ARC Review: Royals (Royals #1) by Rachel Hawkins

Meet Daisy Winters. She’s an offbeat sixteen-year-old Floridian with mermaid-red hair; a part time job at a bootleg Walmart, and a perfect older sister who’s nearly engaged to the Crown Prince of Scotland. Daisy has no desire to live in the spotlight, but relentless tabloid attention forces her to join Ellie at the relative seclusion of the castle across the pond.

While the dashing young Miles has been appointed to teach Daisy the ropes of being regal, the prince’s roguish younger brother kicks up scandal wherever he goes, and tries his best to take Daisy along for the ride. The crown–and the intriguing Miles–might be trying to make Daisy into a lady . . . but Daisy may just rewrite the royal rulebook to suit herself.

****Review copy provided by publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review****

I was a little leery at first since I’m usually not a big fan of contemporaries but I’m a sucker for anything to do with royalty. I am sooooooo glad I decided to pick up “Royals” because it was so much fun and I had a blast reading it!

This was a pretty short read for me at 256 pages but I found myself wishing it was 500+ pages! It was so fast paced and FUN! It was also pretty interesting to see a royalty book focused on a family member who is dragged into this world by another family member rather than just the whole “fell in love with a prince etc.” or “found out they’re a long lost prince/princess” themes.

There’s a bit of family drama throughout the story too to keep things a little suspenseful and some plot twists I was not expecting at all! I think my favorite part about “Royals” though was the humor and light heartedness of it all, seriously, Daisy’s sense of humor is very similar to mine so I was laughing while reading! Plus she finds herself in quite the predicaments throughout the story as well. I liked watching as she learns to dodge the paparazzi and deal with the latest royal “scandals”!

This definitely isn’t a book to take too seriously, which I didn’t, it’s here for a good time! However, the royalty that Daisy gets mixed up with are the royal family of Scotland, which as you all know isn’t a real thing. This kind of bothered me while reading since Hawkins took a REAL country and turned it into a Sovereign state with a monarchy which it isn’t. I mean, she could have just made up a country like with “Princess Diaries” right? That’s just a little nit-picky thing I noticed is all!

I also wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending, it was a bit too abrupt and cheesy for me but I’ll live. Only if I get that sequel though!

Daisy Winters is in the running for one of my all time favorite characters! She is so relatable and that’s probably because she reminds me a bit of myself with all of the sass, sarcasm, and humor! I already mentioned this briefly but I’ll say it again: Daisy’s sense of humor (mostly sarcasm) was hilarious and I was living for it! I also loved how bold she was and didn’t take any crap from some of the snooty, upper-class people and also how she handled the paparazzi and many other situations of similar fashions. However, Daisy wasn’t without her flaws which is always nice since it gives characters a lot more complexity and depth. For example sometimes her sarcasm and need to say what’s on her mind can get her into some hot water with the royals and she at times resented her sister for dragging her into this world.

Daisy’s sister, Ellie/Eleanor, is the soon to be Princess and the one who is introducing Daisy into the world of royalty. I really didn’t care for Ellie whatsoever, I mean I get that you’re busy since you’re engaged to a prince and all but who drags their sister into a brand new “world” and just sort of ditches her? Yeah, Ellie wasn’t really there to help her with anything ever. Maybe that’s just me since I’m very protective of my siblings but I didn’t care for that at all! She does get a bit better though by the end of the story.

Other important side characters include: Prince Sebastian a.k.a. “Seb”, Miles, and Ilsa. I have to say Seb is one of my favorite characters, he gets into trouble a lot but there was just something I liked about him! Miles is actually very sweet and also an interesting character once you get a bit of back story. Ilsa is Daisy’s best friend from the States and they are super geeks together, which I adored, and I also liked that their friendship is portrayed very positively and they don’t let things such as boys get in the way of it.

I also adored Daisy’s parents, mostly her dad since they share that similar dorky/sarcastic humor! As for the other royals and friends we don’t see too terribly much of them for me to get a good impression. Everyone had their own personality though!

Surprise, surprise! The romance actually wasn’t too much of a focus in “Royals”, at least not as much as I was expecting which is a bit of a relief for me! There’s also a lack of the typical tropes such as insta-love and love triangles, although I could have done with a good love triangle in this one! There was another person I was wanting as a love interest but all in all I liked the one she ended up with, it just worked better. Also it was a nice slow-burn romance, which I am always a fan of!

What I Loved:

• Fast paced
• Fun and entertaining
• Plenty of drama and twists
• Hilarious dialogue
• Daisy Winters = amazing, sassy, funny heroine!
• Great characters full of personality
• Not as romance focused as I thought initially
• Slow burn romance, no insta-love or romance tropes

What I Didn’t Love:

• Ending was a bit rushed and too cheesy for me
• Scotland has their own royalty (I didn’t mind too terribly though)

Overall I highly recommend checking out “Royals” especially if you’re like me and adore books featuring royalty! This one was just so much fun and definitely a great, short read if you’re looking for some quick entertainment!

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