The Secret Life of Prince Charming

          Another great book that I recently finished was The Secret Life of Prince Charming by Deb Caletti. I realize the title sounds incredibly corny and I also thought the same thing, but then I read the summary and I was so intrigued. You can buy it at a Barnes and Nobles near you or if you're anything like me and don't want to leave the house, I will leave a link at the end of this post to an amazon copy.

         The novel is about a girl named Quinn and her sister Charlotte, but her closest family and friends not including her father, call her Sprout. They have a very complicated relationship with their father. Quinn is determined to make their relationship work after he just came back into their life, but Sprout refuses to make any efforts. Their parents are divorced after he cheated on their mom with Abigail Renfrew. Every couple weekends, Quinn and Sprout take the train to go visit their father for the weekend.

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          For the past few months of them going to visit him, Brie, their father's current girlfriend, had been picking them up from the train station. However, this time when they arrive they do not see Brie's car in her usual waiting spot. Immediately, they knew something was off when they saw their father pulling up in his fancy car, with no other passengers. The two of them loved Brie; they looked forward to seeing their father in hopes of seeing Brie each time, but when she is not there and her father hardly gives an explanation as to what happened, they are devastated, especially Sprout. 

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         Back at the house, Quinn constantly tries to talk with her father like father and daughter would, but as she tries to talk, her father finds a way to turn the conversation into something about him or the new hottest woman he's with. Despite all of the talking he does about himself, Quinn chooses to believe that her father has truly changed for the better after recently coming back.
          One night when her father and sister are sleeping, Quinn goes into his living room and sees all of these out of place objects; paintings, statues, and masks. She picks them up and sees names on the bottoms of them. It took her only a few minutes to figure out what the names meant right after she saw Brie's name on the bottom of a statue. She realizes her father is not the man she thought he was. 

          Quinn knows she has to do something to fix her father's wrong doings, but has no clue where to start. Her and Sprout decide it is best if they let their father's other daughter, their half sister Frances Lee, know about everything that is going on, only to find out that Frances Lees mother's name is also on a painting in their father's house. Frances Lee, Quinn, and Sprout decide to take a road trip the weekend that their father would be out on tour so they could give back everything that their father took from these  woman. After doing much research on all of the woman and creating a story to tell their mother knowing she would not approve of the adventure, Quinn and Sprout inform Frances Lee that they have all of the information and the plan is ready. Frances Lee mentions that she has to drive Jake, her boyfriends little brother, to a gig that was on their way to their last stop in Portland and Quinn thinks nothing of it. 

          They gather all of the stolen items from their father's house and start driving to their first stop. They learn the stories of all of the women's relationships with their father. Hearing the awful things he did and said makes Quinn want to hate him, but she just cannot find the heart to because after all he is her father. 

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          Quinn also does not want to think about boys, especially since her ex boyfriend cheated on her, but she can't help but notice Jake. He looks like he is a stereotypical jock, but over the five days, she learns that there is so much more to him than his appearance. He is sweet, funny, and kind, everything her ex was not. She doesn't want to fall for him, but it seems that it was not in her control.

          They arrive at Brie's house which makes Sprout extremely happy, despite knowing where their next stop was. They return her statue, catch up, laugh like the old times, but then the time comes for them to leave. 

          They get to Abigail Renfrew's house and return her mask, hoping that there trip there would be short. However as they try to leave, Frances Lee's car does not start. They have no choice, but to go inside and ask Abigail for help, and to no surprise she was useless. The last thing I am going to say is that Quinn discovers, the hard way, that some relationships are meant to be and some are not. Some people will fight for a relationship while others just let it fall apart.
          I will admit that the book did start out a little slow, but once you find out about the trip they are going to be taken, things get better. Also, the ending was so well written. It ended the book perfectly and allowed to book to come to a nice close. I definitely recommend this book if you like love stories that have mysteries within them. Here is an Amazon link if you are interested in reading an amazing novel. https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Life-Prince-Charming/dp/1416959416