Reviews - Royal Blood - A Scandal to Die For

418 reviews for:

Royal Blood - A Scandal to Die For

Aimée Carter

4.03 AVERAGE

bookishbrandy's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

caitiep92's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

emilyyjjean's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Wow—I really enjoyed this book! The story was very interesting and thrilling. It gave me The Princess Diaries vibes, but with some murder, mystery, and deceit thrown in. This book has set up an interesting story line, and I can't wait to read more in the series. I really enjoyed The Goddess Test series—so I know Carter won't disappoint!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's - Delacorte Press for the ARC!

Content Warnings

kate_ever's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I am always so happy when I read a book I know I’m going to enjoy but end up absolutely loving it and that is exactly what happened with Royal Blood. I knew from reading the description that it would be right up my street, a proverbial cat amongst the pigeons in a high profile family and some big scandals thrown into the mix, it sounded like the perfect book to while away the weekend, a bit of light-hearted drama.

Turns out it wasn’t really all that light-hearted but was all the better for it, whilst there was the entertaining drama that I was hoping for there was also a lot of big themes in this book that meant that I was so much more invested in the characters and the story than I maybe initially thought I would be.

I will admit that I wasn’t sure about Evan at first, it kind of felt like she was doing everything backwards, but as the story progressed and I found out more about her and her situation I was definitely in her corner. I loved that she was still snarky and upfront with the royals when everyone else wasn’t and that she wasn’t afraid to stick up for herself in some pretty intense situations.

I really liked that we got to see Alexander making mistakes and then trying to rectify them, that his intentions looked different the more you got to know about his situation. There were a lot of characters that added the right kind of balance to the story, so that the conflict wasn’t just from what was happening but also from those around Evan, and there was a lot of room for growth which I think was done really well with some of the characters.

The plot was fantastic, there were the events surrounding the murder but there was also a lot of politics and manipulation around Evan being in London, I felt like it kept the pace and the tension going throughout the story. There were a few things that I didn’t expect at all which was a nice surprise, sometimes it can feel too obvious as to what’s about to happen, but in this book I was so engrossed in what was happening that it didn’t feel too predictable.

I have to say I was very excited by the ending because I think that this is going to be a series and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

lisashelves's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

honeynougatsreads's review against another edition

5.0

Ok yes, very the royals + inheritance games YA type vibes. Super entertaining.

ohiobookgal's review against another edition

4.0

medium-paced

hckilgour's review against another edition

3.0

emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

A fairly solid teen drama with a bit of murder mystery.

While this is marketed as more of the murder mystery book with a hint of political intrigue, it’s the other way around. Not bad. But just not marketed correctly I feel.

Evan as a character was fun but I would’ve loved to see more of her snark.

I was surprised Maisie warmed up to her on the flip of a coin. But when you do something big to save someone’s but, I guess that happens.

The ending had me wondering what other secret Evan has. This book didn’t hint at anything so I’m completely in the dark on that.

Content Warnings