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The Prince & The Apocalypse by Kara Mcdowell
I’ll be honest, I had my doubts about this book. I had no idea how Kara Mcdowell was going to pull this off. An apocalypse? Falling in love at the end of the word? Sci-fi? And on top of all that, she sprinkles in a British prince (royalty!!) set against a devastatingly beautiful European backdrop. Like, what? I couldn’t wrap my head around this. I kept thinking she was going to bring the book of revelations to life.
How wrong I was.
The Prince & The Apocalypse far exceeded my expectations. I mean, just look at that gorgeous cover. At first glance, it’s enticing but once you read the book, you realize it’s perfection. It single handily captures everything in the story, down to the little details like the scar on our prince’s eyebrow. The only thing missing that now I’m thinking would have been awesome to include was Comet, the Apocalypse dog, but you know what? I get it, not enough room.
So, by now you might be asking yourself, what’s this book about? Well, it’s about this American girl named Wren, who travels to London, England, and hours before she is set to fly back home, she encounters none other than the freakin crown prince of England. Talk about fate. And she saves this prince in distress from the paparazzi and ever grateful, he gives our heroine his number, telling her if she needs a favor, he owes her one. Wren is sure she’ll never need to until she misses her flight back home, gets stranded at Heathrow airport, and to her horror, discovers a massive comet is spiraling toward earth. It will wipe out 90% of the world with no hope for survival. It’s the apocalypse as she knows it. The world will end in 8 days. And Wren, devastated and frantic to get home to America, to at least see her family once more, calls Prince Theo to recruit his help, and together they end up on this whirlwind of a road trip across Europe to get to Greece, where the dashing fugitive Prince has promised Wren, he’ll have a private jet with a pilot ready to fly her home…if she can get him to Greece.
REASONS TO PREORDER THIS BOOK:
- THE WRITING: My God, it’s wonderfully written, right down to the dialogue. I don’t know how many British films Kara had to watch, or the number of hours she spent hearing a posh English accent, but she nailed the British slang and pronunciation. This isn’t an author who simply reminds us throughout the story that her character had a lovely accent, no, she made sure we didn’t forget it with Theo’s every word syllable and mannerisms. It’s why Prince Theo felt so realistically…well, British. Doesn’t also hurt that I was laughing throughout the whole book from the banter between Wren and Theo and certain scenes during their epic road trip.
- A PRINCE AS THE LOVE INTEREST: Hello, need I say more? Who wouldn’t want a dashing, wealthy, next in line to the British throne to madly fall in love with you?
- MENTAL HEALTH RESPRESENTATION: One of the reasons I love Kara’s books is she doesn’t shy away from this topic and in this particular story, she surprised me.
- EUROPE AS THE SETTING: Did I mention the story takes place in Europe? Talk about road trip wanderlust.
- THAT ENDING: Okay, I don’t want to spoil anything but that ending has to be one of the best epilogues I’ve ever read. I was shocked. Literally had to pick my jaw off the floor and then giddy with excitement. That ending deserves an Oscar.
THINGS I’M STILL WONDERING ABOUT:
- The ten-day study abroad trip Wren took with her best friend/school. I don’t think I’ve heard of such a short progam, typically they run for a month at the very least.
- Who was the inspiration behind Prince Theo? Was it Prince William or Harry? I kept getting a sense of both.
- Did Queen Alice…because of Theo? Did she know what Prince Theo did? I have my theories.
Side Note:
After failing to win an arc from giveaways, I decided to request one on Netgalley and miraculously got approved. So HUGE thanks to them, St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books, and the person from their staff responsible for reviewing all the requests who decided I should be given one.
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Books that will Break Your Heart
What’s worse than falling for someone in secret? Being rejected by them if you confess your feelings? I used to think so. Then I realized my heart didn’t break after they said no but it did when I watched them choose another.
It’s worse when the person you like is your friend. The constant fixture in your life you can’t imagine without or not hearing from every day.
True heartbreak is the agonizing moments you pretend to be happy for them, all the while you die inside with each comment on how amazing the other person is and just how much they really like them.
It’s the tormenting thoughts you can’t stop because it’s hard not to compare yourself to the person they gave a chance to. To feel less than in those instances, wondering with tears in your eyes and seething jealousy why it couldn’t have been you. Knowing you would have loved them more. That you’d be so good together…if they only could see that. If.
That kills.
And here are two books that perfectly capture all the emotions about what happens when you fall for someone and give them your all, hoping they’ll return the love only to realize they’ve given it to another.
- Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon
This book wrecked me. All 366 pages of it. Get ready to have your heart shattered as you read about Sophie longing for her best friend Peter who desperately needs a kidney transplant. So, Sophie gives him one because she loves him that much. And yes, secretly hopes that after the transplant, he’ll perhaps love her back the way she’s always wanted him to. But in giving Peter a new kidney, she also gifts him the chance for a new life. One where she isn’t his only friend and soon Peter is making new memories that don’t necessarily involve her. As she grapples with this new reality and her feelings for Peter, her world comes crashing down when he tells her he’s fallen for someone else. Sophie doesn’t know who she or life is without Peter. And because she loves him so hopelessly, she can’t bear the thought of not being with him, of him not choosing her, especially when he once had feelings for her. Read what happens when friendship turns into heartbreak as two people try to hang on to whatever is left, neither wanting to let the other go until the night that changes everything for Peter and Sophie. A finale neither one nor I expected from this beautifully written novel.
2. Dear Emmie Blue by Lia Louis
Emmie has been in love with her best friend Lucas, for a while now. Six years to be exact of painful yearning in their fourteen-year-long friendship. It all started with a red balloon she released in the sky that had her email address when she was sixteen. A balloon that somehow drifted from England all the way to France, where it’d be found, deflated on a beach by a boy named Lucas who’d go on to write to the email address written on the tag. What were the odds this particular guy with the same age and birthday as her and the same obsession with Marmite and Footballers’ Wives would have found it? That they’d instantly connect and become inseparable? It was destiny, surely. This is why Emmie believed that when Lucas called her, asking her to come to France to the restaurant they’d been going to for years, their restaurant with the breathtaking view of the beach they’ve come to define as theirs, because he had something he wanted to ask her, Emmie was sure he was going to confess to secretly being in love with her and take their relationship from longest friends to boyfriend and girlfriend. Except he doesn’t ask her to be his girlfriend but to be his best woman because he’s getting married. To someone else. And now Emmie must fight the urge to tell him how she feels about him or shove those sentiments down and watch him marry another, while she stands beside him at the alter as his best woman.