Thank you for visiting today as we kick off the PRINCE IN DISGUISE by Stephanie Kate Strohm Blog Tour. Since the announcement of Prince Harry and Meagan Markle’s engagement we have been over the moon with excitement for royal romances. PRINCE IN DISGUISE is just that special read that will get your heart beating with all the romantic feels amongst a wedding in Scotland. Can we say swoon? You are in for a treat today as we show off our Royal invitation and Stephanie gets to tell us about her fascination for royal weddings and her inspiration for this new novel.
I have accepted the fact that I will never be invited to a real life royal wedding (unless some kind of drama worthy of a reality TV show twist occurs), but I couldn’t be more excited to invite you to the blog tour for Prince in Disguise! (And I also couldn’t be more excited that all of these amazing blogs invited me to join them on this blog tour! Basically, it’s a lot of excitement and inviting. Much like I imagine a royal wedding would be.)
From an early age, I have been obsessed with royal weddings. Sure, as a kid, I thought royal weddings only happened in cartoons, with Cinderella waving from the back of the carriage and Ariel standing on the deck of a ship with sleeves bigger than her head. (Ah, the ‘80s – what a time for bridal couture!) I loved those moments of happily ever after. Maybe it was the knowledge that evil stepmothers and sea witches were vanquished, and everyone was safe. Maybe it was the thrill of an entire kingdom turning out to cheer you on.
Maybe I’m overanalyzing it and I just really like big white dresses.
I can’t separate my love for royal weddings from my childhood Disney princess obsession. I don’t remember when I first learned that princess was a real-life occupation (difficult to obtain, but possible!), but I remember my mom showing me old pictures of her dressed up in a tea dress and hat, celebrating Diana’s wedding at a theme party with her friends in ’81. I had pictures of William and Harry hanging up in my locker in middle school. And when William and Kate announced their engagement in 2010, all of a sudden I was a little girl again, watching Cinderella wave goodbye from the back of a carriage. This was a real-life fairy tale, and I was up at the crack of dawn to watch their wedding. And you can bet I’ll be watching Meghan and Harry’s wedding. I’ve already watched their engagement interview about 70,000 times. I can’t wait for their big day!
There would be no Prince in Disguise without my royal wedding obsession. In Prince in Disguise, Dylan’s older sister, Dusty, has met at Scottish lord on a reality TV show, and before she knows it, camera-shy Dylan is off to Ronan’s castle for her big sister’s televised wedding. Even though Ronan is a lord, not a prince (something Dusty -and the production team – keep conveniently forgetting), the magic of a royal wedding (and an over-the-top reality TV show) infuses everything they do. To me, Prince in Disguise is ultimately about the bond between sisters, the feeling of first love, and the fact that snow makes everything a little more magical, but the fact that it’s set against the backdrop of a royal wedding just makes it all the more special. I feel so lucky that I got to write about one of my most favorite things, and I hope you have as much fun at Dusty and Ronan’s wedding as I did writing about it!
PRINCE in DISGUISE
Someday I want to live in a place where I never hear “You’re Dusty’ssister?” ever again.
Life is real enough for Dylan-especially as the ordinary younger sister of Dusty, former Miss Mississippi and the most perfect, popular girl in Tupelo. But when Dusty wins the hand of the handsome Scottish laird-to-be Ronan on the TRC television network’s crown jewel, Prince in Disguise, Dylan has to face a different kind of reality: reality TV.
As the camera crew whisks them off to Scotland to film the lead-up to the wedding, camera-shy Dylan is front and center as Dusty’s maid of honor. The producers are full of surprises-including old family secrets, long-lost relatives, and a hostile future mother-in-law who thinks Dusty and Dylan’s family isn’t good enough for her only son. At least there’s Jamie, an adorably bookish groomsman who might just be the perfect antidote to all Dylan’s stress . . . if she just can keep TRC from turning her into the next reality show sensation.
Stephanie Kate Strohm
is the author of It’s Not Me, It’s You; The Taming of the Drew; Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink; Confederates Don’t Wear Couture and the upcoming The Date to Save and Prince in Disguise (Fall 2017). She grew up on the Connecticut coast, where a steady diet of Little House on the Prairie turned her into a history nerd at an early age. After graduating with a joint major in theater and history from Middlebury College, she acted her way around the country, performing in more than 25 states.
Although she was born in New York, she currently lives in Chicago, and doesn’t discriminate against any type of pizza. When she’s not writing, she loves baking, walking her dog Lorelei, taking dance cardio classes too seriously, and playing board games with her husband.