“Olivia Garza, a woman committed to making a difference in the world, thrives in her unconventional, service-oriented life. By day, she helps troubled teens in inner-city Little Rock. By night, she creates a viral docu-series in an attempt to better understand her mother’s desperate decisions by retracing her steps with a camera. So far, Olivia has always been the anonymous narrator, but she’s promised to reveal herself in the last stop on her Kenya.
Prince Louis, heir to the throne of the small European kingdom of Alloria, is in Kenya to run away from a broken heart—and the media circus that comes with it. When he meets Olivia, he recognizes her voice right away from the docu-series that has stirred his heart. Though they share a magical day on safari, any dreams of happily ever after come crashing down with the flash of the paparazzi cameras when Olivia realizes that he represents everything she most despises in the world.
In World War II Rome, another royal, however, has her own life-changing choices to make. Princess Alessandra Appiani could have chosen quiet safety within the walls of the Vatican, but instead she risks her life—and her family—to save the Jewish children so in need of someone to show them the love of God.
When Olivia is hired to help create a documentary about Alessandra, learning about the sacrifice of a royal who goes from palace to prison forces her to face the hardest questions of should she continue on the path she’s carved for herself or trust God to give her the future she never thought she wanted?”
Series: A stand-alone novel.
Spiritual Content- Psalm 19:1-4 at the beginning; Scriptures are read & mentioned; Many prayers; Talks about God, Jesus, helping others, prayers/praying, showing the love of Jesus to others, & forgiveness; Some 'H's are capital when referring to God and Jesus; Olivia recalls her answered prayers as a little girl & now wishes to be someone who shows the love of God to others as well; Half-way through, Olivia notes that she’s always thought of God as more of a “benevolent caretaker than a caring father” adding that “as long as she obeyed Him and stayed on His good side, the more likely things would go well” and that He would jump in when things got too overwhelming for her, but while that view as worked fine for her, a woman’s words make her wonder if there was more to a relationship with God; *Spoiler* Olivia asks God to help her forgive her grandparents towards the end & feels peace *End of Spoiler*; Alessandra hears God’s message stirred in her heart & also feels God’s Spirit whisper to her heart (not Scripture quotes, but for her situation); Many mentions of God, Jesus, submitting one’s self to Him, having faith, trusting God, His plans, & God’s creation; Mentions of prayers, praying, answered prayers, & blessings over food; Mentions of churches, church going, & services; Mentions of Bibles & Bible reading; Mentions of Jews, Roman Catholics, & Lutherans; Mentions of the Vatican (which is called “God’s holy city”), the Catholic Church, priests, & statues of saints; A few mentions of those & events in the Bible; A few mentions of Heaven; A couple mentions of a mission trip; A couple mentions of sin; A mention of a woman struggling with her faith; A mention of a blessing;
*Note: A concentration camp is called “hell” twice and the “pit of hell” once & the soldiers there “devils”; A woman tells Olivia about her future in a mysterious way (implied the words are from God); Louis thinks of Olivia as a woman fiercely determined to confront the “demons of her past”; Louis calls a large playground slide a “demon slide”because of it’s size; Louis is given the advice by his aunt to “go anywhere that allows you to follow your heart”; Olivia believes her grandfather hide about her mother due to being connected to Christian businesses and it would be bad PR for him; Mentions of luck & being lucky; A mention of Travis Scott being a group of girls’ “idol”; A mention of fate.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘shut up’, two ‘dumb’s, and three ‘stupid’s; A couple mentions of curses (said, not written); Some eye rolling & sarcasm; A drive-by shooting, seeing someone shot, & blood (up to semi-detailed); Seeing a pack of vultures fighting over and eating a carcass (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); *Spoiler, but regarding a death* Alessandra is taken to a concentration camp and dies there from injuries in a bombing by American bombers, up to semi-detailed *End of Spoiler*; The World War II setting shows Jews being rounded up, taken to concentration camps, being locked up as a political prisoner, & a bombing; Just before the book starts, Olivia is handed a child by a dying mother to take care of and takes her to a good orphanage (barely-above-not-detailed); Olivia travels through a big slum (Kibera) and it’s described (including a comment about it not being safe for “any white person” once it’s dark; up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of World War II, Nazis, historical figures like Adolf Hitler, spies and arrests, bombings, deportations of Jews, concentration camps, gas chambers and the smell, & smuggling Jewish children (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of seeing a death, deaths, & grief (including Olivia and Louis for their mothers & a husband for his wife); Mentions of a mother’s disappearance, her body being found, & it being an accident (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of arrests, crimes, & criminals; Mentions of gunfire, a drive-by shooting, someone being shot, & blood/bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of pain & injuries; Mentions of domestic violence & women staying in abusive relationships; Mentions of cancer, someone’s cancer being back, treatments, & a stroke leaving someone partially paralyzed (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of addictions to drugs & alcohol; Mentions of drugs, “bad drugs” that caused a death, & possible overdose; Mentions of lies, lying, & deceit; Mentions of rumors & gossip; Mentions of nightmares (including of deaths); A few mentions of a suicide/overdose (*Spoiler* Olivia’s mother, which was ruled as a suicide but some believed it was due to bad drugs *End of Spoiler*); A few mentions of a murder & witnessing one; A few mentions of a war concerning Russia & the refugee crisis; A few mentions of fires; A few mentions of starvation; A few mentions of poachers; A few mentions of being mugged; A few mentions of alcohol & drinking; A few mentions of hatred; A couple mentions of car accidents & deaths; A couple mentions of a possible serial killer; A couple mentions of other wars; A couple mentions of robbers & children being used as bait to lure people for robbers; A couple mentions of stealing; A couple mentions of two young guys having a “predatory gleam” in their eyes when looking at Louis and Olivia; A couple mentions of jealousy; A mention of cigarettes; A mention of throwing up;
*Note: Olivia calls her mother someone with a “Jekyll and Hyde disposition”; Olivia struggles with the feeling of abandonment due to her mother’s actions during her childhood and didn’t know the version of her mother that was compassionate and kind, but forgives her in the beginning of the book; Olivia recalls seeing her grandparents coldly reacting to her mother’s pain and not helping them which Olivia views as “disdainful rejection” and tries not to think about her biological family members who “never wanted her to be born in the first place”; Olivia tells Louis that she always thought her mother’s troubles were her fault and that her mother could have had a wonderful life if not for her; (*Spoilers* At the end, Olivia receives a letter from her grandparents explaining their side of the events and how they tried to help her mother; Olivia realizes that she’d been seeing her grandparents through her mother’s eyes as a “self-centered people who refused to help” but now knows because of her work that it is impossible to help others unless they wish to change; She decides to let go of the past for the sake of discovering her future *End of Spoilers*); After his mother’s death, Louis’ father had little to do with rearing his children; Princess Alessandra aches about the possibility of not being able to see her children again or their lives being cut short; A teenager comments about bottled water being a favorite “among white women” but says “no offense” to Olivia and she doesn’t take any; Olivia is aware she seems like the stereotype of a “privileged white girl playing the role of savior” and wishes to set someone straight about how she grew up in rough areas; Louis comments that “unfortunately some [in his country] still frown upon the notion of a female heir, despite the powerful reign of Queen Elizabeth proving it can work”; Olivia thinks about the elephants she has seen at a zoo being “shriveled and weak from their captivity”; Mentions of websites & social media (Google, People magazine, YouTube, TikTok, & Instagram); Mentions of songs & artists (‘Coming Home’ by Leon Bridges, ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’, ‘A Moment Like This’ by Kelly Clarkson, ‘True Colors’ by Cyndi Lauper, & ‘Little Rock’ by Collin Raye); Mentions of celebrities, movies, & TV shows (Brad Pitt, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Channing Tatum, Travis Scott, The Princess Diaries, The Prince and I, Gone With the Wind, & Law and Order); Mentions of royal family members (William, Harry, Kate Middleton, Megan Markle, Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth, & Grace Kelly); A few mentions of AIDS orphans & children effected with it; A few mentions of counselors & therapists (including a mention of a therapist telling Olivia that she puts up walls around her heart to protect herself from the hard things she faced in her childhood); A few mentions of brand names (Converse tennis shoes, American Girl dolls, Coke, & Jell-O); A mention of Disney princesses; A mention of Little Caesars; A mention of Nancy Drew; A mention of a couple being told that children would not be in her future, but having a child ten years later.
Sexual Content- Three fingers-to-lips touches, five hand/fingers kisses, five head/forehead kisses, a jaw kiss, two cheek kisses, two almost kisses (both up to semi-detailed), two barely-above-not-detailed kisses, four border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kisses, and a semi-detailed kiss (which stops from going longer with Louis saying that he wants to honor Olivia); Remembering kisses (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to kiss (up to semi-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Warmth, Butterflies, Electricity/Fireworks/Sparks, Shivers/Tingles, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Blushes, Winks, & Flirting; Noticing & Staring (including his muscles, up to semi-detailed); Louis recalls embracing and kissing his then-girlfriend and her inviting him to her hotel room asking if he thinks it was time for that, but he replies “You know I would love to, and someday…after the wedding.” (They go to their separate rooms); Olivia thinks about her mother having “marks” (targets) and flirting with them to get her to help them (which sometimes lead to living with them or the men becoming possessive and then having to run away from them); Mentions of unplanned pregnancies (*Spoilers* including Olivia being told that one of the teen girls she knows through her work is pregnant; Olivia tells her that God has a plan, that they are here for the girl, and that all babies are a gift *End of Spoilers*); Mentions of women in abusive relationships (including Olivia’s mother going through ones); Mentions of kisses & kissing; Mentions of boyfriends/girlfriends, dates, dating, exes, break-ups, & broken hearts; A few mentions of jealousy & crushes; A mention of a forbidden affair; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: Olivia was born out of wedlock and her grandparents viewed the pregnancy as “a shame” and Olivia’s mother left, deciding to raise Olivia alone “rather than face scorn”; It’s added that her mother met a man on an overseas trip and while he was trying to ease her fears about returning to the States, “she found herself in his arms. In his bed.”; Olivia doesn’t know who her biological father is; Alessandra shares about a nightmare of standing naked in front of her captors; Mentions of monkeys stealing women’s bras and them hanging on trees; A mention of a dress fitting Olivia’s curves; A mention of a “bosomy woman”; A mention of no cleavage being shown at a royal event.
-Olivia Garza, age 25
-Louis Castillo, age 27
P.O.V. switches between them, Alessandra, & Regina (x1)
Contemporary & Scenes from 1943-1944
316 pages
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New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
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My personal Rating-
This ended up being a much different book than I was expecting. The topics discussed were heavier with what Olivia had gone through with her mother and then the scenes to World War II in a concentration camp. It’s not a light and fluffy contemporary royalty plot by any means, so please know that ahead of reading.
At the beginning, I found Olivia to be a little overbearing at times. While I also had a time in my life where the wealth of rich people annoyed me because I thought they could do so much more with it for others, I had to come to a realization that what they do with their money is not my business and I can only control my actions and my bank account. Helping with non-profits and bringing awareness about the ministries close to my heart is a way to serve with my time and Olivia was definitely doing that, which was great to see. But she still came across a little self-righteous at the same time and I didn’t really like her for the first part of the book because of it.
Louis was a little too poetic for my tastes and felt as if he had an instant connection to Olivia because of knowing who she is based on what she’s shared online. He was a bit of an odd duck compared to other royalty books I’ve read, but like Olivia, he eventually grew on me. I really liked that he encouraged her about her passions and interests plus how he was a gentleman towards her.
As soon as we meet Olivia, it’s quickly gathered that she isn’t going to take the news of Louis being a prince well—and boy howdy, she did not. That made this book a little…difficult to read, so I liked the second half of the book better because of Olivia realizing things and starts being willing to step out in an act of faith—and be willing to finally put the past behind her and stop letting her mother’s actions dictate her life. I wish we had seen more about the YouTube documentary parts because it felt like just a side thing that Olivia does when it was actually a big part of how Olivia and Louis meet.
While I’ve seen this book as marketed as a dual-time period story, I don’t think I would really consider it to be one. Perhaps only a fourth of the book is scenes from a non-present day time period or the diary entries during World War II. The faith content was particularly strong in these scenes and made reading about the horrible events somewhat bearable. How everything connected was neat, but at the same time, it didn’t fit into the tone of the rest of the story, in my opinion. A little out of left field, in a way? But I still enjoyed Princess Alessandra and her strong faith was inspiring.
On the topic of faith content, I do wish Louis and Olivia would have had more discussions about their faiths because it seems to be important to them, but they didn’t have conversations about it. I thought Olivia was a strong Christian, but in the middle she said about feeling as if God is a benevolent caretaker that would jump in when things get too overwhelming for her, which felt more like a lukewarm reaction and it didn’t seem to change by the end, which was strange to me.
It would have been great to see an author’s note at the end of the book with what was historical fact and what was fictional. Obviously Alloria is a fictional country, but the Vatican was a neutral place during WWII, so it would be nice to know more information about what was in this book and what was the author taking liberty.
Overall, this book was very different from the typical “American girl falls for royal prince” plot-line and I ended up enjoying it more than I would. I would suggest it for 16/17+, however, due to some comments/suggestions and harder topics mentioned and shown.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
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