cover image The Princess

The Princess

Celia Brayfield. Bantam Books, $25 (580pp) ISBN 978-0-553-34779-1

Brayfield ( Pearls ) invents a fifth sibling for the British royal family and proceeds to marry him off in a colorless, shallowpk novel. Prince Richard, a thoroughly decent chap who wants his life to have meaning and needs someone to love, would make a splendid cardboard cutout of a husband for any woman. He has his choice of three: Victoria Fairley, a fragile English rose from an aristocratic family; Jocasta Forbes, an American actress with a vocabulary even more vulgar than her lifestyle; and Martha Harley, a statuesque black Jamaican high-fashion model. Although Richard romances all three, Brayfield doesn't even pretend that Harley is a genuine candidate in the HRH wedding sweepstakes; only Fairley and Forbes are contenders, and the winner isn't crowned until the book's closing pages. Some anglophiles may enjoy details borrowed from real-life royals (for example, Richard attends Cambridge, like Charles and Edward); trivia experts may even spot a minor gaffe involving Diana's wedding gown. Might just as well hunt for the blooper--that's about as much of a jolly as this book offers. Doubleday Book Club main selection. (Apr.)