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A review by soulkissed2003
Royal by Danielle Steel
3.0
Once upon a time, I picked up a Danielle Steele novel because well, if she's so popular surely I would enjoy it. I couldn't tell you which book it was, but I was not enjoying it, so I put it down in favor of something else. This new book, just released August 2020, sounded like it had an interesting story line and I thought, well, maybe it was a fluke and I'll try this author again.
It was not a fluke. But it wasn't as bad as I remembered the other book being. In fact, I enjoyed it, although it's definitely not a favorite. I felt like the book was a bit watered down, as if it was set for a lower reading level. I don't mind that -- but honestly with YA literature having made the strides it has, even if you were aiming for a teen and adult mixed audience, this is almost a little insulting. Some sentences didn't even make sense, though. Both narrative and dialogue passages seemed stiff and did not have a natural flow. Well it's likely an unpopular opinion but it's mine and I'm sticking to it.
The plot line is improbable to the point of impossibility, but then again I'm a sucker for Regency romance novels and I'd say about 85% of them would never happen, either. So why not have some fun with a good story? The story itself is interesting and somewhat suspenseful but because of the writing style the pace was a little choppy.
While this doesn't make me want to run out there and see if any of her other countless books might interest me, it also doesn't completely put me off considering others in the future. We'll see if one day I'm browsing new releases at the library and see something that makes me look twice.
It was not a fluke. But it wasn't as bad as I remembered the other book being. In fact, I enjoyed it, although it's definitely not a favorite. I felt like the book was a bit watered down, as if it was set for a lower reading level. I don't mind that -- but honestly with YA literature having made the strides it has, even if you were aiming for a teen and adult mixed audience, this is almost a little insulting. Some sentences didn't even make sense, though. Both narrative and dialogue passages seemed stiff and did not have a natural flow. Well it's likely an unpopular opinion but it's mine and I'm sticking to it.
The plot line is improbable to the point of impossibility, but then again I'm a sucker for Regency romance novels and I'd say about 85% of them would never happen, either. So why not have some fun with a good story? The story itself is interesting and somewhat suspenseful but because of the writing style the pace was a little choppy.
While this doesn't make me want to run out there and see if any of her other countless books might interest me, it also doesn't completely put me off considering others in the future. We'll see if one day I'm browsing new releases at the library and see something that makes me look twice.