Readers of Christina Dodd’s novels may recognize the hero of Someday My Prince as Dominic of Baminia, the villainous bastard brother from The Runaway Princess. In the wake of his failed rebellion, Dom has lead his band of mercenary soldiers through one ill-fated venture after the next until only he and his lifelong friend Brat remain alive. When our story begins, Brat, her infant daughter, and Dom are destitute. Dom hires himself out as a spy to undermine the security of a small, prosperous kingdom in exchange for wealth that will secure the future for his ragtag little family once and for all. To do so, he must seduce and betray the Princess Laurentia, who holds the secret to her own country’s prosperity.

Not having read The Runaway Princess, I can only assume the transformation experienced by Dom via his years of tragic mercenary adventures is truly profound. While Dom has certainly not become a sensitive, flower-bearing-poet-of-the-soul, his aggressive, domineering self-assurance is never tinged by even the slightest hint of the cruelty or weak jealousy that often motivates villainous behavior. Perhaps Dom has been honed into something finer than he once was by the hard rock of experience. In any case, by the time he arrives at the castle of Princess Laurentia, he has grown enough of a conscience to feel truly sorry for what he has pledged to accomplish.

The plot of Someday My Prince turns on the question of loyalty. Laurentia’s loyalty to her country and to her father is always foremost in her mind. Dom’s loyalty to Brat, to her daughter, and to his sworn word pushes him toward completing his assignment, regardless of his developing feelings for Laurentia. In the world Dodd creates for her princess and her bastard prince, the grasping politics between countries make for such shifting and uncertain loyalties, that when Laurentia finds in Dom a reflection of her own steadfastness, she can no longer resist the attraction she feels for him. Unfortunately, what she does not recognize is that Dom’s loyalty, while matching her own in strength of will, has been pledged elsewhere.

Loyalty is a persuasive construct around which to build a novel that centers on rival powers, kings and princes. The problems come in the resulting intrigue that never quite works. Laurentia possesses the secret to the kingdom’s prosperity; therefore, Laurentia is always in danger of being abducted or betrayed by agents of enemy kingdoms. To protect her, the King installs Dom (conveniently) as Laurentia’s personal bodyguard despite the fact that the king knows nothing about Dom, and has never, in fact, met Dom before the day he entrusts Laurentia into his care. After Dom’s arrival, a laughably ineffectual kidnaper whose idea of a good plan is from the “throw her over your shoulder and run like hell” school of abduction targets Laurentia. Of course, since Laurentia lives in a castle and is surrounded by people all the time, this doesn’t present the kidnaper with many good opportunities to make off with her. To throw in an extra layer of suspense, some unidentified person is waiting in the wings to betray the Princess. This, I think, is supposed to be the surprise “twist” for the ending, but since I guessed the identity of this person almost immediately, the ending fell flat. And finally, when the secret to the kingdom’s prosperity is revealed, nothing actually seems to depend upon it after all.

Despite the general problems with the plot, Dodd creates a powerful vulnerability in Dom that her strong and caring princess is able to recognize and meet. The dialogue is believable and the well-paced action had me turning the pages, even if I wasn’t completely surprised by what I read next. I found Someday My Prince an enjoyable escape into the fairy tale realm, but like the fairy tale it seeks to recreate, it follows a predictable script. When Laurentia and Dom reached their happily-ever-after, I was content to close the book and leave them behind.