When American college student Rebecca “Bex” Porter enrolls in a semester abroad at Oxford, she finds herself living on the same floor as Prince Nicholas, grandson of Queen Eleanor of England. Bex and Nick quickly become friends, only to accidentally fall in love. But young love is difficult, especially when one is heir to the throne. Will Prince Nick and Bex get their happily ever after, or will a secret tear them apart?
The Royal We started off great; the first third was fun and lighthearted. When Bex and Nick broke up, I figured the authors would follow the standard rom-com three act plan where the heroes must overcome their challenge and everything would return to being sunshine and rainbows. Unfortunately for me, Bex and Nick’s engagement didn’t magically fix everything.
The writing is fine, but the book was overly long in the second and third acts. A bigger issue is that Prince Nick was barely in the last two-thirds of the book. In order to be invested in the romance, we need both parties. I found myself wondering why Bex wanted him because, as a reader, I found it hard to remember what was so great about him. One final issue is that the epilogue was unnecessary. It would have been better to leave it up to the reader’s imagination. Plus it was weird to have only the epilogue be from another character’s point of view.
Yeah, the epilogue wasn’t my favorite, and I think it was written a year or two after the book came out. I also had trouble with the sequel, in part because I think they didn’t quite know what to do with Freddie at the end of the story. The Royal We ended up being a bit heavier as Cox and Morgan stayed somewhat close to the Wills/Kate story. Red, White, and Royal Blue was a much more lighthearted read than this ended up being.