Persy and the Prince, by Jane Myers Perrine is being republished by Beyond the Page Publishing. This novel was originally published by Avalon in 2003. I became interested in reading this because I enjoyed Ms. Perrine's regency, The Mad Herringtons, which was a delightful read.
When Persy Marsh first meets Jordan Prince, a manager of a chain of upscale hotels, she is acting as a hotel's dog walker at their workplace, trying to prevent a dog from piddling onto Jordan's shoes. He requests to see her in his office, officially to give her a piece of his mind, but he is so physically attracted to her that he asks her out on a date with dishonourable intentions. Jordan starts moving too fast, and Persy puts the brakes on. She admits to Jordan that she is also deeply attracted to him and that she also behaved a bit inappropriately, but didn't mean to carry on as far as she did.
They agree that they shouldn't see each other again, however, in the following days, they can't seem to keep away from each other at the hotel. Persy seems to wear a few different hats at the hotel and assumes several different jobs there, so they frequently run into each other while she is acting as the housekeeping maid, waitress/server, lifeguard, and casino dealer. For people who have decided to stay away from each other, they end up kissing each other a fair bit too.
Persy's name comes up in a letter requesting a meeting with the hotel administration about improving safety conditions for hotel employees between the building and the neighbourhood where they live. This prompts Jordan to discover who and what Persy is: a caring neighbourhood organizer/reformer, educated at Stanford, who has a background in law, and who left the privileged society that Jordan is also a part of. Persy intrigues and infuriates Jordan at the same time because of the attraction between them, and because she won't defer to his position in society or at the hotel.
As for Persy, she finds her attraction to Jordan to be problematic; she is afraid that he will tempt her to leave the life that she has built for herself since she left her privileged background. However, her previous life had been a source of unhappiness for her and she loathes the idea of returning to it.
When Persy is attacked on the pathway between the hotel and the section of town where many of the employees live, Jordan begins to spend quality time with her and starts to change, becoming less of a pompous jerk and becoming more conscious of the welfare of his employees. Eventually, he realizes that he has fallen in love with Persy and desires a life with her, but she is not convinced that he can really love the person that she is now and not want to change her back into the type of person that she was before she got involved with the community that she lives with now.
Parts of this novel were quite funny. Persy is a bit of a smart mouth who ends up talking circles around Jordan. I loved the bit where she was frustrated at her cleaning supply cart which she had christened, "Jordan." Guess who was standing nearby when she cursed it by name?
As for sex, there isn't any. For a believing reader, that may come as a relief, but this is a secular type of novel. Jordan enters into a relationship with Persy hoping that once he has her body, that he will get her out of his system. He mentions to her several times that he wants to spend the night with her. One thing that I had appreciated about him was that he let Persy go in that first date when she refused to go all the way with him. Although he grows more marriage minded as the plot unfolds, he lets her know repeatedly that he's interested in her sexually, and she has to say no to him a few times. It isn't mentioned overtly that Persy is a Christian, other than a mention of her Calvinist background. In the story, as Persy realizes that she needs to make a decision about where she is going to go in her relationship with Jordan, it is implied that this decision will also involve a choice for her to become physically intimate with Jordan.
The book ends quite abruptly. When I reached the end, I asked myself, "That's it?" I would like to have known a little more about what happens to Persy and Jordan after the final scene. They confess their love for each other, but we are left hanging about what will actually happen. Will they get engaged and married? We don't actually find out for certain.
I found Persy and the Prince to be just okay. It's fairly clean, and there were a couple of thought provoking ideas through the challenges that Persy had to face, about waiting to have sex, and about needing to stop trying to please everyone else, and learning to do what is best for one's self. It was a fairly light read that can be finished in a couple of hours.
Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of Persy and the Prince from NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
