Book Roundup: Our Favorite Royal Fiction
While Dinah is the resident royal expert, we both love all of the romantic fiction that has come out in the last few years. Books have been inspired by William and Kate’s love story, fictionalized Harry’s bachelor days and played with the idea of how Americans could be a part in the love story, before Meghan was even on the scene. This week we decided to take you through four of our favorites, each tackling two that we especially love. Hopefully there will be something new to everyone on this list!
The Royal We
The Royal We was my first real foray into Royal-based fiction and I spent an ENTIRE day reading this book from cover to cover. Written by the founders of celebrity fashion website Go Fug Yourself, Jessica Morgan & Heather Cocks, The Royal We basically retells William and Kate’s love story, if Kate was an American transfer student named Bex. Complete with a hard-partying, social climbing, Pippa-inspired twin sister, rowdy younger brother Harry character and a cast of tight knit friends, it pulls just the right amount of details from William and Kate’s university years and 20’s in London without being an exact retelling. While the love story is the central plot, the action is driven by the wider group of friends as they navigate the pitfalls and perks of being friends with the heir to the throne. Their next book in the series, The Heir Affair comes out in July and I cannot wait to spend another entire day reading it.
- Dinah
Red, White & Royal Blue
Most of my favorite royal fiction include Americans falling in love with British royals, but Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston took it to another level with Alex, the son of the first female POTUS falling in love with Prince Henry, the second in line to the UK throne. This book is STEAMY and chock full of political intrigue, campaign politics, some of the most touching love letters (emails) I have read in a romance-oriented book (seriously, the quotes on love in their emails are amazing), and really nuanced and endearing characters. Warning - this book had some pretty intense sex scenes, almost romance novel level!
- Dinah
American Royals
Written by Katherine McGee, who also wrote the awesome YA series The Thousandth Floor, American Royals is based on the premise that when American won the Revolutionary War, George Washington became the country’s first king. In the modern day, the House of Washington still leads the country, and Princess Beatrice is in line to become the country’s queen. Her younger twin siblings, Jefferson and Samantha, might be quite the hell-raisers, but Beatrice has lived her life exactly according to her duties and desire to please her parents and the country. They’re also surrounded by friends and exes, and it’s hard to know who to trust. As they graduate from college and become adults in the public eye, the rules and roles they’ve followed all their lives come into question. Can they find true love as royals or is their fate meant to put country before their own interests?
- Eloise
Prince Charming; Her Royal Highness (Royals Books 1 &2)
This YA series of two books begins with seventeen year old Daisy Winters from Florida in Prince Charming. Her perfect older sister, Ellie, met Prince Alexander of Scotland, while studying abroad, and now they’re engaged. When Daisy gets embroiled in a mini scandal, she’s sent to Scotland to stay out of trouble and learn how to navigate living in the spotlight. But between the Prince’s younger siblings-Sebastian and Flora, and Sebastian’s best friend Miles, there’s plenty of drama and potential pitfalls in Daisy’s future. She has to handle the aristocratic world that she’s suddenly stuck in, the constant tabloid coverage, and too many good-looking guys without upsetting the King and Queen and their PR maven or her very conservative sister who’s also trying to prover herself in this new world.
The second book in the series, Her Royal Highness, follows the adventures of Millie Quint, who’s fleeing Texas after she’s dumped by her sort of best friend/sort of girlfriend. She gets into the most elite boarding school in Scotland, only to find that her new roommate is Princess Flora. Flora is ultra glamorous, cool, and always on the look-out for trouble. The two girls start out hating each other, but a series of events brings them closer and closer. Will they end up as friends or maybe even something more?
I love the way this series incorporates the breathless tabloid coverage of the royals, and the way that it gets some things very right and some very wrong. I burned through them very quickly and especially loved the descriptions of the boarding school in the middle of nowhere-it reminded me so much of the depiction of Gordonstound in The Crown-the school that Prince Philip and Prince Charles attended in their earlier years, with intense physical challenges and a distinct lack of coddling.
- Eloise