The Runaway Princess by Christina Dodd

I'm just going to say it here, if anyone reading this is a romance novel kind of person, I apologize. I'll try to be fair, really!

What the back of the book says:

Masquerade

English orphan Miss Evangeline Scoffield has spent her life contenting herself with dreams. But with an unforseen inheritence, she can afford one perfect summer - a summer she will spend the rest of her life remembering. She buys herself expensive clothes, travels abroad, and presents herself as a lady of mystery.

Marriage

But she quickly discovers her mistake, for a darkly handsome man appears at her bedroom door, claiming to be a Crown Prince - and her fiance.

Or the Ever After of Her Dreams?

One look into her eyes, and the prince recognizes her. She is his bethrothed, the runaway Princess of Serephina. All her denials cannot change that, or alter the passion that burgeons between them. To fulfill their destinies, the prince will do anything - abduct her, coerce her, or, best of all, seduce his reluctant bride into his royal world of peril, promise and passion.

What I have to say about it:

First off, I don't really like romance novels. They're unrealistic and superficial and, more often than not, degrading. This one, not an exception. Danior (the Crown Prince of Baminia - one of the two imaginary kingdoms between Spain and France) is a complete jerk to her. But he's a prince, so of course he's a gentleman to everyone else. And they come across nuns as they travel who know she's not the princess, know she doesn't want to go with them, and they let Danior take her anyways. NUNS! My faith in the goodness of nuns has been shattered. But it was all part of a master plan of Santa Leopolda who made a prophesy about them 1,000 years ago, so that's why they let it happen. Rape is threatened on multiple occasions, which bothers me a lot, and Danior refers to sex as mating. Mating. How completely un-romantic. It reminds me of that one song, the "you and me baby ain't nothing but mammals so lets do it like they do on the discovery channel". Nasty. And when she lets it out that she loves him (which is obvious, it is a romance novel), he just smiles and says "Yes. That's what I wanted to hear." Ass. There is some attempt at having a plot, so kudos to that, but it's so unrealistic that I can't hardly stand it. Evangeline starts the book as a fairly independent woman (for the era), but Danior has decided that she has to  depend on him for everything...and she does. And it is good, because that is a woman's rightful place. There's a little bit of salvation at the end, which I won't reveal, but it didn't improve my opinion of romance novels at all. Don't get me wrong, I love a little romance in my novels, but this...it was fluff.

As I said before, I'm not a romance novel kind of girl, so if anyone reading this is, I admit my view is skewed. In that vein, I won't tell anyone not to read it, it's just not my thing.