Alice Woods has gone through a weird and rough breakup and just wants to go on the cruise she paid for. Elliott Ainsley has had enough of the stress of supporting his baronial estate and crazy family and just wants some peace and quiet to write. When he takes the tickets from Alice's ex, neither of them have any idea what is in store for them. They have to either get along or get off the boat. When both decide they can get over it and stay, the hijinks ensue. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ALICE shows us that true love can be found even in the oddest of places.

The exposition was fairly obvious. Throwing everything into two chapters rarely works. In THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ALICE, I felt overwhelmed by exposition within the first two chapters. I know all about the breakup, the horrible family, the bad ex- fiance, the trip to Europe. I know it all but it went by too fast. I couldn't really appreciate it. When the meat of the novel gets rolling I just feel so bothered because there is no new information being revealed. It all comes at you and then stops coming at you.

There is a term popular on the sites I use called "Brit-picking". It is the person you go to to ensure that your United Kingdom characters do not fall into cliches. This book could have used a good Brit-picker. I feel that the British lord and the Irish ex-fiance are so steeped in cultural red flags that it takes something away from the credibility of their characters. And Alice is quite an Anglophile, but this aspect of her character seems very immature and it is not justified by any of her other behavior. Overall, she just seems very immature and insecure. I get major secondhand embarrassment trying to understand her motivation because she speaks like a teenager instead of a woman who has been hurt. Alice is a far cry from the heroine I wanted out of this book. Elliot is no better. He is a jerk. I understand his motivations better than I do Alice's; he has an overbearing family and he needs space and time to work. However, he's just rude to Alice and downright cruel to his mother, foolish though she is. Baron or not, I don't like him. I like neither of the main characters in the novel, and they're stuck together on a river cruise.

I don't dislike romance novels as a genre. I only dislike those which I expected to be good and then fall flat. This book is very much the romance novel I did not want to read. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ALICE moves far too quickly, the characterization is poor at best, and there is no real meat to the story, no realism to be seen. The disappointment I feel having finished this book is really heavy. I certainly hope the next Ainsley Brothers Romance is better for the audience, but I personally will not be reading the next installment.

Book Summary

First in a new series!

From New York Times bestselling author Katie MacAlister comes a series about finding your own wonderland—through one roadblock at a time....

Nothing about Alice Wood’s life is normal right now. Her fiancé, Patrick, called off their wedding and relationship only days before their nonrefundable wedding trip. And though a luxurious European river cruise for one is just what she needs, it’s not what she gets....

Due to a horrible misunderstanding, Alice is now cramped in her “romantic” suite with one of Patrick’s friends. Instead of cruising along the Rhine, Main, and Danube rivers sipping champagne with the love of her life, she’s navigating the waters with a strange—yet mysteriously handsome—British aristocrat.

A baron of dubious wealth—and not-so-dubious debt—Elliot Ainslie is just looking forsome alone time to write the books that keep his large family afloat. But his stodgy, serious self is about to be sidetracked by a woman who seems to have jumped out of the pages of a fairy tale, one who is determined to shake up his life...and include him in her own happily ever after.