The 12 Books of Christmas: A Ruff Royal Christmas by Karen Schaler

youngcreativepress

4 months ago

Synopsis:

Princess Ava’s perfectly planned Christmas Eve charity event erupts into chaos when she loses Stormy, the Queen’s mischievous new border collie. With Christmas approaching fast, Ava has no choice but to team up with Justin, a laid-back American dog trainer who’s used to wrangling strays, not royal runaways!

Sparks fly as Justin’s rule-breaking free spirit clashes with Ava’s determination to follow royal protocol. But when their search for Stormy takes them through glittering Christmas markets, festive holiday activities, and snowy winter wonderlands, an undeniable chemistry builds between them.

The more time they spend together, the harder it is to fight their growing attraction, a problem for Ava, who’s already set to marry the perfect duke. Now, she must decide, stay on the safe, traditional path she has always known…or risk it all and follow her heart?

This feel-good royal holiday romance is a Christmas romantic comedy that’s packed with humor, heart, and holiday magic, and a twist you won’t see coming. Because the best love stories can’t be planned, and they never follow the rules.

Review:

A Ruff Royal Christmas was the 8th festive romance I’ve read so far this year and it has helped me feel motivated to pick up the other four I still need to read. I loved the major festive vibes and who doesn’t love a cute dog?

I’ll get my few negatives out of the way first.

I don’t want to spoil too much but there are a few chapters that make you think Stormy has been hit by a car and is in critical condition. It isn’t Stormy but it is still a dog and as someone that has a dog, I hated this. I actually hated the whole plot line of Stormy being missing. It was supposed to be funny and the whole ‘oh no he got away again’ was a little funny, but again, it made me think about if my dog went missing, and I was just really sad and stressed.

Although Ava does lighten up a little near the end, she is pretty unlikable for most of the book. Justin does bring out the nicer side in her but she’s so stubborn and uptight. I’m sure being a princess is hard work but there’s never any need to be rude to people.

For this reason, I wasn’t very sold on the romance. The majority of this book happens in less than 48 hours, so admitting you’ve fallen for someone after less than 24 hours is a bit much. There was definitely a connection between them but I think they needed much more time to explore it. Most of their time together was spent looking for Stormy so they didn’t really talk that much. They did manage to get themselves into some serious situations though.

This is more something I found quite funny rather than a flaw of the book. As someone that has recently trained a puppy (and still does training with him every day), I was excited to read a book with a main character that is a dog trainer. So imagine how hilarious I found it when the first time you meet him he says goes through his important training for his puppy bootcamp, which *checks notes* includes “roll over”, “up” (onto hind legs) and “jump”. Forget getting your dog to sit or recall, what you really need is a show dog that can stand on two legs. Apparently this guy is “one of the best dog trainers in the world”. I do love the pro-adoption message throughout the whole book though.

The Queen and Lydia were the best characters in the entire book, well other than Stormy. I loved how the Queen was unapologetically herself and her meddling was pretty funny.

I did quite enjoy A Ruff Royal Christmas, even if I can’t think of anything overly positive to say. There were some funny moments and I loved the festive vibes. The descriptions of the Christmas market were some of my favourite parts of the book. A Ruff Royal Christmas has been the most Christmassy book I’ve read so far.