I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Suddenly Royal by Nichole Chase Series: Suddenly #1
Published by HarperCollins on 2013-11-26
Genres: Coming of Age, Contemporary, Contemporary Women, Fiction, Romance
Pages: 400
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
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Samantha Rousseau is used to getting her hands dirty. Working on a master's degree in wildlife biology while helping take care of her sick father, she has no time for celebrity gossip, designer clothes, or lazy vacations. So when a duchess from the small country of Lilaria invites her to dinner, Samantha assumes it's to discuss a donation for the program. The truth will change the course of her life in ways she never dreamed . . .As crown prince of Lilaria, Alex D'Lynsal has had his share of scandalous headlines, but the latest pictures in the press have sent him packing to America and forced him to swear off women. That is, until he meets Samantha Rousseau. She's stubborn, feisty, and incredibly sexy. Not to mention heiress to an estate in his country, which makes her everyone's front-page news. While Sam tries to navigate her new world of politics and wealth, she will also have to dodge her growing feelings for Alex. Giving in to them means more than just falling in love; it would mean accepting the weight of an entire country on her shoulders.
I randomly decided to start reading Suddenly Royal by Nichole Chase one night because I had just come off a New Adult bender after reading the Marked Men books and was like, hmmm, what other new adult do I have lying around the house. And lo and behold, the beautiful pink winking cover of Suddenly Royal was looking at me and it had the Avon publishing stamp so I thought I would really enjoy it. Also, I had recently been thinking about royal books because someone instagrammed a picture of the Princess Diaries books. While this book did not take me too long to read, I am going to be straight up with you all and say that this story of a girl who discovers that she’s actually royalty is totally a poor man’s Princess Diaries. It does not even have the charm of Amanda Bynes in What A Girl Wants, which is totally one of my guilty pleasure movies. Overall, this book is a huge disappointment.
Nichole Chase’s Suddenly Royal opens with Samantha Rousseau, our main character, trying to get into the school library. She is unable to do so because some royals from some country are blocking her way. She is not allowed in. So, then she goes to her school’s place for birds, I am blanking on what it’s called instead and works on this project. There, she meets this older guy named Duvall who gives her a card and says that his boss, this duchess lady person wants to meet with Sam. Sam figures it’s to accept a donation for her university’s bird department. Nope, instead it is the duchess lady and the PRINCE of Lilaria, named Alex. They have news for her. It turns out that Samantha is actually royalty and a duchess in Lilaria. And that’s kind of the whole entire book, Samantha becoming a duchess and falling for Alex. Nothing else really happens. Nothing exciting, at least.
Samantha is kind of a ho hum character. I am sorry you guys for writing a ho hum book review, but like, you have to understand, there’s like not a lot to say about this book because it’s legit 368 pages of nothing exciting happening. Okay so back to Samantha. She’s really into birds. She hates shopping. She hates being in the spotlight. She is devoted to her stepfather. Oh and her mom is dead. Also her best friend’s name is Jess and Jess is dating Bert. Okay, that’s everything that I know about Samantha. Wait, you want to know about her personality? LOL. Well, she’s very eager to learn about being royal and her duties. She also isn’t too sure if she wants to date Alex and thus the central struggle of this book.
So, the romance. Basically there’s some kind of attraction between Samantha and Alex because we are told that there is. Alex is an artist and draws Samantha like one of his french girls, only not really. Hmmm, so okay, the two eat dinner together and Alex says something to her in Lilarian. And um, then Samantha is all be my tutor and he does a piss poor job of tutoring her. Also, what else. Oh they have sex a few times like after 200 or so pages. The end. That’s the romance. I don’t know. This book. It wasn’t what I hoped it would be. Onto the next one, y’all.
OH WAIT! I will say that I did read Christina at A Reader Of Fiction’s review and I think she read it back when it was self published and I read it after it was published by Avon and there are a lot of changes that were made, at least that’s what I am inferring based on her review. So, hmmm, cool to see that when a book gets picked up by a publishing house that they actually edit it.
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I’m not usually a rags-to-riches story fan, but I did really like this cover and the tagline grabbed my attention. The description made it sound like a lot of fun.
I was on the fence. But based on your review it seems like it was misleading as Sam seems to want the crown? And if it’s a lot of pages of not much happening, I think maybe I’ll take a pass.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Even if you thought the book was a bit blah and that you had to share blah thoughts, it totally helped me make a decision.