She's No Princess

Guilty Series, Book 4

By: Laura Lee Guhrke

Narrated by: Anne Flosnik

A Royal Pain....

The illegitimate daughter of a prince and a notorious courtesan, Lucia has been confined to schools and convents for most of her life. But that hasn't stopped her from causing one scandal after another. Exasperated, her royal father decides that his exquisite hellion of a daughter must be married immediately. And Sir Ian Moore, Britain's most proper diplomat, is the perfect man to choose her a groom.

Diplomacy, not matchmaker, is Ian's forte, but he vows to get Lucia married off as soon as possible so that he may return to his real duties. Yet, despite an abundance of very eager, worthwhile candidates, none is a match for Lucia's spirit and fire. And the more time Ian spends with the infuriating beauty, the more reluctant he is to marry her off. Could it be that he has already found Lucia the perfect husband...and it is Ian himself?

©2006 Laura Lee Guhrke (P)2020 Tantor

Fantastic book and series by Laura Lee Guthrie

Love this book and series by Laura Lee Guthrie and highly recommend. Anne Flosnik is a wonderful narrator and brings this book to life.

Heartfelt Vulnerability

The outrageous heroine's cry for help/love/acceptance dulled slightly the annoying edges of her manipulative nature, as did her love for her mother. For me it was a tear-jerker at times bc of her desperation to be loved, and how much rejection towards her revealed itself. So many others betrayed her & her "fight" to both be good...and to act badly, created such a vortex of vulnerability behind it all that the logic of hero's incremental sentiment towards her seemed sound. Engaging my emotions for her was brilliant. I wanted to hug her myself & try to tell her she can be loved. I grew to respect heroine and root for her.

Too many romances are missing that kind of human emotional interaction logic & leave the reader disgusted by a hero who doesn't deserve the heroine, frustration about why the heroine fights so hard or acquiesces too much for his worthless idiocy, or vice versa with the hero for the horrible heroine. This story had the perfect balance, and my heart swelled for them both to grow into love. When it finally did, it made emotional & logical sense & built up my HEA satisfaction. Nicely done.

I like the narrator and think she was extraordinarily good to maintain the accents & different voices. Could the Italian accent have been better? Yes. A few times it sounded more Spanish than Italian. But overall, it was well-executed and added to the story bc she was good at differentiating male/female voices, ages, & general accents. For me, it only slightly distracted...not enough to detract from the story.

Hero in this story was the kind of quiet non-dramatic hero that kept the buzzing drama of our heroine moving forward in the story. He unobtrusively checks the boxes of being the perfect love match for the heroine through his demonstration rather than words. How refreshing.

Well done, author. And thank you for a story I truly enjoyed sticking with. One criticism: Give us their epilogue! So many of your stories have love HEAs that end too abruptly at the dramatic climax, but don't walk the reader into the love longevity. That last element would make her readers double the feelings of HEA satisfaction IMO.

Great in every way!

This is a great series and She’s No Princess was outstanding. The story was inventive, the characters well drawn and the narration wonderful. Highly recommended!

Couldn’t stand Flosnik’s Italian accent

Story was ok but even though I usually like Anne Flosnik, her Italian accent was so annoying that I ended up feeling like the heroine was really whiny. Not Guhrke’s strongest storyline.