The Royal We

I finally got on the train a few years late, but I’ve recently accepted my adoration of all things royalty, especially contemporary. American Royals, Her Royal Highness, Truly Madly Royally, I’m sold. So, in talking about that, someone recommended The Royal We to me as a spin on the Will & Kate story with a little pre-Meghan Markle thrown in, and I was sold. I bought it, let it age on my shelf for a few months, and finally read it. It was a three star read for me–pretty much what I expected, but a little too long.

Rebecca Porter is an American student at Cornell (gag) who goes to study abroad at Pembroke (Oxford) for a year, only to meet the heir to the British throne, Prince Nicholas, on her way in the door. It’s a meet cute that doesn’t realize what it is for a bit, but there’s lot of pining, drinking, almost kisses, and finally…it happens. Come on, that’s not a spoiler. You KNOW it happens. But then…time jumps. We jump forward two years, and then forward and forward until we get to the ‘royal wedding’ we all know is inevitable because come on, it’s British royal romance written by women. That’s what we want! And we get it, mostly, we get the romance we want, but along the way there’s distractions, breakups, death, lots of talk about fashion, too many friends to keep track of (Are Bea and Lady Bollocks the same person? I read all 450+ pages and I still question myself) but at the end of the day it’s cute. It’s obviously based on Will & Kate and pre-dates Meghan Markle, but also doesn’t kill off Diana and unfortunately kills off poor Prince Philip. Poor dude, hope he’s still hanging in there.

Nonetheless, this book was cute. It was way too long, honestly, but I guess that’s what you get when you have a ten year courtship. Oh well, I liked it, liked the changes made, and am now really ready to reread American Royals by Katharine McGee (THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED).