Reviews for The Marcelli Princess

The average rating for The Marcelli Princess based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-11-08 00:00:00 Johnathan Banks Honestly, I had some trouble with this one. I really liked all the books in the series, and while I liked this one... it just didn't seem up to par when compared with the other books. I think my main problem was with the hero Rafael. As he so frequently mentioned throughout the book to the point of annoyance he's the Prince of Calandria. He was obnoxious, pompous, arrogant, and annoying. To say the least. I really disliked him, and by the end although the author had set it up so that he could redeem himself, I just couldn't see it. It was too much of a transformation to be believable. This just ruined the book for me. Sometimes an author can take a character too far and I feel this was one of those cases. Oh well... at least the rest of the series was great.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-09-07 00:00:00 Travis Flasschoen Mia Marcelli used to be the Marcelli wild child, but since having her son almost four years ago, she's mellowed. So, imagine her surprised to waking up and finding a strange man in her bed. A man who should be dead. The man she has been mourning for almost five years. Crown Prince Rafael of Calandria was known as Diego during the time Mia knew him. What she didn't know was that he was undercover, just as she was. He then pretended to die and Mia watched as he got shot. She never knew that he was still alive and he never bothered to contact her and tell her that was in fact alive. So, naturally she is suspicious of his return after five years. And she is right to be suspicious because, unbeknownst to her, Rafael plans to seduce and marry Mia so that he can take Danny, their son, back to Calandria, where Mia would have no rights with regards to taking Danny back to California; Rafael then planned to divorce Mia, casting her aside because she wouldn't be important to his plan anymore. After a while, Mia starts to trust Rafael and, eventually, gives in to his proposal. Only to overhear a conversation the next day between Rafael and his father, during which they discuss his plan. Enraged, Mia and her brother Joe confront him and throw him out of the Marcelli hacienda. In his single-minded pursuit of his plan, Rafael cannot see too much of the bad in his plan and thinks Mia and her family irrational. And he tries to come up with a new plan to take Danny. Per her son's request, Rafael is allowed back to the hacienda for Danny's fourth birthday party. But nothing is made easy for him: the Marcelli family now hates and distrusts him, and Sam and Joe beefed the place up with security. Because she knows she cannot alienate father and son, Mia allows Rafael to come on visits with Danny, visits that she supervises. One day, though, after Danny walks in on Mia crying over Rafael and hears her curse the man, Danny tells Rafael to leave. Mia goes to apologize and the two fall into bed again. At this point, Rafael has gone to Brenna a couple of times for her advice on how to get back into Mia's good graces. So, after one visit, when Danny goes missing, he races back to Mia's side to help her find their son. After finding Danny, Mia tentatively allows herself to consider Rafael again. Not long after, Rafael's father comes to the hacienda and demands that Rafael take Danny and leave with him for Calandria that instant. Rafael refuses to separate mother and son, and he refuses to leave with his father, saying he wants to stay with Mia and their son before abdicating the throne. He tells Mia that he loves her, nothing is more important than her and Danny, and they get married before living happily ever after. I've been eagerly awaiting reading the story of Mia Marcelli ever since I started reading these books. She was always one of my favorite characters and intrigued me to no end, especially her relationship with her brother Joe. So, it pains me a little to have to give Mia's book only 4 stars because I did not like it as much as the others. And I know the exact reason why I didn't like it as much: Rafael. Rafael has to be one of the worst male characters I've read; I don't mean that with regards to character development because Susan Mallery wrote him superbly, but his personality grated on my nerves throughout the whole book. To a certain extent, I could understand that he was a pompous, self-centered, conceited jerk, but after a while I wanted to reach into the book and slap him. I didn't approve at all of his plan to steal Danny and his single-minded pursuit of the plan drove me insane, especially because he never took into account how he was hurting, and going to be hurting, Mia and Danny, and even the rest of the Marcelli family. And I find it really rather depressing when I despise the hero of the book until the last fifteen pages, and even then I still didn't like him. The fact that he refused to listen to his father and professed his love for Mia simply could not diminish my negative feelings towards the man. I'm sorry, Susan Mallery, but I just couldn't handle him. The thought still makes me sad two days later. Mia, however, I continued to love. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her as a mother and how she has matured since the other Marcelli books. Her continued and beautiful relationships with her sisters, her son, and Joe managed to overshadow the disaster that was Rafael. As much as I love Mia, though, I am disappointed that she could have completely and utterly fallen for Rafael. I think that the wonderful Mia deserved someone better. I enjoyed seeing all the rest of the Marcelli siblings quite a few times, and I only wished that the husbands (Zach, Sam, and Nic) could have had more of a role in the book. I did enjoy, though, seeing the dynamic that existed between Mia and David and their continued friendship. The one thing that saddened me was the lengths that Kelly went to in order to get the attention of her parents. I'm glad that it was finally revealed to everyone why Kelly was acting out and that they were able to fix the situation. Despite the negativity I feel towards Rafael, this was a very good book and I'm glad to have read it. Now I just need to read the first book of the series...