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blf14 's review for:
The Rules of Royalty
by Cale Dietrich
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
*thank you netgalley and publishers for this digital ARC*
i was really excited about this book based off of the description because i love the princess diaries! the idea of a queer gender-bent princess diaries esq story was like something i wished for in a dream, but the reality was not quite what i was hoping for. the story itself is very straightforward and the characters are very likable, my main issue is the writing. this truly felt like it was written by a 17 year old boy. which kind of makes sense given the age of the main characters, but the writing just felt so flat the whole time. i think part of that was the lack of conflict. it felt like the story had no depth at all. whenever there was a glimmer of conflict, it was resolved in the next page or even by the end of the paragraph. even the main idea that jamie johnson, a normal american boy, finds out that he is a prince, is met with a smile and very little conflict. no real internal or external struggle with the new culture, people, or family he is now part of.
the main "conflict" of the story is a fight between jamie and his best friend max, but it is never very serious because the fight is basically them ignoring each others texts and not speaking, which is not a very interesting conflict. the second biggest conflict is that erik and jamie can't be together because erik's grandma doesn't approve, but that gets solved within a chapter! i just felt like the lack of conflict made the characters very shallow and would have liked some more exploration into their inner psyche.
other than that, it's a cute, lighthearted read and it's great for fans of the princess diaries or queer romance lovers!
i was really excited about this book based off of the description because i love the princess diaries! the idea of a queer gender-bent princess diaries esq story was like something i wished for in a dream, but the reality was not quite what i was hoping for. the story itself is very straightforward and the characters are very likable, my main issue is the writing. this truly felt like it was written by a 17 year old boy. which kind of makes sense given the age of the main characters, but the writing just felt so flat the whole time. i think part of that was the lack of conflict. it felt like the story had no depth at all. whenever there was a glimmer of conflict, it was resolved in the next page or even by the end of the paragraph. even the main idea that jamie johnson, a normal american boy, finds out that he is a prince, is met with a smile and very little conflict. no real internal or external struggle with the new culture, people, or family he is now part of.
the main "conflict" of the story is a fight between jamie and his best friend max, but it is never very serious because the fight is basically them ignoring each others texts and not speaking, which is not a very interesting conflict. the second biggest conflict is that erik and jamie can't be together because erik's grandma doesn't approve, but that gets solved within a chapter! i just felt like the lack of conflict made the characters very shallow and would have liked some more exploration into their inner psyche.
other than that, it's a cute, lighthearted read and it's great for fans of the princess diaries or queer romance lovers!