LuAnne McClane’s new book He’s No Prince Charming features a storyline with promise but the execution isn’t all that exciting. The characters had a lot of promise, but in the end, they proved to be a bit dull. All in all this was a very average read.
When Dakota Dunn won the Miss Teen beauty contest, she got picked up by a recording company and for a brief time was a wholesome pop star rather like Miley Cyrus. Her career was short – the fickle public decided they didn’t like sweet and wholesome, so Dakota’s record company wants to re-invent her as a kick-ass country singer like Gretchen Wilson. However, Dakota isn’t a redneck woman – she really is a sweet girl. Faced with a big decision about her future, Dakota decamps to a place she owns, the Willow Creek Marina to rest up and try her hand at songwriting.
At Willow Creek, Dakota and the manager, Trace Coleman meet cute. He comes in just as a spider crawls down her shirt. She whips it off and runs into Trace while in her bra. Trace is a handsome brooding kind of guy – a former rodeo bull riding champion whose career was cut short when a bull shattered his leg. Dakota’s father rescued Trace from a permanent career as a bar stool sitter and gave him the manager’s job.
Also at the marina are Grady Green, the fishing guide and Sierra Miller, the cook. Sierra is a pretty young woman who hides her femininity and wants to be just one of the boys. That’s about it – not a lot really happens. Sierra gives Dakota some lessons in how to be a redneck, and in the course of it discovers her feminine side, just in time to enchant Grady. Dakota and Trace become lovers and she begins to bring him out of his self-imposed shell. Just as things are simmering along nicely, Dakota’s record company calls her with a wonderful proposal to re-invent her along Carrie Underwood lines, so Trace does the noble thing (acts like a jerk to drive her off for her own good) but in true Big Misunderstanding fashion, it all works out in the end.
I really couldn’t bond with these characters although they felt very familiar (I live near a marina rather like the one in this book). Dakota couldn’t take a step without falling in the water, getting a spider down her shirt or taking some kind of pratfall. While I love slapstick – it just didn’t work for me here. Trace was a brooder with no other sides to his personality. Sierra was abrasive and dropped g’s with abandon – only Grady seemed to have any charm. Add a very shallow plot to this, and you end up with a pretty dull book.
He’s No Prince Charming doesn’t have any glaring faults, but it doesn’t have that certain something that would set it apart from other romantic comedies. It’s very average and I’ll just leave it at that.
-- Ellen Micheletti
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