After I made the unfortunate mistake of reading The Luckiest Girl Alive, Christa asked me if someone held a gun to my head. “I can’t imagine a more not-you book,” she said.
She was right, it’s not a me book at all. However, sometimes I get sick of my own taste. The books I like take on a kind of sameness — beautifully written where not a whole hell of lot goes on. I wanted something different.
I was probably whining about the same thing when my friend Amy slyly suggested The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan. This is also not a me-book. Popular fiction for the lit snob? Really? Really.
“It’s mindless fun,” Amy said. “Don’t think too much about it.”
She was right! The Royal We is also super sweet and wholly compelling. It’s probably the funnest book I’ve read in a good long time.
This one is a fictional retelling of the romance between Kate Middleton and Prince William only our romantic leads are Bex Porter an American who meets dashing Prince Nicholas while studying abroad at Oxford. The two become friends bonding over terrible American TV they watch on DVD, sent over by Bex’s twin sister Lacey, while holed up in Bex’s dorm room.
The two eventually fall in love and do their best to hide the budding romance from the tabloids and Nick’s family, except for charming red-headed rapscallion Prince Freddie. He’s totally in on the deal. So area handful of the couple’s Oxford friends and Bex’s kind of annoying twin sister, Lacey. But things don’t always go as planned.
There’s just enough mystery of the will they/won’t they variety to pull you through this tender-hearted romance. Plus, you know from the get-go that it’s just a matter of time to see who among the inner circle betrays the couple. Finding out is fun. Plus, all the royal family stuff is interesting, especially if you grew up on Princess Diana. And, really, the love story is sweet and not without its pitfalls.
There’s a third act while the couple is apart that gets a little dragging, but overall this one is a giant thumbs up, especially if you’re in the mood for something mindless and fun.