Category Historical Romance A-Z: Prince of Hearts by Katy Cooper

 

 

 

Title: Prince of Hearts

Series (If Applicable): The Coleville Sisters (#1)

Author: Katy Cooper

Category Line: Harlequin Historical

Released: 2000

Time Period: Medieval (Tudor Period: Early 1500s) 

Primary Tropes: Spy Hero, Star-Crossed Lovers, Met as Children

Content Warnings: Sexual harassment 

The Pitch: Lady Cecilia Coleville, daughter of the Earl of Wednesfield, crosses paths with Edmund Tudor (not that one) multiple times throughout her childhood. She thinks he's just a random gentleman, but when she joins the Queen's entourage at court a few years later, she discovers that Edmund Tudor is in fact the Duke of Sommerset and brother to King Arthur (not that one). They dance around each other, literally and figuratively, and their childhood connection is just as strong as ever, but Edmund is destined to marry to further Arthur's political agenda. Is it possible for a prince to follow his heart?

Diving In (Mild Spoilers): I think the strongest part of this book is the setting. I believe this is the first Tudor-set historical romance I've ever read, and finding out some elements of the time period were interesting, as well as some of the historical divergences. Cooper sets this in an alternate timeline where Henry VIII's older brother, Arthur, did not die in 1502, and ascended to the throne instead of Henry. As such, the Church of England isn't established and Catherine is pregnant with Arthur's child. The concerns of rooting out heretics, praying about everything, and general court shenanigans added a lot of atmosphere to this. Edmund's big wound is also tied to historical events. His dad made him pinky promise as a kid to be super loyal to the king to prevent another Richard III situation, so Edmund thinks marrying someone he wants is betraying his promise to his dad. 

Regarding more plot, this book spends a lot of time setting up the drama of the second novel. Cecilia has an older, more beautiful sister, Beatrice, who is in a cursed love pyramid with Thomas Manners, her old useless husband, Sebastian, a childhood friend of both sisters who has been pining for Beatrice forever, and Sir George Conyers, Beatrice's loathsome toad of a side piece. Cecilia walks in on Beatrice and George fooling around, after which Beatrice dumps George. George then decides to stalk Cecilia at court to try to get back with Beatrice and later just to be obnoxious (see, the content warning above). He's the closest thing this book has to a villain, and he doesn't have much in the tank.

I should also explain the whole spy thing. Edmund masquerades as Not the Prince when he galavants around England in order to find information to report back to Arthur. This provides Edmund and Cecilia an excuse to travel together under the guise of being a married couple and having an Only One Bed situation. His spying plays into the eventual solution to the book, so it technically mattered! Technically.

Worth a Shot?: Sadly, I found this pretty boring. Cecilia and Edmund's relationship is a bit too instalove for my taste. Their romance was very rooted in physical attraction and didn't grow much beyond that. They had practically no internal conflict. Pretty much every obstacle was provided by secondary characters pretty sparsely throughout and moments of conflict, even in the back third, were resolved pretty quickly. 

Also, not a knock on the book, necessarily, but I was incredibly confused about the alternate history thing Cooper was going for until I saw who Catherine of Aragon's first husband was on her Wikipedia page. This is the first time I've attempted research for one of these books, and I think the amount of time I've spent on this element in multiple sections is indicative of how I felt about the book overall. Meh.

Availability: 

Ebook, Mass Market Paperback (The original is Out of Print, but can be cheaply acquired secondhand. Cooper also has a Print-On-Demand version you can acquire, as well.)

Author Website:  Sadly, none. Here is a list of all of her books, though: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/katy-cooper/