Royals

Daisy is about to become the sister of the princess of Scotland, but things aren’t all roses and kilts. With her sister’s new fiancé comes A LOT of expectations about Daisy’s own behavior, her relationships, and how she will spend her summer. Rachel Hawkins returns to the world of royalty with Royals, on sale May 1st.

Royals begins with Daisy Winters, a normal Florida girl who’s sister just happens to be dating the elder prince of Scotland. Daisy returns home from her job at a grocery store one day to find that her sister and the prince, Alex, are getting married and Daisy’s life is never going to be the same again. Think about how much people cared about Pippa Middleton after the wedding and that’s what Daisy is now experiencing. Her ex-boyfriend is her ex because he tried to sell their prom pictures to TMZ! She can’t avoid the gossip rags writing speculative stories about her. So the palace, you know what I mean, decides it would be best if Daisy spent the summer before her senior year of college with them, in Scotland.  And Daisy doesn’t get to say no, she finds out quickly. So cue her new life in Scotland: complete with kilts, duchesses and dukes and prissy aunts, and oh yeah…the cute, younger prince who is the most eligible bachelor in the world and comes with his merry brand of “Royal Wreckers,” the Scottish royalty version of Frat Bros. Things get out of hand quickly, and Daisy might just find her place where she least expected it.

Alright, this book was a fun read. I knew the major “twist” for the majority of the book, because it was pretty damn obvious, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy reading the book. Sure, you have to suspend your disbelief and imagine that Scotland has a royal family and that they are extremely British except that they wear kilts, but it’s clearly meant to cater to the people hyped up about the Royal Wedding in late May and it will make them happy. Daisy is a fun protagonist, quirky and a bit rebellious without being a total ass about it.  When she says no, it makes sense, it’s not just because she hates the world. You’ll like her, you’ll root for her, and you’ll wish she’d come to her senses way earlier in the book, but whatever.

This book is full of tropes (which I won’t spoil here, obviously) but if you like cute little love stories and royalty and imagining what a kilt ballgown looks like, you’ll enjoy this quick read. I actually wish this book was a little longer, and that it didn’t have an ending that I SWEAR is copied from the Netflix Christmas classic, A Christmas Prince. But I digress.