Previous book here.
Due to spoileration, this will be reviewed below the cut. I give it 3.5 stars, mostly good but the ending's a bit much.
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- Queen Beatrice: still is with Teddy, who's giving up his title for her but doesn't have much to do. Beatrice is at some League of Kings meeting with other young royals, sitting through dull things, trying to get some climate change bill to go through, and trying to make friends with Princess Louise, regent ruler of France. Beatrice hasn't really had a close friendship before and is trying to get that to go with Louise, but Louise's dad's mental health issues (he's mostly been in some other reality for years) kind of get in the way. Teddy also takes offense that Bea is spending more time with Louise than him and decides to go take a break, Bea does a Race For Your Love to the airport, and...it doesn't go well. Oy.
- Princess Samantha wants to make her relationship with Marshall work, and it is, except for how he'd have to give up his title to marry her. Upon hearing about a rebel former prince who quit and how her aunt had relationships go, she and Marshall decide to bug off to Hawaii (where their titles don't count) for awhile and see how their relationship goes. But she's leaning towards giving up her place in the line of succession. Which would be fine, except see above last line for Bea.
- Nina and Daphne actually end up being friends for awhile in this one, which was the most standout story here for me. Daphne's family is broke, she's forced to drop out of college, and the title "rival" of Gabriella Madison is trying to get Daphne's family out of their baronetecy and to get Nina priced out of college for telling Gabriella off. The two team up to blackmail Gabriella and become friends along the way and Daphne's not being an asshole and it's really great...until, well, shit happens and we have to revert her back to being an awful schemer again, SIGH. Seriously, both these girls need to ditch Jefferson, who seems nice enough but is a total waffle. But given the shit Daphne's going through, you get why she uh....clings harder in the sleazy way. That said, UGH when she reverts.
Anyway, the ending has Big Dramatic Cliffhanger that makes it all feel very soap opera, but then again, this series always has been. I don't like going back to Evil Daphne at the end, and otherwise the cliffhanger is very "oh DAMN." I note Ethan has been written out of the series, apparently, which is kind of a bummer because he was more interesting than Jefferson.
Overall, this is quite a ride, and you certainly feel sorry for all the royal girls who can't easily be with who they want to be. But in this one, Nina and Daphne stood out the most, followed by Samantha. Jefferson continues to be nice, but I dunno, he's the least interesting of the bunch and after awhile you just wish the ladies would move on already. (After the end of this, hahahaha, no.) Some plot developments will certainly go on in the future and we'll see how it all ends, I guess.
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