The Prince Kidnaps a Bride

October 16, 2006
Dodd's fine, final installment in her Lost Princess series recounts the story of Crown Princess Sorcha of the tiny European country Beaumontagne. Forced into hiding in a Scottish convent 10 years earlier, when revolutionaries threatened her country, the winter of 1810 sees Sorcha is returning home after learning that her domineering grandmother has control of the country. Fearing assassins, Sorcha leaves the convent disguised as a man, but it isn't long before a wayward, dull-witted fisherman named Arnou joins up to help protect her on the journey. Unbeknownst to Sorcha, Arnou is actually Prince Rainger, the arrogant young man to whom Sorcha was betrothed at birth. After years of imprisonment by a cruel usurper—years that gave rise to rumors of his death—Rainger is determined to win back his kingdom and take Princess Sorcha for his wife. As the journey rolls on, secrets are revealed and passions are succumbed to, building swiftly toward Rainger's confrontation with his nemesis. Dodd, long a force in historical romance, does not disappoint with her latest, expertly combining compelling romance, intelligent dialogue and a page-turning plot.

November 15, 2006
When it seems the assassins tracking her for the last decade have finally discovered her whereabouts, Crown Princess Sorcha knows it is time to leave the Scottish convent and return home to Beaumontagne to take up her royal duties. But getting back to her small homeland in the Pyrenees will not be easy. At first, Sorcha has the idea of traveling with arnou, a fisherman, but Mother Superior and the good sisters of Monnmouth Abbey have another plan in mind. A disguised Sorcha soon finds herself wending her way across Scotland. Then, to her surprise, a very determined Arnou soon catches up with her. Arnou insists he only wants to see her safely to Beaumontagne, but Sorcha thinks something is fishy about his story. A prince in disguise matches wits and wiles with a princess determined to find her way home in this deliciously sexy and delectably witty historical romance, the splendidly satisfying conclusion to Dodd's Lost Princesses trilogy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)