The Prince Who Loved Me by Karen Hawkins
I only read to chapter 7 and won't be reading any further. Horrible. Horrible book. This is pretty much how the story began...
The main character meets the prince out in the woods. He asks for her name but she refuses to give it to him. He gives his name in hopes that she will give hers in return but she still doesn't. He isn't so perfect either. He doesn't tell her he's a prince. He is living in the house (castle) of a well known man who is going to throw a ball. So the main character goes home and she has 2 step sisters who heard rumors about the ball and of this prince and how they would love to kiss him if he was handsome. The main characters doesn't tell them that she had already met him and that they kissed. She played nonchalant on the outside but inside she is overwhelmingly in love with him.
Anyway, I stopped after the mom comes down the stairs swinging her arms in the air holding an envelope that is the invitation to the ball. So as she's coming toward the girls, she's all excited, "Girls! I've got great news in this envelope! I can't wait to share it with all of you!!!! You will be be soooooooooo excited!!!!" Not word for word of course, but pretty close. One daughter starts jumping up and down excited just like her mom but her mom shoots her down by saying, "Calm down daughter. You must be lady like and sit quietly." I was like...WTF? You just got her all excited and now you expect her to sit calmly? The daughter does it though with her hands on her lap and all and quiet as a mouse. Then the mom looks over to the step daughter (the main character...th
e one who met the prince but he didn't tell her he was the prince and in which they kissed after only having met for like 5 minutes), and says, "OH...your dress is so ugly. Look at that stain." The MC says, "It's all I have." The mom says, "You need to go change right now. I can't have you wearing that in front of me." The MC says, "Okay. Let me go change..." I'm like...WHAT? Mom, you just came down the stairs swinging the envelope in your hands in the air like a crazy lunatic all excited like you were about to explode and now you'd rather pay attention to your step daughters ugly dress? NOT REAL. And very stupid.
Sometimes I wonder how these books get so popular but then I realize the average reader is not a college graduate or English major or anything near that.
I'm not having good morning if you ask.