2015 Book #67 – The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan

Posted in 2015, Book reviews, Fiction, Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2015 checklist, Reading Challenges by rebeccabook17

Title: The Royal We
Author: Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan
Date finished: 7/3/15
Genre: Fiction, Romance-ish, Drama
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: April 7, 2015
Pages in book: 452
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: Terryville Public Library

Blurb from the cover:

American Rebecca Porter was never one for fairy tales. Her twin sister, Lacey, has always been the romantic who fantasized about glamour and royalty, fame and fortune. Yet it’s Bex who seeks adventure at Oxford and finds herself living down the hall from Prince Nicholas, Great Britain’s future king. And when Bex can’t resist falling for Nick, the person behind the prince, it propels her into a world she did not expect to inhabit, under a spotlight she is not prepared to face.
Dating Nick immerses Bex in ritzy society, dazzling ski trips, and dinners at Kensington Palace with him and his charming, troublesome brother, Freddie. But the relationship also comes with unimaginable baggage: hysterical tabloids, Nick’s sparkling and far more suitable ex-girlfriends, and a royal family whose private life is much thornier and more tragic than anyone on the outside knows. The pressures are almost too much to bear, as Bex struggles to reconcile the man she loves with the monarch he’s fated to become.
Which is how she gets into trouble.
Now, on the eve of the wedding of the century, Bex is faced with whether everything she’s sacrificed for love-her career, her home, her family, maybe even herself-will have been for nothing.

My rating: 4 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will be counting towards my goal for the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2015 checklist under the “a book based on a true story” check box since the authors loosely based this book around Prince William and Kate Middleton’s romance. Obviously this book is a work of fiction and in no way portrays what happened during WIlliam and Kate’s courtship (at least I hope Kate and Harry didn’t “snog” each other as the British so endearingly term it) but the main idea is based on their unlikely courtship and eventual marriage. Its a true Cinderella story, having the Prince of England fall in love with you. What little girl doesn’t want to be a princess? But what every little girl doesn’t consider (and what this book expertly depicts) are the hardships that come attached to being affianced to someone directly in the line to ascend to the throne. The lack of privacy, the demands to be perfect at all times, the hateful gossip columnists and he way your friends all suddenly want something from you.

Bex Porter is just a normal girl from Iowa. She lucked out and was able to do a semester abroad in one of the places she’s loved since she was a little girl, England. And when it turns out Prince Nicholas is actually living on the same floor as her, she reacts differently from how I would expect most to react, she doesn’t seem to care much at all. She acts as if he is any old person, which I think is one of the reasons that Nick was attracted to Bex in the first place. They fight their feelings at first, because Nick is already in a relationship and also because Bex is hooking up with another guy on the floor. But Nick and Bex form an unlikely friendship that continues to develop as simply that at first, a deep friendship. Before they know it though, they are quite deeply in love with each other.
Relationships with this much strain put on them are bound to have their ups and downs. I think this book was a great depiction of the characters as they should be, humans that have feelings and emotions and who make mistakes (sometimes a lot of them). There were some very heart-wrenching parts of the book and some parts that made me down-right mad (Bex tends to let people walk on her quite a bt in the book, she gives up in fights WAY before I would be willing to let things go) but through out the book I felt deeply connected to the characters and what was happening with them. I laughed, I cried, I shouted, I cheered. This was a great feels book and the emotions just held me hostage there at the end. While at a few points I did find the book to be a bit wordy, I thought the wordy parts were worth it and some of them were even downright poetic

The bottom line: I thought this was a great book, if a tiny bit wordy for me. Most of the wordy parts were worth it though, I would recommend!

Favorite quotes:

Bex: “My dad and I once had a fight because I refuse to put ketchup on my hot dogs.” Nick: “That’s possibly the most American sentence I ever heard.”

“I remember understanding what a brutal thing it is to be the bearer of truly bad news – to break off a piece of that misery and hand it to other people, one by one, and then have to comfort them; to put their grief on your shoulders on top of all your own; to be the calm one in the face of their shock and tears.”

“I don’t want you to think I”m holding something over you. I’m not. This isn’t a favor. This is just love.”

Link to author website
Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

4Nov2014

2014 – Book #99

Posted in Blue Heron series, Book reviews, Book series, Contemporary romance by rebeccabook17

The ninety-ninth book I read in 2014 was In Your Dreams by Kristan Higgins. I have been very excited about this book for awhile (in fact, here is my “Waiting on Wednesday” post on the book) and couldn’t wait to start reading it. And once I started I couldn’t seem to put it down! I finished this book on 11/3/14. I rated this book 5 stars out of a scale of 5. This is the fourth book in the Blue Heron series. I have read the previous three books in the series as well and loved them all, though only one is discussed on this blog since the others were read prior to 2014. You can read my post on the other book in the series here. This really is just such a great series by one of my favorite authors and I highly recommend it!! I devour her books, I already can’t wait for the next in the series (hopefully Connor’s story!) to come out!!!

So, In Your Dreams is about police woman Emmaline Neal and town favorite Jack Holland. (Just for reference, Jack is brother to Faith and Honor, who were the heroines in books #1 and #2 in the series.) Emmaline had her heart squashed by her fiance 3 years ago and moved to Manningsport, NY to start over. Unfortunately, the dating pool is limited in the area so when she receives an invitation to her ex-fiance’s wedding, she has to find a man and fast. Luckily, Jack is skilled in helping out damsels in distress. He has been a last minute date for many functions in the past for various women in town, though he doesn’t expect to enjoy spending time with Emmaline quite so much.

Hoenstly I just loved this book. I literally couldn’t put it down, I read it in two nights because I got lost in the world that Higgins created. She is so gifted in character development and drawing you into the story. I love the characters she’s formed in this series and I love their individual stories. It was a great read and I would highly recommend trying it! For that matter, I would highly recommend the whole series!!

Link to author website: http://www.kristanhiggins.com/index.html

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Your-Dreams-Blue-Heron-Series/dp/0373779313/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1415105684&sr=8-1

9Oct2014

2014 – Book #91

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by rebeccabook17

As part of my October spooky series reading challenge, the ninty-first book I read in 2014 was Undead and Unreturnable by MaryJanice Davidson. This is the fourth book in her Undead series about vampire queen Betsy Taylor. This is the series I will be focusing on this month for my Spooky Series reading challenge for the month of October. I finished this book on 10/9/14. I rated this book 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5. This book picks up less than 2 months where the last book left off, Betsy and her household are preparing for Christmas.

There are a number of different things all going on at once in this book, it was a little all over the place for me. Betsy is getting to know her half-sister Laura, who also happens to be the daughter of the devil. While spending time with Laura, Betsy becomes slowly aware of the fact that Laura has an anger problem. I think it really hit home when Laura stabbed Betsy with her hellfire sword. Laura also help Betsy babysit for Baby Jon (son of Betsy’s dad and the Ant, full brother to Laura minus the devil-ish parts) and we find out that the Ant recognized her all along. While Betsy is getting to know Laura she is also planning her wedding to Eric Sinclair. Betsy accidentally lets it slip that she can read Eric’s thoughts when they’re doing it. Eric decides this means he’s not the king (since he can’t hear her thoughts) and they almost call of the wedding. Jon from the Blade Warriors (I think from the last book? Book 3) asks Betsy if he can write her biography, and a hard copy of the 300 page manuscript goes missing. A scary empty vampire librarian starts a newsletter and asks Betsy to write a column for it. Oh! And Jessica goes on a date with Detective Nick Berry (the guy Betsy fed on in the first book who she turned into a puddle of crying mess and Sinclair had to wipe his memory). Now that I think of it we didn’t see Marc much in this book. Oh! And I almost forgot there is a serial killer called the Driveway Killer and Betsy meets one of the ghosts of his victims and the ghost helps her find the killer and stop him from killing again. I think that’s everything. Like a said, kind of all over.

Overall I liked this book but it is not my favorite in the series. Even still, I was laughing out loud throughout the book.I’ll say pretty much the same thing I said for the first book here, obviously I love this book and series or else I wouldn’t be re-reading the whole series. I can’t say enough good things about this book and this series. I always end up laughing out loud. I would definitely recommend this series to other readers!

Link to author website: http://www.maryjanicedavidson.net/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Undead-Unreturnable-Queen-Besty-Book/dp/0425208168/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1412861438&sr=1-1

16May2014

2014 – Book #39

Posted in Book reviews, Contemporary romance by rebeccabook17

The thirty-ninth book I read in 2014 was The Dream Dress by Janice Thompson. This was the third book in the Weddings by Bella series but was the first book I’ve read by this author. I finished this book on 5/16/14. I rated this book 2.75 stars out of a scale of 5. This book is about Gabi Delgado and Jordan Singer. Gabi is an alterations girl in the most renowned wedding gown salon in Galveston, TX. She secretly designs wedding gowns at night and on the weekends though. Jordan Singer is a reporter who comes in to do an article on one of the brides who is buying a dress from Gabi’s boss.

Overall I found this story very hard to connect with. The characters in the story were all nice all the time except for the one villain of course, but even he came around in the end. There was one scene where the four girls are all sitting around talking and the three girls that are currently in relationships start talking about how amazing their significant other is and they get all teary-eyed thinking about how wonderful their husbands/boyfriends are. WHO DOES THAT. The answer is no one. No one actually does that in real life. Ever. And while I like to read about romance novels because I like the happy endings, this book was just too far fetched for me.

Another piece of this book that was difficult for me to relate to was the overwhelming topic of God in this book. To be honest this book felt like it was more about Gabi finding God than about Gabi finding Jordan. Which is fine, I certainly have no problem with God. But did it really have to come up in every single conversation? And (**SPOILER ALERT**) in the end Gabi ends up this super successful wedding designer and she’s going to design a dress for someone to wear to the Academy Awards all because she prayed to God? That isn’t really how it works. I just couldn’t relate to that at all and I found it almost insulting in its lack of feasibility.

Overall I was not a fan of this book (obviously) not only because of the reasons already listed but also because I just couldn’t get into the book. The characters weren’t developed very deeply and the conversations all felt forced, awkward, and choppy. Just wasn’t my type of book I guess.

Link to author website: http://janiceathompson.com/blog/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Dress-The-Weddings-Design/dp/0800721543/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400245606&sr=8-1&keywords=the+dream+dress