kate_ever 's review for:

Royal Blood by Aimée Carter

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

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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.