A Dowry of Snails and Mud by Brittany Tucker – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur.

A Dowry of Snails and Mud by Brittany Tucker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rhia Caddell is the sixteen year old daughter of the Mayor of the small Welsh village she lives in with her older brother and parents, it isn’t the easiest of lives and involves a lot of toil in the fields and manual labour on the farm and Rhia has been doing these chores and labour for most of her life, it has left her strong, tall and muscly for her gender and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by those in the village. This is a good thing for Rhia because she can both intimidate and work at the same time and that has some advantages where she lives, but one thing that isn’t an advantage is that she is a free spirit in everyway and has no plans to settle down, but a letter from the King changes all of that.

Unbeknownst to Rhia, her hand has been given in marriage to the Prince of Wales so that the debt which her father has accrued over the years can be forgiven and those are two things which Rhia hates most, finance and arranged marriages and she cannot for the life of her understand why this tradition still stands, but despite her arguments against this imposition, it seems that she has no choice in the matter, so the preparations for her wedding begin in earnest.

As the day of her wedding grows near, Rhia is doing everything she can think of to turn the day to her advantage and when she sees the Prince in person, all she can think of is that she could snap him in half! He is so dainty that she doesn’t believe that he has done a days manual labour in his life, but she goes along with the pretence for her villages sake. Little does Rhia know that it is the Prince’s mission not to forgive the debt, but convince her that she has to pay before a deadline which the King has sent with him.

As the time passes and Rhia and the Prince come closer to the deadline, can they work together to formulate a plan to keep the peace and remove the debt, or will all their plans be snookered by snails and mud? This is a sweet romance with plenty of wit and humour throughout as this unlikely pair try and work out how to play a game they are both highly invested in without being hurt too badly in the process and it is one which will keep you laughing and gasping in equal measure as you follow along this rocky path with the newly-weds.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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