![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Royal romances
During the last several months, I've read some romance books (mostly Young Adult) about royal couples, or to be more specific, (mostly) between a commoner and a prince or princess. I guess that's always been a common theme, but it seemed to be especially popular for awhile. Two of the books focused on same-sex couples, which was nice to see in mainstream fiction.
Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston: This one was my favorite of the bunch. The main character, Alex, is the college-aged son of the first woman president of the United States. For reasons that are not apparent till much later in the book, he hates PrinceHarry I mean Henry of England, despite Henry seeming like a perfectly nice guy, if somewhat careful and guarded about presenting a good public image. They get into a scuffle at the wedding of Henry's older brother that is 99.9 percent Alex's fault, and they end up crashing into the wedding cake in front of a bunch of reporters. Neither of their families is pleased, so both sides immediately start damage control by forcing Alex and Henry to publicly become best buddies in order to avert a scandal.
Having no choice, they reluctantly go along with the plan, and before long, they start becoming friends for real as they gradually get to know the real Henry and Alex as opposed to their public personas. And feelings of friendship gradually turn into something more, at a time when a tabloid scandal about a gay romance between the Prince and the First Son is the last thing that Alex's mom needs at a time when she's running a close reelection campaign against a skeevy and ruthless Republican rival...
This was a lot of fun to read, and it felt kind of fan-ficcy, though I don't mean that in a bad way, more like it had a lot of the tropes that I find fun in fanfiction, like enemies-to-lovers and being forced to pretend they like each other (which results in them liking each other for real). Some reviewers disliked the book because Alex comes off as a jerk in the beginning of the book, which is fair enough, though he does grow out of it.
This book read a lot like a Young Adult romance novel, so I was surprised that my local library had it shelved in the Adult Fiction section until I got to the explicit sex scene in the latter half of the book, and I went, "Welp, that explains it!" (The author also describes it as an adult romcom.)
The Royals series by Rachel Hawkins, which currently consists of two books:
Prince Charming: The main character Daisy is an American teenager who finds her life turned upside down when her sister gets engaged to the Crown Prince of Scotland. (Obviously, this is an AU in which Scotland is still an independent kingdom.) Her previously nice and sane sister has turned into a bridezilla doesn't want anything interfering with her perfect wedding, including a scandal caused when Daisy's ex-boyfriend sells fake stories about her to the tabloids. So poor Daisy is sent off against her will to Scotland for the summer to let the tabloid scandal in the US die down. Once there, she meets the playboy younger prince and and one of his friends, who is assigned to help her settle in and keep her out of trouble. I wasn't sure at first which one was going to be the main love interest--it soon became apparent, but I won't spoil it for you.
This one was okay...I liked Daisy, especially since she's a bit of geek who was looking forward to going to a fannish convention during the summer to meet her favorite author, until she got shipped off to Scotland. But I just felt so sorry for her and annoyed with everyone else that she was uprooted and her plans ruined through no fault of her own, and her family didn't seem to care very much. Her parents were vaguely sympathetic but quickly brushed off her complaints and assured her that going to Scotland would be fine. Her sister treated Daisy like the tabloid stories were her own fault, though we eventually learn that she's been under a lot more pressure than Daisy realized--but still, Daisy really got the short end of the stick.
Once she and her love interest start getting along and she begins to enjoy herself in Scotland, the book picks up--I finally started getting into it about a third of the way into the book. It was your typical teen romance book--it was entertaining and I enjoyed it well enough, but it's not something I'd re-read, and probably not something I would have picked up if I hadn't wanted to read the sequel/companion novel, listed below.
Her Royal Highness: Takes place in the same Scotland AU, but focuses on different characters. The protagonist is another American teenager, this time named Millie, who receives a scholarship to attend a private school in Scotland, where her roommate turns out to be Princess Flora, the younger sister of the princes who appear in Prince Charming. They start off on the wrong foot and hate each other on sight: Millie thinks Flora is spoiled and arrogant, and Flora doesn't like Millie any better than Millie likes her.
So this one's kind of like Red, White, & Royal Blue with the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers theme, and it was a lot of fun--much more fun than the companion book, though I'm not sure why. Maybe because the F/F romance makes it stand out more, and maybe because Flora is a much more fun and vivid character than the guy in Prince Charming. Millie and Flora's friends at school are also fun and interesting. Anyway, this one was a great read and highly recommended.
I'm not sure if Hawkins intends to write another book in this series, but I'd definitely read it if she did.
American Royals by Katharine McGee: Another AU, this time an America in which George Washington became King instead of President. The main characters are the eldest princess Beatrice, the responsible heir who is reluctantly willing to sacrifice her happiness for the good of the country, the rebellious younger princess Samantha who acts out because all her parents' attention is focused on Beatrice, and Samantha's commoner friend Nina, who is secretly in love with Samantha's twin brother, Prince Jefferson. Oh, and there's also Jefferson's ex-girlfriend Daphne, who keeps up an angelic public image (think Princess Diana before the infidelity scandals) while scheming ruthlessly to get Jefferson back.
This should've been good, trashy fun, but I just couldn't get into it. Maybe the focus was divided between too many characters, or maybe because they felt more like types and tropes than fully fleshed out characters: Beatrice is the "in love with her bodyguard but must marry a noble" one, Samantha is the rebellious one, Nina is the sweet girl next door type. Then again, the other books dealt with similar stereotypical tropes, and I still liked them. Maybe I just didn't like most of the characters all that much. I sympathized the most with Beatrice, while Samantha was kind of a brat (though I did have moments of sympathy for her). As for Nina, she was mostly a nice girl, but I got impatient with her for pining and moping over Jefferson, who has been avoiding her since they had a one-time drunken hookup (incidentally, while he was still dating Daphne), which doesn't make him seem like a great prize however much the book tries to convince us that he is.
I agree with one of the reviewers on Amazon that Daphne is the most interesting character even though she's an awful person. She has the most vivid personality out of all the characters, and I kind of had to admire the gung-ho way she went after what she wanted (however manipulative and ruthless she was), while the others moped and angsted about what they couldn't have. She also does get a bit more of a three-dimensional personality, because we get to see how she was shaped into the ruthless person that she is by her even more ruthless and ambitious mother, and how she can only let down her guard and be herself around one of Jefferson's friends, who has a thing for her (and she for him, though she doesn't want to admit it). I'd read a whole book about Daphne!
Also, although the book is about "American royals," there isn't much about the AU that makes it distinctively American as opposed to just another British/European royal setting. I think there were brief mentions of radicals who want to get rid of the monarchy, but for the most part, the story revolved around the standard noble/commoner and love vs duty issues. It didn't really have anything that made it original enough to stand out for me.
I managed to slog through to the end of the book, only to be annoyed that it ended on a major (and frustrating) cliffhanger, though in hindsight, I should've seen it coming. I'm sure there will be a sequel, but this is the one book out of the bunch that was a major disappointment, so I won't continue reading the series.
Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston: This one was my favorite of the bunch. The main character, Alex, is the college-aged son of the first woman president of the United States. For reasons that are not apparent till much later in the book, he hates Prince
Having no choice, they reluctantly go along with the plan, and before long, they start becoming friends for real as they gradually get to know the real Henry and Alex as opposed to their public personas. And feelings of friendship gradually turn into something more, at a time when a tabloid scandal about a gay romance between the Prince and the First Son is the last thing that Alex's mom needs at a time when she's running a close reelection campaign against a skeevy and ruthless Republican rival...
This was a lot of fun to read, and it felt kind of fan-ficcy, though I don't mean that in a bad way, more like it had a lot of the tropes that I find fun in fanfiction, like enemies-to-lovers and being forced to pretend they like each other (which results in them liking each other for real). Some reviewers disliked the book because Alex comes off as a jerk in the beginning of the book, which is fair enough, though he does grow out of it.
This book read a lot like a Young Adult romance novel, so I was surprised that my local library had it shelved in the Adult Fiction section until I got to the explicit sex scene in the latter half of the book, and I went, "Welp, that explains it!" (The author also describes it as an adult romcom.)
The Royals series by Rachel Hawkins, which currently consists of two books:
Prince Charming: The main character Daisy is an American teenager who finds her life turned upside down when her sister gets engaged to the Crown Prince of Scotland. (Obviously, this is an AU in which Scotland is still an independent kingdom.) Her previously nice and sane sister has turned into a bridezilla doesn't want anything interfering with her perfect wedding, including a scandal caused when Daisy's ex-boyfriend sells fake stories about her to the tabloids. So poor Daisy is sent off against her will to Scotland for the summer to let the tabloid scandal in the US die down. Once there, she meets the playboy younger prince and and one of his friends, who is assigned to help her settle in and keep her out of trouble. I wasn't sure at first which one was going to be the main love interest--it soon became apparent, but I won't spoil it for you.
This one was okay...I liked Daisy, especially since she's a bit of geek who was looking forward to going to a fannish convention during the summer to meet her favorite author, until she got shipped off to Scotland. But I just felt so sorry for her and annoyed with everyone else that she was uprooted and her plans ruined through no fault of her own, and her family didn't seem to care very much. Her parents were vaguely sympathetic but quickly brushed off her complaints and assured her that going to Scotland would be fine. Her sister treated Daisy like the tabloid stories were her own fault, though we eventually learn that she's been under a lot more pressure than Daisy realized--but still, Daisy really got the short end of the stick.
Once she and her love interest start getting along and she begins to enjoy herself in Scotland, the book picks up--I finally started getting into it about a third of the way into the book. It was your typical teen romance book--it was entertaining and I enjoyed it well enough, but it's not something I'd re-read, and probably not something I would have picked up if I hadn't wanted to read the sequel/companion novel, listed below.
Her Royal Highness: Takes place in the same Scotland AU, but focuses on different characters. The protagonist is another American teenager, this time named Millie, who receives a scholarship to attend a private school in Scotland, where her roommate turns out to be Princess Flora, the younger sister of the princes who appear in Prince Charming. They start off on the wrong foot and hate each other on sight: Millie thinks Flora is spoiled and arrogant, and Flora doesn't like Millie any better than Millie likes her.
So this one's kind of like Red, White, & Royal Blue with the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers theme, and it was a lot of fun--much more fun than the companion book, though I'm not sure why. Maybe because the F/F romance makes it stand out more, and maybe because Flora is a much more fun and vivid character than the guy in Prince Charming. Millie and Flora's friends at school are also fun and interesting. Anyway, this one was a great read and highly recommended.
I'm not sure if Hawkins intends to write another book in this series, but I'd definitely read it if she did.
American Royals by Katharine McGee: Another AU, this time an America in which George Washington became King instead of President. The main characters are the eldest princess Beatrice, the responsible heir who is reluctantly willing to sacrifice her happiness for the good of the country, the rebellious younger princess Samantha who acts out because all her parents' attention is focused on Beatrice, and Samantha's commoner friend Nina, who is secretly in love with Samantha's twin brother, Prince Jefferson. Oh, and there's also Jefferson's ex-girlfriend Daphne, who keeps up an angelic public image (think Princess Diana before the infidelity scandals) while scheming ruthlessly to get Jefferson back.
This should've been good, trashy fun, but I just couldn't get into it. Maybe the focus was divided between too many characters, or maybe because they felt more like types and tropes than fully fleshed out characters: Beatrice is the "in love with her bodyguard but must marry a noble" one, Samantha is the rebellious one, Nina is the sweet girl next door type. Then again, the other books dealt with similar stereotypical tropes, and I still liked them. Maybe I just didn't like most of the characters all that much. I sympathized the most with Beatrice, while Samantha was kind of a brat (though I did have moments of sympathy for her). As for Nina, she was mostly a nice girl, but I got impatient with her for pining and moping over Jefferson, who has been avoiding her since they had a one-time drunken hookup (incidentally, while he was still dating Daphne), which doesn't make him seem like a great prize however much the book tries to convince us that he is.
I agree with one of the reviewers on Amazon that Daphne is the most interesting character even though she's an awful person. She has the most vivid personality out of all the characters, and I kind of had to admire the gung-ho way she went after what she wanted (however manipulative and ruthless she was), while the others moped and angsted about what they couldn't have. She also does get a bit more of a three-dimensional personality, because we get to see how she was shaped into the ruthless person that she is by her even more ruthless and ambitious mother, and how she can only let down her guard and be herself around one of Jefferson's friends, who has a thing for her (and she for him, though she doesn't want to admit it). I'd read a whole book about Daphne!
Also, although the book is about "American royals," there isn't much about the AU that makes it distinctively American as opposed to just another British/European royal setting. I think there were brief mentions of radicals who want to get rid of the monarchy, but for the most part, the story revolved around the standard noble/commoner and love vs duty issues. It didn't really have anything that made it original enough to stand out for me.
I managed to slog through to the end of the book, only to be annoyed that it ended on a major (and frustrating) cliffhanger, though in hindsight, I should've seen it coming. I'm sure there will be a sequel, but this is the one book out of the bunch that was a major disappointment, so I won't continue reading the series.