Best Friend to Royal Bride

by Annie Claydon

When two friends break the rules… the consequences are irresistible!

Best friends Marie and Alex have been inseparable since medical school. Until one impulsive kiss changes everything…and Alex reveals his long-kept he’s king of an exiled royal family. Marie knows she doesn’t belong in Alex’s privileged world, but now neither can deny their unexpected and intense connection. And Marie must decide if she can risk it all to stay in Alex’s arms…as his queen.

From Harlequin Medical Life and love in the world of modern medicine.

“Ms. Claydon is becoming one of my go-to authors for Harlequin medical romances…absolutely captivating, fast-paced and a story I couldn’t put down. Really, the main characters are memorable because of their strong chemistry; the dialogue was engrossing….”
—Harlequin Junkie on Falling for Her Italian Billionaire

“This really is a beautifully written story, a story that flows with love and happiness…. Ms. Claydon has added more to this community with her characters…this is a moving, sensual story that I highly recommend.”
—Goodreads on Resisting Her English Doc

192 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2020

Reviews

[Kazen]

I like the set up well enough - an A&E doctor who happens to be a prince of a defunct country opens a community health clinic and asks his med school friend to join as his co-director. They grow closer as the clinic gets nears completion and starts accepting patients.

But once things are set up the narrative becomes little more than a parade of heartwarming moments, including setting up a courtyard garden, helping a patient who arrives at the gate after hours, and stories of how this kid or that kid is doing so much better now that the clinic is open. It's not a bad thing, but I'm 128 pages in and the main relationship hasn't evolved. I know more about the ins and outs of running a clinic - how they hire staff, who painted the lobby mural - than I know about the hero and heroine's feelings for each other. 50%/128 pages and they're still friends, still professional, with only a hint of something more. The heartwarming moments aren't enough to keep me here, so DNF.

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One more thing - I have a hard time believing that Marie, an emergency doc, would up and leave her job on short notice to work in management. A&E is a procedure dominated specialty, full of people who like to be hands on with patients in a busy, at times chaotic, environment. Going from a saving lives in a bustling emergency department to pushing paper in a quiet private office without a single misgiving or doubt? I don't buy it.

[Rob Imes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is Harlequin Medical Romance #1083, published in February 2020. I'd read "Forbidden Night with the Duke" by the same author last year and enjoyed it. The Medical Romance line consists mainly of U.K. authors I think (a plus in my opinion, as an Anglophile) and the novels are in Larger Print format. I purchased the book from the Harlequin website; I've heard that this particular line is not available in stores in the U.S. I enjoyed this novel less than the previous one I'd read by the author since the story seemed a lot simpler and the hero Alex was pretty bland. Despite being wealthy and having royal blood, he comes across as just an ordinary, nice guy who is trying to set up a large clinic from scratch, with his old medical school friend Marie helping out. The two old friends had shared a very brief kiss early in the book (pgs 18-19), but they try to forget about that and spend most of the novel working on getting the clinic up and running. They don't kiss again until page 166, which is also short-lived ("They had a job to do, and it didn't involve kissing"). Some dramatic action (a medical emergency) eventually occurs by page 171, and afterwards things finally start to heat up between Alex and Marie around page 193 (the book runs 255 pages). This is followed by some on-again/off-again in their relationship until the obligatory HEA. In my opinion the novel didn't really get interesting until the last third of the book where there is some movement in the story beyond the mundane task of building the clinic. The writing style is good but not impressive; I did like the closing lines ("This was no longer his story, it was theirs, and he loved it more each day.") It's a quick read (I read it in 3 days, which is very fast for me) and mildly enjoyable despite the lack of drama for most of the book.