Previous book here. I'll have to take the review below the spoiler cut. Four stars, though.
Spoiler space
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I've read remarks that the author wanted to turn everything on its head and be surprising, and that's true. Let's just say that any and all relationships set up in book one? ABSOLUTELY NOT HAPPENING IN BOOK TWO and that's all for the best and you're more or less happy with how things work out.
- Princess Queen Beatrice is now queen, and everyone's harassing her to tie the knot ASAP. After saying farewell to her love Connor early on in the boo, she actually falls in love with he fiance Teddy and vice versa, which is really sweet and nice and it works. However, she's got a horrible sexist lord chamberlain to deal with who thinks he can dictate her life, won't het her do her duty by visiting Congress, and HE'S SERIOUSLY HELLA SEXIST AND THINKS BEATRICE IS ONLY WORTH SOMETHING ONCE MARRIED. FUCK THAT FUCKING GUY.
- Princess Samantha decides to fake-date Lord Marshall Davis of Orange, which as per fake dating in any book, works out splendidly and they turn out to be super fun and very compatible. Love it. Marshall is African-American, which this book mentions (a la Meghan) that he will get a lot more shit for officially dating her--but mostly it's all good! There's also a subplot in which the awful chamberlain keeps making her feel like crap, to the point where AN ACTUAL PRINCESS GOES TO....well, Daphne, to find out how to be a princess. This is both fitting (since Daphne has studied the shit out of this and Samantha has been staring into space and rebelling) and at the same time, the fuck? Has Samantha learned nothing just from her own life? It both makes sense and doesn't.
- Nina moves on from Jefferson with no regrets and starts dating his best friend Ethan while they're at college. All of that is going great, except for the fact that Ethan started hanging out with her at Daphne's bequest. Even Ethan seems to be all "why the fuck did I agree to do her dirty work?" after this.
- Daphne continues to be horrible and straight outta Melrose Place in characterization. Her best friend finally comes out of her coma* and has some amnesia as to what happened to her, which Daphne happily takes advantage of for as long as she can. Otherwise, Daphne mostly continues her sleazy, jerky tricks with the occasional hint of nuance or feeling or whatever regarding her "best friend" or Ethan or whoever. More about Daphne below the spoiler space, though.
Quote about Daphne: "Daphne, some of us actually want to keep our best friends, not push them down staircases!"
* and is running around like everything is normal after being out of commission for 10 months...yeah, right, I mutter after having read/watched The Dead Zone....but this is a teen/New Adult soap opera, after all.
As for the dudes in this book, all of them are pretty great (well, Ethan has some dubiousness but overall doesn't seem that horrible if you keep him away from Daphne), BUT Jefferson continues to be a cipher. Poor guy is hardly in here at all except as a plot device that crops up once in a while, mostly for Daphne to subtly chase after. I feel sorry for him because I assume he has feelings and depth, but we just don't see them here ever like we do the other guys. Admittedly he is hardly in it since he's not really dating any of our four girls, but still.
Overall, this is a good book. Other than Daphne (sigh), the other three girls get personality and depth and start to grow up and realize who cares about them and what will actually work in a relationship and in the case of the royal girls, how to deal with their inherited line of work. More about that below the spoiler cut, though.
The author claims there's only two books in this series (for now, anyway) but I concur with other reviews I read that it feels like there should be a third one. I'm guessing it was only a two book deal or something, but darn it, I think it feels trilogy-ish.
Okay, on to discussing more stuff in the spoiler realm.
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Daphne: ugh, this girl. Blackmails the queen to get her best friend sent to Japan--ugh. Best friend somehow forgives her anyway for "accidentally" putting her into a coma and wasting a year of her life. SIGH. Daphne suddenly seeing Ethan with Nina and IMMEDIATELY DECIDING HE'S THE LOVE OF HER LIFE, I hate her. Okay, she's not meant to really be liked per se, but what a selfish cunt for only wanting him once he's with someone else. And why is she always after whoever Nina dates? I enjoyed Ethan's telling her off. I enjoyed Nina's telling her off.
And then Jefferson, out of nowhere (since he's hardly been in the book At All, per above), wants to get back together with her. Daphne wins! She gets to be a princess/duchess, presumably, whatever! And it's a hollow sad victory she doesn't enjoy at all. Yeah, she deserves it. Much as I'd rather a third book focus on Beatrice's queendom and Sam and Nina on a literal journey of self-empowerment, I feel like a third book would really need to cover Daphne and whether or not she ever stops being an asshole. Hm, maybe, who knows. I also feel bad for Jefferson because by her own admission, Daphne's literally driven away everyone else from him so he's all alone. Ouch.
As for Beatrice: while I dunno on calling off her wedding temporarily/entirely (or at least she promises to do it on her own damn timeline, not the chamberlain's), I DEEPLY enjoyed her firing the chamberlain because SHE is the one that's queen, dammit, not him! He doesn't get to run her life! Fuck that!
Nina and Ethan are not back together at the end of the book--again, I think that's a thing one would cover in a book three. I presume they could do so later, but Nina will be fine if she dates outside of royal circles, too. Either way, poor girl could use a break from drama for awhile!
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