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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
Good summer reading because it's mostly fluff. Made me happy I'm not famous cause I couldn't deal with cult of celebrity.
My roman empire is the royal family. So this was a great choice for me! It was just too dang long. If it had been the typical length and format of a romance book, it would have gotten 5 stars!
I unashamedly adore this book. Whenever I need something light to read, I love to revisit the world of Nick and Bex, always devouring it quickly and wishing there were more. (A sequel or more from Freddie would not be frowned upon, I'm just saying.) Yes, it's basically Wills and Kate fanfic and I don't hate that.
Doubling down on my goal of reading more romances this summer and you know what? This was a delight. Well-written and goofy and funny and deeply, DEEPLY appealing as a former twelve-year-old who had a lot of opinions about Julia Stiles in The Prince and Me.
Delicious. The perfect vacation read. Nick and Bex are the perfect fictional counterparts of those OTHER royals.
funny
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fun to read, but not a lasting influence or one I'll even remember in 6 months.
This was a fun re-imagining of what is essentially Kate Middleton and William's romance, except with American Bex and Prince Nick.
Positively delicious!! Such a fun read. Loved the characters.
This book is very readable. It's a page turner, but the turning is not inspired by some fake suspense or cliffhanger; it's inspired by a genuine interest in and affection for this set of characters who are all immediately likable and living incredibly interesting lives.
The plot unfolded at a suitable pace, the slight gimmick of using passages from the unauthorised biography never wore thin because it wasn't overused, and the main characters were all very memorable.
Most of my frustrations with the book come from Bex's willingness to so easily give up everything she loved and was as a human being in the face of the expectations of what being a royal entitled. Quitting her job seemed out of character, no matter how many times Bex tried to reason it out and it's absurd that she put up no fight against it.
Also, there really is no way to get over the slight uneasiness you feel every time that you're reminded that this is a Will and Kate fanfic in essence. Most of the unease I felt stemmed from the fact that the Diana stand-in in the book - Emma, Nick's mother - instead of being killed off, was rendered mentally unstable and basically catatonic by the tabloid's constant hounding. It was a little much.
Nick was Will, Bex was Kate, Freddie was Harry, Lacey was Pippa. Albeit it, Lacey is a Pippa that apparently loves courting the spotlight of fame regardless of whether it's actually infamy, has an obsessive crush with the Harry stand-in and resents her sister openly for 'getting all the attention'. (I frequently forgot Bex and Lacey were twins, as an aside. Lacey seemed to be years younger than Bex, especially in mentality.) I'm sure real-life Pippa is greatly flattered with how unlikable her book counterpart is. Then again, the queen herself didn't come off well in the book at all; Eleanor was manipulative and demanding. She was a stone-cold bitch whose rare moments of humour seemed more out of character and therefore ending up being unnerving more than heart-warming.
The "hilarious" inappropriateness of the real life Prince Phillip got blended in the book and was given as a character trait to the queen's mother who was still alive. Painting the Charles stand-in, Richard, as a complete asshole was a little cruel, and there are a lot of loose ends in terms of the relationships he had with a lot of different people that suggests to me that there will eventually be a sequel. I'm unsure as to whether that would be a good or a bad thing, truthfully.
I did keep forgetting minor characters from time to time when their names were mentioned without context and end up having to keep notes: Donna (the person that dressed Bex I guess?), Lesley (the woman that looked after Emma), Emma (Nick's mum), Elizabeth (the woman that married Edwin), Edwin (Nick's uncle), Nigel (Nick's cousin by his aunt Agatha), Marta (the queen's mother).
I also could've done with less royal family castle interior design descriptions, and less odd, casual Americanisms thrown in.
The plot unfolded at a suitable pace, the slight gimmick of using passages from the unauthorised biography never wore thin because it wasn't overused, and the main characters were all very memorable.
Most of my frustrations with the book come from Bex's willingness to so easily give up everything she loved and was as a human being in the face of the expectations of what being a royal entitled. Quitting her job seemed out of character, no matter how many times Bex tried to reason it out and it's absurd that she put up no fight against it.
Spoiler
Signing over her nationality was the final straw for me, as even Nick had told her she didn't have to do it.Also, there really is no way to get over the slight uneasiness you feel every time that you're reminded that this is a Will and Kate fanfic in essence. Most of the unease I felt stemmed from the fact that the Diana stand-in in the book - Emma, Nick's mother - instead of being killed off, was rendered mentally unstable and basically catatonic by the tabloid's constant hounding. It was a little much.
Nick was Will, Bex was Kate, Freddie was Harry, Lacey was Pippa. Albeit it, Lacey is a Pippa that apparently loves courting the spotlight of fame regardless of whether it's actually infamy, has an obsessive crush with the Harry stand-in and resents her sister openly for 'getting all the attention'. (I frequently forgot Bex and Lacey were twins, as an aside. Lacey seemed to be years younger than Bex, especially in mentality.) I'm sure real-life Pippa is greatly flattered with how unlikable her book counterpart is. Then again, the queen herself didn't come off well in the book at all; Eleanor was manipulative and demanding. She was a stone-cold bitch whose rare moments of humour seemed more out of character and therefore ending up being unnerving more than heart-warming.
Spoiler
One minute she's laughing at your friend's jokes, the next she's leading you to remote rooms, putting tiaras on you and demanding you renounce your nationality.The "hilarious" inappropriateness of the real life Prince Phillip got blended in the book and was given as a character trait to the queen's mother who was still alive. Painting the Charles stand-in, Richard, as a complete asshole was a little cruel, and there are a lot of loose ends in terms of the relationships he had with a lot of different people that suggests to me that there will eventually be a sequel. I'm unsure as to whether that would be a good or a bad thing, truthfully.
I did keep forgetting minor characters from time to time when their names were mentioned without context and end up having to keep notes: Donna (the person that dressed Bex I guess?), Lesley (the woman that looked after Emma), Emma (Nick's mum), Elizabeth (the woman that married Edwin), Edwin (Nick's uncle), Nigel (Nick's cousin by his aunt Agatha), Marta (the queen's mother).
I also could've done with less royal family castle interior design descriptions, and less odd, casual Americanisms thrown in.