Edward Dinnissen leads a charmed life. He’s the Crown Prince of Canada, gets the royal treatment at his exclusive private school, and resides in a ritzy mansion. He thrives off being the perfect prince as he prepares for the Investiture Ceremony on his eighteenth birthday, the final step in his role as heir—and Canada’s future king. But this closeted Crown Prince has just one tiny problem: he’s unsure how to tell his parents, his beloved country, and his adoring fans that he’s gay.
Billy Boone should be happy with the simple life. His family’s ranch is his favorite place in the world, he loves his small town, and his boyfriend is the cutest guy at Little Timber High. So why does it feel like something’s still missing? Maybe it has to do with the fact that this out-and-proud cowboy feels destined for something more . . .
It's time for another Mixed Review!
This book had potential, absolutely. There's room for a really good plot here. But sadly, it all hinges on the fact that, when the newly born Crown Prince was sent to NICU, the hospital managed to confuse him with another baby. Because there were no guards on the critically ill heir to the throne. He was just sent off with another woman, who had sadly lost her own baby, and the Queen was told her baby had died. This is a contemporary novel and the twins are turning 18; this happened in 2005, not in the seventies as you might expect.
The Canadian royal family is clearly based on the Harry and Meagan scandal; the King and Queen fled England because the press was mean to them about the Queen's commoner background, and because of the pressures of Royal life. Whereupon the Canadians decided "We're sick of being the Commonwealth with that Royal Family! We want our own Royal family who are literally one generation away from being that Royal family!" And the two agreed. Because who cares about the pressures of Royal Life anymore, right?
In general, I didn't like the king and queen much. They found out about Billy and immediately, in the same conversation, stripped Edward of everything down to his bedroom and handed it all over to Billy. Without so much as a word to Edward. The queen mentioned, once, that they were keeping a very close eye on Edward and making sure he was ok with everything, but at no point was that shown on the page; he just appeared to be forgotten about until he was needed again. They also just expected Billy to be cool with giving up everything he ever knew in service of a crown that he's never had any loyalty to. Because...Family, I guess?
There's some good stuff here, stuff about being who you are and not letting anyone stop you, but it's buried under all this nonsensical stuff. Even I, not from North America, can tell that there's a lot of fudging and making stuff up here (why spend most of this novel about the Canadian Royal Family in New York unless you don't really know anything about Canada?) which is a shame, because I think Eric could really go places. He has a good style, and a different story would have suited him better. I'll be looking out for his next book, which I think will be a stonker.
A Tale of Two Princes publishes on the 10th of March, 2023. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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