H.R.H.

Princess Christianna is the only daughter of the Reigning Prince of a small European country that still takes its monarchy very seriously. Raised in Europe and educated in America, she spent four years at Berkeley and came home to a palace, and to a father who has already mapped out her future. The expectations placed on her feel close to unbearable, and she cannot stop thinking about the suffering of children, the toll of terrorism and the spread of disease beyond her country's borders.

Determined to do something about it, Christianna persuades her father to let her volunteer with the Red Cross in East Africa. In a crowded, dusty international relief camp, far from the attention that follows her at home, she finds work that gives her a real sense of purpose, alongside doctors and volunteers who are risking a great deal to help others. She keeps her royal identity hidden from the people she works with, including Parker Williams, a young Doctors Without Borders physician who shares her commitment to healing.

Then violence reaches the camp, and at the same time the demands of her position pull her back toward home. A sudden twist of fate, in a single shocking moment, changes the course of her life in ways she could never have predicted.

The novel moves between a prince's palace and war-torn regions, setting old traditions against modern realities. Its central tensions are responsibility against freedom and duty against love, as a young woman works out who she wants to be and what she owes to her family, her country and the wider world.