Back cover copy: The last place Lady Wenderley Davis ever expected to find herself after swearing off princes forever was living in a palace with two of them. Even if it is only temporary. And she did agree to it. Kind of. Against her better judgment.
But then, she’s never been one to hide her heart, nor hold back help from anyone who needs it. And if ever there’s a family who need help, it’s this one.
As two weeks stretch to more, Wenderley throws all she has into showing the princes and their family how to smile again, and she’s loving every moment of it. Which is a problem. Because she’s very quickly becoming attached, and – as the man she’d rather forget keeps reminding her – the one thing she can’t do is stay.
My review: Heart of the Crown is the third book in the Daughters of Peverell series by Hannah Currie. The first book, Heart of a Royal, explored the life of Kenna, who was raised with the royal family of Peverell as a companion and “sister” to Princess Alina. Book two, Heart of a Princess, focused on Alina and her journey to find herself.
We meet Wenderley in the earlier books of the series, but don’t get to know her very well. I loved that she got her turn to shine in Heart of the Crown.
Although Wenderley isn’t royalty herself, she’s been around royals most of her life. Her family was away from Peverell for quite a few years, but she rekindles her friendship with Kenna and Alina when she returns.
Now she finds herself volunteered to temporarily move back to Hodenia, Peverell’s neighboring kingdom, as a favor to the royal family. She loves caring for Prince Ryan and trying to bring smiles back to his face; her problem is that his father, Prince Marcos, keeps occupying entirely too much of her head space … and keeps trying to slip into her heart.
No one knows the private battle that Wenderley is fighting due to a mistake she made after returning to Peverell. She believes that God has forgiven her, but struggles with forgiving herself and allowing herself to move on. And how many times have we all been in that same place?
I loved Wenderley’s heart for others, her determination to find joy every day, and how she cared for others so fiercely. I loved how relatable she was in her disappointments and in her happiness, and how she handled both. I loved the many lessons she learned during the course of the story and how readers could apply them to their own lives.
Most of all, I loved how faith was woven throughout the story in a way that was evident and made you think about things in your own life without being cheesy or preachy. Faith is an important element throughout the series but seems more integral to Wenderley (probably because she’s not as new to faith in her story as Kenna and Alina are in theirs). I was cheering for Wenderley to find her HEA (happily ever after), but also cheering for her beautiful heart to get what it deserved in the end.
I won’t share any spoilers but will say that while the challenges Wenderley faced were realistic, so were the resolutions and the final resolutions to those problems.
Who should read it: I thoroughly enjoyed Wenderley’s story and would recommend it (and the other books in the series) for anyone from middle school and older. The stories are clean and sweet enough for younger readers but interesting enough for someone older who wants a story with more depth and interesting, relatable characters. They reminded me of The Selection series by Kiera Cass (which is saying a lot), but with a definite faith message. The entire Daughters of Pevrell series was so good that I read the first two books back-to-back over a long weekend and bought Heart of the Crown on the day it released. I’ll definitely be reading whatever Hannah Currie’s next book is, too.