The Royal Runaway

Emory (Resisting Santa) inelegantly jams crowd-pleasing features from the contemporary romance, period romance, spy thriller, and mystery genres into one unwieldy novel, but has neither the storytelling skills nor the flair for the absurd to pull it off. After Princess Theodora Isabella Victoria of Drieden, a small European nation, is stood up at the altar, she evades her strict grandmother and escapes the palace, looking for adventure while trying to hide from paparazzi. Thea accepts a drink from Nick Cameron, a swoon-worthy bad boy Scotsman who claims to be a reporter but turns out to be a British spy and also her fiancé’s brother. Thea and Nick evade royal security and engage in a bland, low-trust romance while following the links between the murders of people connected to her fiancé’s law firm and financial transactions that might be tied to the royal family. Even genre readers who enjoy all of these ideas will find this kitchen sink approach yields underexplored themes and an inconsistent tone that’s not very satisfying. Agent: Louise Fury, Bent Agency. (Oct.)