course, they end up absolutely enamored with each and entangled in a game of passion. Only not really. This novel wasn’t about as passionate as stale bread. I’ll be honest I made it chapter 18 before finally calling it quits and skimming to the end. I wasn’t taken with this story at all. This is the first HR I’ve ever DNFed, but I just couldn’t force myself to continue. It wasn’t worth slogging through hours of reading just to get to the obvious and unsatisfying ending. HRs are predictable, but what makes them so much fun is the passion and the swooning. This book lacks all the fun and substance. It takes itself too seriously and I think that the problem lies in the characters’ personalities.


There’s nothing wrong with Kelly’s writing, but the one flaw that I can point out and it’s a big one is character development. These characters are boring. They don’t leap off the page other than in the first couple of chapters. The opening chapters are so strong and I was hoping for a good HR, but they slowly begin to tank when it comes to the same boring back and forth of conforming to the ton vs. being absolutely everything the ton despises. I don’t think this is particularly my type of romance novel anyway. I’ve never read an HR with this trope before and I don’t think it’s for me.


Whimsical Writing Scale: 2.5

The main female character is Gillian. There isn’t really anything wrong with Gillian’s character, but she takes herself so seriously. Everything is so dire and everyone is out to get her and she just can’t fit in, but she doesn’t want to fit in. All these contradictions are constantly brought up in almost every chapter and it quickly becomes tiresome. I want to read about a fun heroine when I come to HRs. I want characters like Beatrice Hathaway who have affinities for animals and there are so many other interesting heroines who completely steal the show that I could list all of them, but we’d be here all day. Gillian just wasn’t any fun. She had a few great one-liners, but I just didn’t think she was the best character to match this type of storyline.


“At this rate, I’ll soon have an entire alphabet of nicknames trailing behind me like a dirty cloak.”

Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 2

The main male character is Charles. To be honest, Charles is just as abhorrent as, if not more so, than Gillian. My first impression of him was complete douchecanoe and he does get a little better, but his random obsession with her body and breasts randomly comes into play early on in the novel and instead of being cute, it just feels creepy and perverted. Charles isn’t the worse character, but his uptight personality and his hero complex (he is obsessed with saving the day and protecting Gillian) make this story feel trite and forced. I don’t buy their chemistry at all. In fact, there is none. It doesn’t exist.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 1.75

The Villains- There are a couple of different villains that pose a threat to Gillian, but none of them were really intimidating enough to pose any real threat. I just wasn’t interested.


Villain Scale: 1.25

There is a large cast of characters. I don’t really care for any of them and so many were constantly being introduced to disappear and then come back at odd times. I couldn’t keep them all straight and I didn’t really care enough to do so.


Character Scale: 2

I do feel a little guilty for not reading the whole novel, but I also don’t feel like I missed out or lost anything. Overall, I’m sure this novel be a hit with certain HR fans. I just wasn’t one of them.


Cover Thoughts: I love this cover. It’s so pretty. I want that dress. The tagline doesn’t work here though because there was no desire on any of the pages I read.

Thank you, Netgalley and Zebra, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I have not had a chance to read this book yet. I am still working on catching up and also trying not to get too far behind on other books. I will update this review once I have read the book.

I love Vanessa Kelly's books and this one is no different. Gillian and Charles are very good together and the humor between them is well written.

I was given a free copy of this book from the publisher on netgalley.

this is the one book I read while on vacation recently. which is an embarrassing thing to admit because seriously? only one book?

here are my reasons:
1. I was on vacation with 5 children under the age of 10 and had to play A LOT of hide and seek.
2. I mostly took red eyes and slept on the planes.
3. I have this stupid free subscription to entertainment weekly and I feel inordinate amounts of guilt about having a constant backlog of at least 3 magazines.
4. my mom gave me two issues of my undergrad alumni newsletters when I saw her. those things are tome like and I felt compelled to read the whole thing during the 90 minutes I spent on Portland's public transit.

okay, also as a side note to this already lengthy tangent, why does my phone keep auto correcting vacation to Beaverton? no one wants to vacation in beaverton. actually. maybe they do. in fictional, euphemistic beaverton. actual beaverton in the Portland metro area is pretty lame.

as I read this book over a week ago and I have no real memory of what happens other than the heroine shooting a man in the first chapter, I'm going to go ahead and say it wasn't very good. this is a terrible review and I fully admit that. but I have another 4 copies of EW piled up to read already and the acidic guilt is seriously destroying me.

This romance was a lot longer than I expected. Not even in length so much as it felt like it was taking forever to get through. Bandit-hunting rebel Gillian Dryden gets dragged to London after a life in Sicily and put under the watch of the Duke of Leverton who's supposed to teach her how to be a proper English woman.

Can you see how this is going to go?

I think My Fair Princess started alright. Gillian has an... unfavorable heritage so she's already prone to gossip but she stays strong throughout it all and her tendency to stir up trouble and make a scene. Compared to the composed Leverton who is this paragon of all things proper. They're very extreme characters and for a good bit of the book, Leverton treats Gillian as a student and more like a child.

And then out of nowhere decides to give in to his attraction toward her and it everything goes downhill from there.

On their own, I liked both characters. Gillian is fierce and strong-willed. A bit cliche in the rebellious act, and she could be quite childish at times, but I grew used to it. In contrast, Leverton was more reserved and very patient with her and the trouble she got herself in. But I didn't like them together. Maybe it was just me but I didn't feel any chemistry between them.

Then there's the story itself. Much of the plot centers around Leverton's attempts to "tame" Gillian while she continues to make a spectacle of herself, and then they finally must leave London to avoid causing more rumors. Of course, away from prying eyes, the two start up their romance but it felt awkward and a bit forced.

And the whole bandits subplot was weird. At the very beginning of the book you meet Gillian while she's hunting bandits. Which, alright, for the story it's who she is but was a bit odd. That she continues that later on after all the build-up of her making progress in her "schooling" seemed like it was more for the sake of the plot than anything. Her whole world is consumed by bandits, whether they're the ones who killed her stepfather or not. The thing is, I actually liked that she was this take-charge person, that she went out to track bandits and challenged what women could do in this time period. But the way it came across didn't work as well as the idea, for me.

For a series starter, I was a bit disappointed, but there are a lot of secondary characters that show promise for future books and I do hope they come up again instead of a whole new cast as I always enjoy seeing those little cross-overs. But I do think I'll try out more of Kelly's books as the writing was good, just wasn't a fan of the story for this one.

It was an easy and enjoyable read. Gillian is headstrong but very likable. In fact both characters are likeable. The story line is a bit unique which I liked. I also think the chemistry between the H/h is authentic. Nice job.

Gillian grew up in Italy with her mom and stepdad. They basically let her run wild and do whatever she pleased. When her stepdad is killed, Gillian is out for revenge and goes hunting bandits. To keep her out of harm’s way she is sent to England to find a suitable husband. Charles decides he is going to help turn Gillian into a debutante but his desire for her may be too much.
I really enjoyed this book. I love historical romances and I loved the how Gillian didn’t care that she was supposed to be a lady and went after the bandits. That’s not something you see too often in historical works. I can’t wait to see what the author has in store for the next book in this series.

Gillian was the illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Cumberland. .Gillian’s brother Griffin was devoted to her. Gillian had grown up in Italy where she lived freely.Gillian loved her stepfather deeply. Gillian hunts and kills the bandits one by one until she gets hurt, who killed her stepfather. Gillian’s grandmother turns to the Duke of Leverton- Charles to reform and mold Gillian into a young English lady. At first Charles and Gillian hate each other. In Italy Gillian wore pants and shot a gun and carried a pistol and a knife. Gillian’s grandfather had held Gillian being illegitimate against her. And didn’t treat her right. Charles was a stickler about having no scandal and doing the right thing. In the beginning Charles acted like Gillian was a child. Gillian was fiercely strong and had a strong sense of justice. Gillian’s grandmother wants her to find a suitable husband. Charles tries to teach Gillian society manners but she isn’t interested. But then Charles is attracted to Gillian and starts having feelings for her. Gillian is also attracted to Charles and has feelings for him. Gillian struggles not to lose her temper with Charles as he struggles with how to deal with her.
I liked this story a lot. I loved how Gillian was determined to get justice for her stepfather. I also loved the struggles between Charles and Gillian. I hated her grandfather making her pay for something she had no control over. I was glad Charles and Gillian got over their negative feelings for each other and they changed. This had a good plot.This also made me laugh which is always good. A Fun read. I loved the characters and the ins and outs and I recommend.

My Fair Princess is the first book in the Improper Princesses series by Vanessa Kelly. Gillian was definitely improper. Thoroughly improper, and I loved her for it. Gillian's "I can do anything and kick butt while I'm at it" attitude was perfect. Here she is, this tough girl trying to be proper. Okay.. she's not really trying, but she wants people to think she is, and she's so out of place in her time, you can't help but love her as a character. Charles was her opposite, although not as perfect as everyone liked to think. Still, they had completely different personalities, but they were so much fun to read about together. Their bantering was infectious. The plot was smooth and kept me reeled in with its humor as well as adventure. I definitely want to read the next book in this series.