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A review by bookish_notes
Tarnished Crown by Erin Watt
4.0
This review is also posted on my blog.
This is a free novella that was written by the authors and on Wattpad for awhile before the authors made it more accessible through different online vendors. I really liked reading Gideon and Savannah’s story. We knew their history through the other books in the series but not from their POV, and I found myself actually liking Gideon a lot more than I thought I would. There's obviously a lot of iffy parts regarding their relationship and why they broke up, but chances are, if you're reading this story, you've already learned their history through Paper Princess, Broken Prince, and Twisted Palace.
Trigger warnings for misogyny, sexual harassment, underage relationship (Gideon was 18 and Savannah was 15 when they started dating), cheating, blackmail, and depression.
It's interesting reading this book after reading the rest of the books in the Royals series. I think I like Reed a lot more from Gideon's perspective. Reed is the next oldest Royal son and the two of them keep an eye out for their younger brothers since their father was never around and their mother was, well, going through a lot.
Reading about Dinah from Gideon's perspective made me very uncomfortable, and you can tell how uncomfortable Dinah's presence made Gideon. Never liked Dinah, but her and Steve were quite the pair, weren't they? They were just absolute havoc on the Royals.
Even with the problematic stuff in these books, the Royals series is super addicting to read and Tarnished Crown is no exception. And in between the problematic parts, there's always some good points being made. We see Savannah undergoing a huge makeover with her starting school at Astor Park High. She has her eyes set on Gideon and she completely changes her personality to be with him. These are things that are addressed in the book. Savannah changes her physical looks - her straightened hair, wearing makeup, new clothes - because it's what she wants to do and it gives her confidence.
That wasn't because of Gideon. But her personality change, where she just kind of went along with whatever Gideon wanted, was challenged by her older sister, Shea. And the time jumps between present-day with Savannah touring the college Gideon is at and where she plans on attending in the fall, and three years ago when they first met and began dating, really highlight the person Savannah is now compared to the girl she used to be.
I really liked reading from Savannah's POV and see her gain confidence in herself and really come into herself where she could be her own person even if she was with Gideon.
Gideon is really a big sap who loves Savannah more than anything in the world and would do anything to get her back. Obviously, the age thing is really iffy about their relationship back in high school, and it totally gets exploited with the fact that Savannah sent suggestive pics to Gideon while she was underage and he, of course, kept them on his phone where Steve found them.
One of the more newer unbelievable parts in this story (because we already knew the more sordid details about Steve and Dinah) is with the sorority that Savannah stays at while touring the college campus. I'm not sure about the date she visited, but sororities aren’t allowed to interact with PNMs (potential new members) before recruitment like it was described in this book. Even as a she was a legacy of the house, I couldn't imagine a girl getting access to stay over at the house thinking she was going to be recruited by them in the fall and her sister isn't even there as a current member. I also kind of iffy at a sorority member selling out a girl with her schedule on campus and everything else because her sports teammates asked her to.
I like the characters in this story, ones we knew and ones we got to meet. The whole texting between the characters was a bit ridiculous (as it has been with EVERY Erin Watt book) because nobody texts like that anymore. Definitely not teens and not college students when everyone ones a smartphone and it's easier to text out full words rather than U or UR or 2NITE.
But overall, this is an enjoyable freebie about Gideon and Savannah that we haven’t heard from before.
This is a free novella that was written by the authors and on Wattpad for awhile before the authors made it more accessible through different online vendors. I really liked reading Gideon and Savannah’s story. We knew their history through the other books in the series but not from their POV, and I found myself actually liking Gideon a lot more than I thought I would. There's obviously a lot of iffy parts regarding their relationship and why they broke up, but chances are, if you're reading this story, you've already learned their history through Paper Princess, Broken Prince, and Twisted Palace.
Trigger warnings for misogyny, sexual harassment, underage relationship (Gideon was 18 and Savannah was 15 when they started dating), cheating, blackmail, and depression.
It's interesting reading this book after reading the rest of the books in the Royals series. I think I like Reed a lot more from Gideon's perspective. Reed is the next oldest Royal son and the two of them keep an eye out for their younger brothers since their father was never around and their mother was, well, going through a lot.
Reading about Dinah from Gideon's perspective made me very uncomfortable, and you can tell how uncomfortable Dinah's presence made Gideon. Never liked Dinah, but her and Steve were quite the pair, weren't they? They were just absolute havoc on the Royals.
Even with the problematic stuff in these books, the Royals series is super addicting to read and Tarnished Crown is no exception. And in between the problematic parts, there's always some good points being made. We see Savannah undergoing a huge makeover with her starting school at Astor Park High. She has her eyes set on Gideon and she completely changes her personality to be with him. These are things that are addressed in the book. Savannah changes her physical looks - her straightened hair, wearing makeup, new clothes - because it's what she wants to do and it gives her confidence.
That wasn't because of Gideon. But her personality change, where she just kind of went along with whatever Gideon wanted, was challenged by her older sister, Shea. And the time jumps between present-day with Savannah touring the college Gideon is at and where she plans on attending in the fall, and three years ago when they first met and began dating, really highlight the person Savannah is now compared to the girl she used to be.
I really liked reading from Savannah's POV and see her gain confidence in herself and really come into herself where she could be her own person even if she was with Gideon.
Gideon is really a big sap who loves Savannah more than anything in the world and would do anything to get her back. Obviously, the age thing is really iffy about their relationship back in high school, and it totally gets exploited with the fact that Savannah sent suggestive pics to Gideon while she was underage and he, of course, kept them on his phone where Steve found them.
One of the more newer unbelievable parts in this story (because we already knew the more sordid details about Steve and Dinah) is with the sorority that Savannah stays at while touring the college campus. I'm not sure about the date she visited, but sororities aren’t allowed to interact with PNMs (potential new members) before recruitment like it was described in this book. Even as a she was a legacy of the house, I couldn't imagine a girl getting access to stay over at the house thinking she was going to be recruited by them in the fall and her sister isn't even there as a current member. I also kind of iffy at a sorority member selling out a girl with her schedule on campus and everything else because her sports teammates asked her to.
I like the characters in this story, ones we knew and ones we got to meet. The whole texting between the characters was a bit ridiculous (as it has been with EVERY Erin Watt book) because nobody texts like that anymore. Definitely not teens and not college students when everyone ones a smartphone and it's easier to text out full words rather than U or UR or 2NITE.
But overall, this is an enjoyable freebie about Gideon and Savannah that we haven’t heard from before.