The Prince & The Apocalypse by Kara Mcdowell

January 22, 2023 /

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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?
  3. 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.
  4. EUROPE AS THE SETTING: Did I mention the story takes place in Europe? Talk about road trip wanderlust.
  5. 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.