If you've been following my last few posts you'll know that I have actually had a lot of success in the romcom/romance books department these last few books! I often find it hard to get into romance books that are too surface level, cheesy or filled with too many unrealistic sex scenes. When I saw a Harlequin book was next on my to read list a few days ago I started to worry that I might see an end to my lucky romance streak, but I'm happy to say that the great romance extravaganza continues with this fabulous Medical Romance!
Book details:
The Prince’s One-Night Baby by Juliette Hyland Published by: Harlequin Medical Romance Publication date: October 25th 2022 Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Synopsis:
The prince is shocked when he unexpectedly meets the beautiful midwife again, but he’s yet to find out the biggest surprise of all… Find out what happens in this captivating royal romance by Juliette Hyland.
A passionate encounter…
…with royal consequences!
Meeting midwife Calla on his flight home makes Dr. Kostas’s long journey far more exciting. Especially when their instant attraction leads to a red-hot layover! But Kostas can offer only one night of pure passion. Because, unbeknownst to Calla, he’s also a prince—with no intention of inflicting the pressures of royal life on anyone again. So it’s a shock to discover they’ll be colleagues at his new clinic…and an even bigger shock is heading their way…
From Harlequin Medical: Life and love in the world of modern medicine.
My thoughts:
This book had me hooked pretty quickly! I am a sucker for medical novels (and also midwife novels actually), and this one dove in to the the medical content right away. While on a plane a midwife and an OBGYN are called upon to help a woman who is 33 weeks pregnant and experiencing labour pains. That much excitement that early on in the story was exactly what I needed to pique my interest! From there readers are brought into the delivery room a few more times for even more excitement, and luckily not a lot of birth-related gore!
There are two twists or major plot elements, one that is pretty obvious as it is mentioned in the synopsis, and the other that I will try not spoil. The fact that they will go from being strangers on a plane to coworkers on a random tiny island (I feel like I could rant a bit about this whole royalty romance thing ... how many random made up kingdoms have hallmark and harlequin invented?!) was pretty expected. That being said, I did like how Hyland covered her bases and made sure that there were no plot holes making it possible for Calla and Kostas to figure this out ahead of time. For example, Kostas used "home" instead of the name of the island, the airline wouldn't give him her itinerary etc. It felt believable and left me wondering when they would finally find out! The second twist was less obvious, and I didn't love it, but it was also well written in that there wasn't the overuse of common cliches leading up to the reveal (obvious cliches that are overdone in mainstream media ex. a random person stops breathing, and suddenly the only solution is for an untrained semi-medical professional to do a thoracotomy with a steak knife and this straw). So even though it wasn't my favourite twist, I still think it was handled well.
The royalty trope is not my favourite (see attempted rant above), but I was able to get past it. Maybe I'm just a little crazy about historical and geographical accuracy as a Social Studies specialist and am not buying the whole "random monarchy off the coast of Greece" idea... So if you're even more riled up about these kinds of things, maybe this isn't quite the right book for you, but if you're a normal person who enjoys the fairytale royal romance, then this is right up your alley!
Overall, the book is well written and interesting, with a good balance of interesting story lines and short bursts of romance woven throughout. It is a quick read, I finished it in just under two days while in the midst of report card writing (or should I say report card procrastinating?), and while the chapters are an average length, it still had a pretty quick pace. The story does alternate perspectives a bit between Calla and Kostas, it alternates within the chapters rather than one perspective for one chapter and the other for the next. That writing style could be tricky because readers need to be able to follow and without headings or font changes, it was a bit harder to tell when a change occurred, but it wasn't overly difficult to follow.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves a good romance novel and also enjoys some medical content to make things a bit more interesting. Check it out at these links below:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60468931-the-prince-s-one-night-baby
Purchase:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3CXx58i
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-princes-one-night-baby-juliette-hyland/1141020057?ean=9780369730954
iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-princes-one-night-baby/id1610739591
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/the-prince-s-one-night-baby
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=NiFgEAAAQBAJ
Thanks to Xpresso Book Tours for the chance to read and review this book. I'm so excited that I get to close out the tour and have loved seeing what other readers thought of the book! And if you know Xpresso, you know they love their giveaways....
Don't miss your chance for this awesome giveaway! It ends November 10th!
AUTHOR BIO: Juliette Hyland believes in caffeine, hot drinks and happily ever afters! She lives in Ohio, USA, with her prince charming, who has patiently listened to many rants regarding characters failing to follow the outline. When not working on fun and flirty happily ever afters, Juliette can be found spending time with her beautiful daughters, giant dogs or sewing uneven stitches with her sewing machine.