“But we can’t change who we are — not a queen, a prince, or a girl from New York. Like he told me once…royalty is forever.”

FINAL DECISION:  Romantic, funny and sexy.  I love this book.  Its tone, its humor, its intense emotional and romantic underpinnings.  The entirety seems like a modern fairy tale and I enjoyed every page.

THE STORY:  Nicholas Arthur Frederick Edward Pembrook is the Crowned Prince of Wessco. Women around the world are obsessed with the sexy heir to the throne. While Nicholas has thoroughly enjoyed his bachelor ways, his grandmother, the Queen, tells him that it is time for him to marry.  Nicholas, always aware of his position knows that he needs to comply, but he is going to make the most of the time he has left.  He first has to go to New York to handle his younger brother who is acting scandalously.  In New York, Nicholas meets Olivia Hammond who is running her family’s failing coffee house.  When Nicholas propositions her Olivia tosses a pie in his face and thus Nicholas has met the woman who can resist him.  In the months before his aristocratic bride will be announced, Nicholas and Olivia agree to have a temporary affair.  The question is what happens when a temporary affair becomes love that can’t lead to marriage.

OPINION:  I have become a real fan of Emma Chase’s style. I’ve only sporadically liked first person narratives, but I’ve always loved getting in the heads of Chase’s characters.  This book typifies why I like Chase’s style.  Her characters are flawed with big personalities and quirky senses of humor.  The obstacles that the characters face here feel insurmountable until everything falls into place for a happy ending.

And that is another thing I really liked about this book.  Somehow this book manages to walk the line between completely feeling contemporary and realistic and yet there is a fairy tale quality to the story that reaches it height at the ending (which I absolutely adored).

As we meet Nicholas in this book, he is the golden child.  Next in line for the throne of his country, he has tried to live up to the expectations of being royalty.  He’s tried to keep his relationships in their proper place and avoid scandal at all costs.  (In comparison his younger brother is the scandalous hellion). When Nicholas’s grandmother informs him that it is time to marry, Nicholas is unhappy, but he knows he needs to do his duty.  The acceptance of the reader that Nicholas is truly a man of duty is important to the story because that duty is what ultimately is going to keep Nicholas and Olivia apart. If Chase did not so deftly embed Nicholas’s duty into the very fiber of his character, the central conflict of the book would not have any power.  Instead, the real sense is that Nicholas is caught in a net from which he cannot escape no matter what he might emotionally want.

I absolutely adored Olivia.  She is a woman living on the edge.  Trying to support her family by operating the coffee shop, Olivia is not making ends meet.  Things are becoming desperate.  Yet, Olivia never wants to take advantage of the possibilities for money that could come from knowing Nicholas. She is moral and honest.  She also knows that Nicholas will be marrying the appropriate woman but is willing to enjoy all the possibilities in the meantime.  She knows there is no future for them but will take every moment that she can have.

I like books that make me cry and then rejoice and this book does that.  As things appear hopeless for Olivia and Nicholas, the emotions of the book were so strong that I teared up.  There seemed to be no solution to the dilemma — and then there was.  The sacrifice was huge, but that is the beauty of the book.  Love can be worthy of sacrifice.

WORTH MENTIONING: Oh, I can’t wait for Henry’s book.  I’ve always like the scoundrel.

CONNECTED BOOKS:  ROYALLY SCREWED is the first book of the Royally series.

STAR RATING:  I give this book 4.5 stars.