Davis Beriyia is the crown prince of a small island nation called Juhatu. So what is he doing working as a handyman in Abbie Barnes’ apartment complex in Los Angeles? Davis, for once, wanted to throw off the yoke of his royal responsibilities and enjoy some freedom before settling down to a loveless marriage with Lady Sophia. He hopes to spend some time with Abbie before going home and officially announcing his engagement. Unfortunately, his plans are thrown to the winds when Lowell Murae, the Chief Royal Administrator, shows up in his apartment. Apart from being royally peeved at Davis for disappearing, he brings bad news. Albert Munji, the leader of an anti-monarchy group, has been killed – and his son Kevin is out for blood. Davis’ life could be in danger and it’s imperative that he return home.

While Abbie and her friend Chris are having dinner that night, they run into Davis and Lowell at the same restaurant. Davis begs Lowell not to say who he really is. After dinner, Davis and Abbie find time to be alone and are immediately kidnapped by Kevin Munji. Abbie believes they have been kidnapped because her brother works for the DEA and the kidnappers are trying to get to her. Davis of course knows better but doesn’t bother to disabuse Abbie of her notion, which seems wrong under the circumstances. Their lives are in danger and his attitude is “Oh…how cute, she thinks it’s because of her.” Abbie does begin to suspect something when the staff on the yacht on which they are being held hostage show Davis a deference you wouldn’t expect for a simple, ahem, handyman. Then Abbie does find out about Davis’ identity, thanks to Kevin, and boy is she mad! She feels betrayed that Davis lied to her, and who could blame her? At this point, Davis is still pretty sure he only wants to be with Abbie briefly before he goes back to his own “real” life, and his callous disregard for her feelings is rather irritating. But even while Abbie is angry, she can’t deny that she is very attracted to Davis.

Kevin turns out to be more of a raving lunatic than Davis expected. He plans on selling Abbie into a harem and killing Davis, so escape becomes imperative. They manage to get off the yacht and swim to an island. Once there, they are discovered by an island tribe whose members think Abbie is a warrior goddess come back to lead them. And where do they think she will lead them? It’s never clear. Abbie looks exactly like this goddess and they even seem to share a name, but she senses no danger here – which seems somewhat naïve. Not everyone is well-versed in tribal lore, but you’d think a normal person would go in with some trepidation and be cautious. Instead Abbie blithely assumes that she and Davis will be safe and can leave whenever they want to. Davis knows differently. When Davis and the tribal head fight for Abbie, she begins to “get it.” In a stunning show of bravery, she steps between them in order to save Davis’ life.

They do eventually get off that island and do land back in Juhatu. By this point, the two have spent the better part of the book circling around each other, being attracted to each other, and even giving in to that attraction. We are supposed to think they’ve grown closer because of their adventures, but I didn’t buy it. I’m not sure they understood each other any better by the time they reached Juhatu than at the start. Yes, they came to respect and admire certain things about the other, but spend a goodly amount of time sniping at one another as well. While the author likely intended this to be cute, clever, or charming, it was simply annoying instead. They end up sounding petulant so much of the time that I wanted to tell them to just shut up.

Once back in Juhatu, Abbie just wants to go home, and I couldn’t blame her. While the island is beautiful, it’s easy to see she’s an outsider and is treated as such. Davis does his level best to alienate her. While having their adventure, Davis seemed pretty human and relatively down to Earth. Once back among his responsibilities, we can easily see how he earned his nickname, The Stone Prince. What a total jerk he can be! He is constantly barking at people, including Abbie, and he gets really petulant when things don’t go his way. His goal is seems to be to have Abbie in his bed for the moment but treat her with contempt whenever she’s out of it. Meanwhile, the locals see Abbie as a threat because Davis is interested in her, and she doesn’t fit into the royal scene.

While Davis is no prize, Abbie isn’t all that great either. She’s plucky, but she could also get annoying and do silly things. At one point she runs off in the forest with no money, no way to get home, and no other alternative but to go back to Davis. She’s really argumentative and the two don’t really see eye to eye on many things. While Davis is not Mr. Sensitive, Abbie has no concept of the seriousness of their situation and doesn’t even try to understand what kind of life Davis must have lived. Many of the secondary characters got under my skin as well. Davis’ parents, the king and queen, seem to not like Abbie at first, but all of the sudden they realize she’s a good person. There isn’t any explanation for this. Lady Sophia is a shrew and such a caricature that she came of as cartoonish.

Another problem I had with the book was the pacing of the story. The first half of the book is more of a road romance with Davis and Abbie trying to stay away from Kevin and get back home. Once in Juhatu, the story seems to slow down to a snail’s pace. This is where Davis and Abbie should really be getting to know each other and bonding. But they don’t. They got along better during their frenetic adventure. Then the frenetic pace seems to resume towards the end. Through it all, I never felt that Abbie and Davis ever really talked to each other or got to know each other as people.

On the positive side, I did admire Abbie’s pluck and even though they were only in the story briefly, I really warmed to Abbie’s family. But althought the story had the potential to be a great road romance with a good deal of glamour and excitement, somewhere around the middle of the book, it just fizzled. Depending on the story, I may be tempted to try this author again, but I could never recommend A Royal Vow.