The Golden Prince

November 1, 2010
At the outset of Dean's solid historical, the highly arranged life of the 17-year-old prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII, takes a drastic turn. One day in May 1911 while speeding in his motorcar, the prince, known as David, hits a young woman, Rose Houghton, riding on her bicycle near her home, Snowberry Manor. He rushes Rose to the manor house, where he falls almost instantly in love with her youngest sister, Lily. David spends much time at Snowberry, where he can pretend to be an ordinary man. He proposes to Lily, but his father, George V, refuses to allow the marriage. When David threatens to abdicate his right to the throne, Lily must choose between her own well-being and that of England. Besides creating a complicated lead in the prince, Dean (Palace Circle) deftly balances an array of well-drawn characters. Only the cartoonish villain, Captain Cullen, rings false.

November 15, 2010

Dean's (Palace Circle, 2009) Golden Prince of Wales makes a romantic run at British court intrigue.

Rose, the auburn-tressed eldest Houghton girl, has a cute meet with the Prince of Wales. Driving home from Dartmouth with his disapproving equerry, the future king, whose family calls him "David," takes a curve and accidentally knocks suffragette Rose off her bike. She's the daughter of nobility who, along with her three sisters, lives at nearby Snowberry, a beautiful estate not far from the Prince's university. The Prince takes her home and meets her three sisters: Iris, with her brown hair and crush on the boy next door, is the plainest of the three; Marigold, a titian-haired beauty, has few morals and a penchant for scandal; and the youngest sister, Lily, is an enchanting girl with blue-black ringlets. Lily is guileless and gifted with the ability to make every man who meets her fall in love with her. David finds immense joy in escaping his rigid palace life, where he is overwhelmed by the duties of his office. He falls for Lily and schemes to spend more time with her. When he proposes and she accepts, he runs up against immovable opposition in the form of his parents, the reining King George and Queen Mary. But David is determined to overcome their objections and sets out to do so. Based loosely on the life of the Duke of Windsor, who ruled as king for less than a year before abdicating his throne to marry a twice-divorced American, Dean offers an interesting glimpse into court life right after the turn of the previous century, but often the details overwhelm the story. Every item of clothing worn by the sisters is minutely described, as are their physical attributes. The writing itself is uninspired and cliché-ridden.

Although classified as historical fiction, this book is really a romance dressed in period clothes, and readers of the first genre may find the flashing eyes, deep kisses and heaving bosoms tiresome after awhile.

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November 15, 2010

In her second novel, Dean (Palace Circle) mixes historical characters with a fictitious family of four sisters to create a lively story of England in 1912. Sixteen-year-old Edward, the Prince of Wales, lives a constricted life without friends or personal freedom. When he meets the Houghton sisters by accident, he is treated normally, not royally, and falls in love. Rose, the eldest sister and a militant suffragette, believes marriage is incompatible with independence. Plain Iris is a traditionalist, planning marriage with her childhood friend. Striking, sexy Marigold cares nothing for her reputation. The youngest, Lily, is a sensitive artist whose forbidden love affair with the Prince affects the whole family. Living during the tumultuous transition from the staid Victorian/Georgian era to an early 20th century marked by new technologies like automobiles and telephones, the sisters chafe against tradition, seeking voting rights and some measure of freedom for the rigidly controlled Prince. Their dilemmas are resolved with an unexpected but believable ending. VERDICT Well researched and well written, this is romantic historical fiction at its best.--Sally Bickley, Del Mar Coll., Corpus Christi, TX

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