In this all-new novella in the New York Times bestselling series, Hunter and Gretchen are finally tying the knot—but their wedding may not be the easy fairy tale they’ve dreamed of...

Someone's out to ruin Gretchen's happy-ever-after on the eve before the big day. Can she trust Hunter, the man she's given her heart to? And can she rely on her sister Daphne (the least reliable person of all!) to help her salvage things? Or is this marriage going to go down in flames before Gretchen and Hunter ever get to the altar?

Gretchen is getting married soon – on Christmas Eve no less – and she’s stressed!  She’s fired umpteen caterers for one reason or another, she keeps gaining weight instead of losing it because she keeps sampling her own baked goods and then when she visits her fiancé at his office she starts to think he’s being blackmailed!  Could nothing go right in her life?

Daphne is Gretchen’s famous singer sister and is six months out of rehab.  She’s doing really well with her life coach, Wesley.  He’s incredible and she’s madly in love with him but he keeps her at arms length and keeps telling her she’s just a job to him.  She’s upset and really missing her sisters as it’s the holidays.  She knows she screwed up royally and they deserted her but she’s willing to give it another try and hopes they’re willing as well.  She heads to Gretchen’s house and is surprisingly welcomed with open arms.  Her twin, Audrey, isn’t so welcoming but she’s been hurt so much by Daphne it’s understandable.

Both Gretchen and Daphne are looking for support in their time of need and that might come from each other but it may also come from the men they love.

This was a cute story.  We’ve been hearing about Gretchen and Hunter’s wedding for so long in so many books that we just knew that it was going to be the event of the century.  Opening this book and realizing that she’s a mess and so is the wedding was kind of a breath of fresh air.  Even fiancé’s of billionaires can fall apart and have things go wrong.  In this case it made Gretchen and Hunter that much more “normal” to me.

With Daphne we saw a woman who was trying to get her life back after screwing up so badly that her family gave up on her.  Daphne had had told them many times that she was going to do better but she always slid back into drugs and alcohol. I loved that she wanted to do better for her family and for Wesley, but mostly she wanted to do better for herself. She knows she can’t slide back to her old ways and Wesley was helping her.  I almost wish that Wesley hadn’t been her shadow for the last six months, however. Yes, he’d helped her so much but I also know that addicts tend to latch on to things (obviously) so it made me think that if Wesley hadn’t been the one keeping her on the straight and narrow for so long would she have fallen in love with him?  I know that’s my cynicism shining through but I admit that thought crossed my mind when she made it clear she was in love with him. I tried to push those thoughts aside and focus on the relationship.  We didn’t see any of them falling in love so it was hard for me to get into their romance but I was still happy that it all ended well for them.

While this was a pretty short novella but it was still worth reading.  Hopefully Clare’s next revisit these characters in future books.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Their romance led to a royal wedding in Once Upon a Billionaire. Now see how it all began for Princess Alexandra of Bellissime and American actor Luke Houston in this novella from New York Times bestselling author Jessica Clare.

As heir to the throne of Bellissime, Princess Alexandra is supposed to be cool and calm...not crushing on a movie star. When she hears that Luke Houston is filming a scene for his next movie in her tiny country, however, she can’t resist sneaking onto set to get a glimpse of the Hollywood hunk.

When Alex is almost caught on set by the press, she ducks into the first available hiding place—only to find herself in Luke’s private trailer, and getting much more than just a glimpse of him. It’s an up close and personal encounter that sets her heart aflutter, and sets her mind on some very unladylike plans to get to know him better...

Alex is the heir apparent to the Crown of Bellissime but she’s also a woman who has a crush on an actor. She’s seen all of Luke Houston’s movies and when they start shooting a movie in Bellissime and he’s the star, Alex is anxious to meet him.  She heads to the warehouse their working out of and when she gets the chance to meet Luke he ends up mistaking her for a hooker.  (Not that she’s dressed like one but he assumed that the recently single director would send one to him.)  When the cast and director are invited to the palace for dinner Luke isn’t thrilled but when he sees Alex he just laughs – realizing what a blunder he made. Luke is intrigued by Alex and they soon start dating – even though privacy is an issue because of who they are.  And love soon follows but other people and their places in life might keep them apart.

This was a very cute and very sweet novella.  I really liked Alex and Luke both separately and together.  They were well written characters and for as short as the novella was I thought that Jessica Clare brought a lot of information into it.  Though we didn’t get as much info about Luke (he came from a trailer park in Texas) we got a lot about Alex.  She had been raised to be a princess – third in line for the throne.  After her father passed away her mother decided to abdicate that made Alex next in line for the throne, which was fine with her.  But taking care of her princess duties and being sheltered she hadn’t ever been kissed until Luke.  She was a pretty buttoned up girl overall and wasn’t sure about how to do some things – like get a guy to notice her.  She ended up just telling Luke that she was there so he could ask her out.  Luke did, of course, but being the proper princess she was Alex had no idea what to wear.   She ended up asking her mother (who was decidedly not straight-laced) what to wear.  Her mother suggested jeans and Alex’s reply was…

“Mother, I don’t own any jeans.” The palace thought they were improper attire for a princess.  Far too casual!

Her mother’s eyes twinkled.  “It’s a good thing that I have a few pairs and we’re the same size.  Come on.  Let’s go to my suite.”

“You have jeans?” What was next, handcuffs and weed?  Good lord.

snort That made me laugh!  She was a far cry from Hollywood but Luke loved that about her and that made me like him even more.  He didn’t love her because she was a princess – he loved her in spite of the fact that she was a princess. Good man.

The story was a good one and a great addition to the series.  It was fun, funny and romantic and I loved almost everything about it.  I definitely recommend it.

Rating: 4 out of 5