They seemed really staged and not like something an actual person would say. Another thing was the conversations some characters had with each other. I know that describing a character in such a way that isn’t cliche is quite difficult, but using the “describing yourself in a mirror” trope is probably one of my biggest annoyances when it comes to writing. The problems I had with this story were primarily the writing style and secondly the use of tropes which the author had in her previous book. Flora also had her good side show up, along with her bratty, royal self, but she eventually outgrew that with Millie’s help. Millie was quite genuine as a person and I appreciated her as an independent character. She eventually does go to school in Scotland and her roommate is none other than a princess (which she doesn’t know at the time) and from there, this enemies-to-lovers relationship blossoms. In the meantime she was having difficulty with her love life, liking a girl who didn’t seem to have the same feelings towards her. She had this grand dream of going to Scotland to study and was constantly working towards that.

I felt what she felt and I truly felt for her as a character. I decided to pick it up despite my previous judgement. I thought it would be different because on Booktube there was talk that this book was a standalone, wasn’t dependent on the previous book, and had a F/F romance which everyone was gushing about.

This, among a few other reasons, was why I hadn’t picked up this book sooner. I felt like the book’s plot read like an episode of The Bachelor and all the male characters in that book felt like generic copies of each other.

I’m going to be transparent and say that I read Royals last year and didn’t like it all that much. The only link to the previous book was that Flora’s brother is the royal getting married in Royals but other than a few guest appearances from previous books, this book can stand on its own. This book follows Millie, a girl with a dream of attending boarding school in Scotland, who has to room with Princess Flora, a girl who she doesn’t get along with at first. Though this book is labeled as the second book in the Royals series, it can be read independently from the first book, Royals or Prince Charming as it was retitled.

Rachel hawkins her royal highness