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ladynovella 's review for:
Royals
by Rachel Hawkins
Oh boy, do I have Thoughts on this one.
First off, I enjoyed this to a certain extent. The idea is interesting and the characters (for the most part) are great. This does bill itself as a bit of a romantic comedy and the romance doesn't really come into the picture until the last third of the story, so that frustrated me a bit. But I am standing by the 3-star rating because this was a fun listen. The narrator was good and she handled the accents and character voices well. The story was funny when it needed to be and it kept me interested.
There are some moments where it is obvious that Daisy is simply not being fair to anyone in this situation. True, she has been thrust into a spotlight that she never asked for, nor did she seek out. And it's true the gossip sites and paparazzi are trying to tell their version of her story, rather than find out her side of the story.
But holy cow, lady. Can you give SOMEONE the benefit of the doubt once in a while?
The most egregious of this (and perhaps I noticed this because I grew up on a ranch with horses) was when Daisy and Miles are going horseback riding in the park for the photographers to try and sell their "fake" relationship. Daisy is, understandably, nervous about riding horses. Even though she's been given a fairly tame mare to ride, it's still a daunting prospect for someone who's never been around horses, let alone ridden one. Even when I was riding horses on a regular basis, I could still get nervous around a horse I wasn't familiar with. So I am 100% okay with cutting Daisy some slack on this (and I question the palace's wisdom in putting her in that position to begin with).
But right after she expresses her trepidation about riding a horse, she comments that Miles has been given a large stallion to ride. Her response to this is "Of course," like it's some misogynistic slight against her that the people orchestrating this photo op give the guy the stallion and she gets the mare.
I'm sorry - didn't you JUST get done saying that you were nervous about riding horses, regardless of what is or isn't in the animal's undercarriage. Do you WANT to ride the stud? Even trained stallions can be a lot for an inexperienced rider to handle. Miles has CLEARLY ridden horses before and likely knows what he's doing. It has nothing to do with you being a girl and everything to do with YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE DOING! To let you ride a stallion is not only stupid, it's dangerous.
And that's where some of my issues with this book come from. Daisy has no idea what is going on in this world that her sister lives in - by her own admission - yet she acts like she knows so much better how to handle these situations, thus causing problems that could easily have been avoided if she wasn't such a stereotypical know-it-all that Tumblr users seem to fancy themselves and that annoy the shit out of us normal people.
Also, I would have loved to have seen more from Ellie's point of view. The reasons she tried to keep both sides of her life separated, why she's so intimidated by her soon-to-be mother-in-law, how she feels about all these insane weirdos that she has to associate with. Why she's in love with Alex. I wouldn't mind a prequel focused on Ellie and Alex's relationship. It might have helped explain why she's so distant with Daisy and why she expects her sister to fall in line with what she's being told to do. Ellie basically threw her sister to the wolves. She never really talked to her or coached her through these situations or warned her about any of the nutjobs Daisy would have to deal with. She just expected Daisy to read a prepared file and be fine.
What. The. Hell? I would have at least given my younger sister fair warning about anyone or anything she might want to avoid. Maybe Daisy wouldn't BE reading the gossip sites if Ellie ever gave her any information to work with!
I admit I wasn't always the best big sister to my siblings, but at least I didn't leave any of them to be eaten alive by the rabid piranhas of high-society.
I'm debating whether or not I want to read the next one. The lesbian relationship will probably be better fleshed-out than anything between Daisy and Miles was, and that'll likely just piss me off. I'm fine with whatever kind of relationship you want to portray, but can you give ALL relationships the same amount of development and care, not just the ones that'll give you brownie points on Twitter?
I've been around YA fiction long enough to know how this game is played. And it blows.
First off, I enjoyed this to a certain extent. The idea is interesting and the characters (for the most part) are great. This does bill itself as a bit of a romantic comedy and the romance doesn't really come into the picture until the last third of the story, so that frustrated me a bit. But I am standing by the 3-star rating because this was a fun listen. The narrator was good and she handled the accents and character voices well. The story was funny when it needed to be and it kept me interested.
There are some moments where it is obvious that Daisy is simply not being fair to anyone in this situation. True, she has been thrust into a spotlight that she never asked for, nor did she seek out. And it's true the gossip sites and paparazzi are trying to tell their version of her story, rather than find out her side of the story.
But holy cow, lady. Can you give SOMEONE the benefit of the doubt once in a while?
The most egregious of this (and perhaps I noticed this because I grew up on a ranch with horses) was when Daisy and Miles are going horseback riding in the park for the photographers to try and sell their "fake" relationship. Daisy is, understandably, nervous about riding horses. Even though she's been given a fairly tame mare to ride, it's still a daunting prospect for someone who's never been around horses, let alone ridden one. Even when I was riding horses on a regular basis, I could still get nervous around a horse I wasn't familiar with. So I am 100% okay with cutting Daisy some slack on this (and I question the palace's wisdom in putting her in that position to begin with).
But right after she expresses her trepidation about riding a horse, she comments that Miles has been given a large stallion to ride. Her response to this is "Of course," like it's some misogynistic slight against her that the people orchestrating this photo op give the guy the stallion and she gets the mare.
I'm sorry - didn't you JUST get done saying that you were nervous about riding horses, regardless of what is or isn't in the animal's undercarriage. Do you WANT to ride the stud? Even trained stallions can be a lot for an inexperienced rider to handle. Miles has CLEARLY ridden horses before and likely knows what he's doing. It has nothing to do with you being a girl and everything to do with YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE DOING! To let you ride a stallion is not only stupid, it's dangerous.
And that's where some of my issues with this book come from. Daisy has no idea what is going on in this world that her sister lives in - by her own admission - yet she acts like she knows so much better how to handle these situations, thus causing problems that could easily have been avoided if she wasn't such a stereotypical know-it-all that Tumblr users seem to fancy themselves and that annoy the shit out of us normal people.
Also, I would have loved to have seen more from Ellie's point of view. The reasons she tried to keep both sides of her life separated, why she's so intimidated by her soon-to-be mother-in-law, how she feels about all these insane weirdos that she has to associate with. Why she's in love with Alex. I wouldn't mind a prequel focused on Ellie and Alex's relationship. It might have helped explain why she's so distant with Daisy and why she expects her sister to fall in line with what she's being told to do. Ellie basically threw her sister to the wolves. She never really talked to her or coached her through these situations or warned her about any of the nutjobs Daisy would have to deal with. She just expected Daisy to read a prepared file and be fine.
What. The. Hell? I would have at least given my younger sister fair warning about anyone or anything she might want to avoid. Maybe Daisy wouldn't BE reading the gossip sites if Ellie ever gave her any information to work with!
I admit I wasn't always the best big sister to my siblings, but at least I didn't leave any of them to be eaten alive by the rabid piranhas of high-society.
I'm debating whether or not I want to read the next one. The lesbian relationship will probably be better fleshed-out than anything between Daisy and Miles was, and that'll likely just piss me off. I'm fine with whatever kind of relationship you want to portray, but can you give ALL relationships the same amount of development and care, not just the ones that'll give you brownie points on Twitter?
I've been around YA fiction long enough to know how this game is played. And it blows.