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Royals #2

Her Royal Highness

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Regal romance abounds in this flirty, laugh-out-loud companion novel to Royals , by New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins.

Millie Quint is devastated when she discovers that her sort-of-best friend/sort-of-girlfriend has been kissing someone else. Heartbroken and ready for a change of pace, Millie decides to apply for scholarships to boarding schools . . . the farther from Houston the better.

Soon, Millie is accepted into one of the world's most exclusive schools, located in the rolling highlands of Scotland. Here, the country is dreamy and green; the school is covered in ivy, and the students think her American-ness is adorable.

The only problem: Mille's roommate Flora is a total princess.

She's also an actual princess. Of Scotland.

At first, the girls can't stand each other, but before Millie knows it, she has another sort-of-best-friend/sort-of-girlfriend. Princess Flora could be a new chapter in her love life, but Millie knows the chances of happily-ever-afters are slim . . . after all, real life isn't a fairy tale . . . or is it?

New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins brings the feels and the laughs to her latest romance.

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 7, 2019

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Rachel Hawkins

40 books14.8k followers
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5 stars
7,591 (21%)
4 stars
14,420 (41%)
3 stars
10,397 (29%)
2 stars
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423 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 5,416 reviews
Profile Image for ✨    jami   ✨.
662 reviews3,890 followers
July 10, 2019
you hetero bitches have been getting "I'm falling in love with a man whoops turns out he's a prince" stories for YEARS and finally, finally us sapphics got ours.

“...No, what surprises me is the sudden, jolting, and undeniable realization that even I didn’t want to, I’ve fallen for an actual princess.”


THIS WAS SO FREAKIN CUTE. I was pretty much just expecting an easy, fluffy, sweet read about girls in love and THAT IS WHAT I GOT. I loved the boarding school setting and the set-up of the relationship between Flora and Millie. Essentially, they're assigned the same dorm room but instantly don't get along very well.

I can definitely see the criticisms for this book - the writing is probably not my favourite and the end of the book happens in a rush. I didn't mind where it went, but they definitely jumped from "getting together" to "desperately in love" way to quick.

That said, I don't really care because I had such a fun time reading this. I essentially only came here for the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers and there is A LOT of build up and tension in this book so it was great. I also really loved the side characters. But most of all, I loved Flora and Millie together. Their banter was sweet and they complimented eachother well.

For a quick and fluffy read I'd recommend, and if you liked Red, White & Royal Blue you should read it.
Profile Image for chai ♡.
321 reviews153k followers
May 15, 2019
I really thought I didn’t like contemporary romance but turns out I was just bored of reading about straight people pulling the same shit over and over again and I’m definitely here for the concept of “falling in love with your royal classmate in boarding school BUT MAKE IT GAY
Profile Image for may ➹.
481 reviews1,957 followers
May 20, 2020
It’s all fun and gaymes until you realize you could have have rewritten approximately a third of the book, and it would have ended up 5x better, despite not even being a half-decent writer.

The issue with this book is that the pacing is completely off. I honestly would have rated it higher if the pacing hadn’t been so weird and janky, because it’s a fluffy book that you could simply have a lot of fun reading. But my slight enjoyment of the book couldn’t compete with how there’s pretty much zero development of the relationship after the characters get together, or how the ending was abrupt, unsatisfying, and felt unfinished, or how the book jumps from one thing to another with seemingly no buildup or growth.

I think this was meant to be a very light and fluffy book purely for enjoyment, which is fine, and it mostly was! Millie and Flora were definitely cute together, and it was a decently entertaining read. I was never really bored with the book, only frustrated that it was inadequately written, and I liked the characters’ banter. (Though it was annoying that some side characters were so relevant at certain times, and then didn’t even seem to exist at others.) The writing was also really easy to read, which I especially appreciated since I was slumping, and there were some scenes I thought were super cute.

Overall, however, I felt a very large disconnect from the story and characters and didn’t really care when something major happened, most likely because of the insufficient buildup to said events. And when I’m not invested in the characters, that throws everything off and diminishes my enjoyment of the book by a lot.

Truly, this book could have been written so much better, and it had so much more potential beyond what it was actually able to achieve. If you’re looking for a quick fun f/f book to read, this might be the one for you. But it’s more likely that your enjoyment will be hindered by its lack of development and poor writing overall.

:: rep :: bi MC, lesbian LI, queer side characters

:: content warnings :: loss of parent, cheating (not main couple)


// buddy read with my Asian faves !!

Thank you to Penguin for providing me a copy of this book! This did not affect my opinion in any way.
Profile Image for Joel Rochester.
62 reviews17.3k followers
August 18, 2020
edit: I wanted to add that if you just want an easy to read sapphic romance with a HEA, then this book fits that bill perfectly!

Between the lack of character development, plot development, world-building, pacing, research into scottish & wider british culture, and a lackluster romance - I just couldn't help but feel disappointed by this.

Flora and Saks were literally the only two interesting and slightly developed characters. Millie just spent the entire novel either gushing over Scotland (bordering fetishization, she literally calls it "Scottish-Fever"), calling Flora beautiful or talking about how different she is from Flora for coming from a poorer background.

There was just no wider plot either. it just didn't... make sense? Plus, the irregular pacing didn't help the novel whatsoever, it really hindered the novel. (i.e. Chapters 1-3 really could've been just Chapter 1.) I didn't see the need for a 274-page book to have 39 chapters. I also feel like the ending was a tad rushed and completely ended unsatisfyingly and too soon.

I feel like this book needed the following:
1 - restructuring of chapters to make them longer
2 - at least 100 more pages to flesh out the characters and add necessary world-building
3 - a secondary personal conflict, I thought we were going to get this with flora's relationship with the tabloids but... I was disappointed.

I loved the idea of this story but I feel like it was poorly executed. Millie and Flora's scene in the laundry room was cute though, but I wanted more.
Profile Image for Silvia .
635 reviews1,405 followers
May 10, 2019
🌈 Full review now posted!

4.5 royally sapphic stars

I devoured this book on audio in basically a day and oh my god, friends. There is a very specific emotion that us sapphic girls feel when presented with good sapphic content in fiction, and depending on our tastes in terms of tropes and genres, different sapphic books will hit us differently. The feeling I got from this book was one of pure joy from getting a royal romance, usually reserved for a girl falling in love with a prince, starring two girls.

I loved Millie, the protagonist, right away. She's smart and she wants to be a geologist!!! She wants to go to a school in Scotland and part of the reason why she loves Scotland is because of its cool geology. Not to be so me, but give me any girl protagonist who's a scientist or wants to be one and I'll immediately be ten times more invested in her story. Also, her interest wasn't just mentioned once in passing, it's actually pretty much present throughout the book and she has her own collection of minerals and rocks (I do too!! okay, technically my mom does, but that's not the point) and UGH I love her so much okay!! I have no actual idea how accurate some of the things she said were. Since I was on audiobook I didn't feel like pausing every time and google or ask my mom if the geology stuff was correct BUT whatever I appreciate the sentiment in any case (and if you're a geologist don't @ me I'm just here for a fun gay time). Okay now I made it sound like this is way more about geology than it actually is, but no, it's just I feel very strongly about geology so pardon me.

After a brief introduction to Millie's family and friends back home, she gets to Scotland and we get that Hogwarts-y feeling of arriving to a place you know very little about (despite all the research Millie has done) and having to navigate through a new school and new people, most of which are filthy rich or straight up aristocrats. Among which is HRH Flora and, surprise surprise, Millie's roommate.

description

Their relationship can only be described as hate to love, as it often is when the couple starts off as roommates. Only after weeks of forced vicinity Millie's perception of Flora starts to change, and I think although we don't get Flora's POV, the same could be said for her. I don't want to wander too much into headcanons, but I believe that Flora started to view Millie under a new light after Millie's coming out, and I found that such a realistic experience for sapphic people.

Speaking of coming outs, they were two, in two separate moments (Millie's, which we know about since the very first page, but she comes out to her new friends in the school - she's bi, and Flora's, who is gay), and they both warmed my heart so much because of how they were handled. There's also a "wait, you're straight???" moment for one of the side characters that had me laughing for hours (okay, not literally but I have to laugh whenever I remember it). (No, don't worry, there was no queerbait.)

While I wouldn't call this book super diverse as a whole, it does deliver on casual queerness and on people never making a big deal out of it. I really appreciated both aspects and how much a non-issue it all was, I really felt like it was a book written for queer people instead of just about them, you know? ♥

Back to the romance, I loved Millie and Flora's relationship. You can't help but hate Flora in the beginning but by the end you're almost as in love with her as Millie is (okay, not sure that's possible actually). They got such cute and cliché romantic moments and they were TO DIE for. Twentybiteen is giving us such sapphic goodness!!!!

Anyway it's been a while since a full-on gush review and I usually don't really review audiobooks because those are the books I read purely for fun without reviewing in mind, but I couldn't not talk about this. I went into it only for a good sapphic time and it never ever disappointed me.

I do want to say that if you're expecting this to be completely realistic you should maybe change your mindset a little before you start reading. Yes, we all know there is no queen of Scotland and therefore no princess of Scotland. Maybe the blurb should make it more clear that it's a fictional/alternate Scotland, but that's hardly the first book series that does something like this. Of course, that's easy for me to say because I've never been and I have no ties to Scotland, but I understand not liking the idea of changing things for the sake of the book. You do you and while it never bothered me I wanted to mention this aspect.

Another brief note for those who want to read this but haven't read the first book in the series yet, go for it! I haven't read book one either and as you can see I loved this book. It follows different characters and we do get to see the protagonists from the first installment (one of which is Flora's older brother), but the book pretty much explains everything and we're not left wondering who these people are. And if you've read book one and want to see them again, well read this book!

In conclusion, I don't think this book is perfect, and if it hadn't been f/f maybe I wouldn't have liked it so much, but as you can see I loved it so much and I had such a good time reading it. I 100% recommend it to everyone!

TWs: mentions of loss of a parent in the past, mention of casual homophobia ("it's just a phase"), several instances of "more than friends"(not challenged), sort of cheating (not the main couple)
Profile Image for Whitney Atkinson.
916 reviews13.9k followers
August 27, 2019
4.5 stars

wouldnt it be cool if i went to a boarding school and had a princess fall in love with me hahaha.... just kidding....... unless??

I knew within 50 pages this book was going to get a high rating. Like I said about Prince Charming, the first book, this series is so feel-good and upbeat and addicting to read. Millie and Flora's camaraderie and hate to love romance was *chefs kiss* FROM THE GODS and their development, though contained in a short novel, was still spectacularly drawn out.

My only grievance about this book is that the characters' personalities seem kinda similar, both to each other and to the characters in the previous book. Hawkins has a really easy time writing wit and sarcasm, but she gives several characters that same tone in their dialogue, so it felt a bit repetitive and overdone at times. Maybe this issue was rooted in the characters not having enough fleshing out of their inner workings, but the dialogue often felt like the characters were trying to one-up one another with their sarcastic remarks, and I almost craved some more tension to cut the constant jokes that began to grow corny.

Still, I highly recommend this series if you want books about royals that will fly by and make you laugh out loud and clutch the book to your chest out of feels. I would love for Hawkins to continue writing in this universe even though you could certainly read either book as a standalone.
Profile Image for anna (½ of readsrainbow).
588 reviews1,791 followers
June 4, 2021
rep: bi mc, lesbian li

every sapphic girl deserves to fall for a princess, thanks for agreeing

anyway, someone tell hawkins you gotta actually develop your characters before you throw in the angst and you can't do that at the very end bc pacing does matter
Profile Image for chan ☆.
1,052 reviews49.2k followers
May 22, 2019
oadsfjgofjd lass

yeah too lazy to think of a clever tagline but this was cute! i adored the setting and the overall ~mood~ of this book. i felt like i was in scotland and for that, this book gets 3 stars. but there were a few things that bugged me.

- the audiobook narrator's deep south accent for a houstonian (sorry bro we don't sound like that)
- the beginning of the book
- the mc's motivations

idk, my biggest issue was that the things i was supposed to deeply care about, and the things that MC should have cared about just... weren't there? like she wants to go to scotland because she watched Brave as a kid. and i guess as a teenager that is as good a reason as any, but as an adult it was hard to understand "oh yeah that makes sense" or why millie's dad was like "oh you like Brave? def go to a scottish boarding school."

and the romantic relationship had the makings of something special. there was lots of lead up and enemies to lovers goodness. but ultimately it kind of fell flat at the end. there needs to be a transition from hate to love and i think it happened a LITTLE too quickly for my liking.

that being said, i did enjoy this book. it was a fun easy listen. and it's always refreshing to see FF romances in YA. i do recommend it.
Profile Image for Christy.
3,818 reviews32.4k followers
January 13, 2020
4 stars

 photo IMG_5683_zpsrahsmkqe.jpg

This book was so adorable. It gave me so many happy feels. This is my first book by Rachel Hawkins, but now I most definitely want to read the first in the series.

This story follows Millie Quint, a high school senior from Texas. After she sees her bff she's kind of been dating kissing her ex, she is more than ready to get out of Texas for her last year of high school. She has an awesome opportunity to go to a school in Scotland and she takes it. The unbelievable happens... Millie is rooming with a legit princess.

Flora is difficult at first. She's not the easiest to get along with, but the more Princess Flora and Millie get to know each other, they start to become friendly. Then they realize there are other feelings at play.

I loved the enemies to friends, then friends to lovers aspect of this story. I also loved so many of the secondary characters. The writing and story were fun, and the audio book was great. The only big downfall for me was the ending. I wanted more, or at the very least some kind of epilogue.
Profile Image for theresa.
294 reviews4,312 followers
April 19, 2022
as a lesbian, i really wanted to love this book. but as a scot, i simply couldn't. if you want to share in my pain and have a laugh with me, i vlogged my experience reading it and you can find that here.
Profile Image for Eileen.
272 reviews22 followers
September 3, 2020
* so sorry, but I still had a few things to add *


I read this because it was advertised to be gay as fuck. When did I get that? After 85% of the book was over.

◇◇◇

Things I didn't like:
• I thought this book was about Milly wanting to go to the boarding school because of her love for geology? That it had some fancy geology program or something? After Milly gets there, geology is never mentioned again, aside from talking about the decor rocks she keeps in her room. I'm really sick of authors giving characters really cool hobbies and interests, basically shoving them into our faces and throats in the first 10 pages of a book, and then never mentioning them ever again. Milly could have just gone to school because she liked Scotland. No geology needed. Why invent an interesting fact when you don't use it?

• I'm sorry but a romance where the romance starts after 3/4 of the book? This isn't slow burn, it's garbage.

• It takes talent to ruin the setting of a Scottish boarding school in the misty and beautiful highlands, but hey, mission accomplished!

• Milly seems really put off by the others drinking beer in the pub they go to. I really don't like it when Americans come for European teenagers because we can drink earlier than them. It doesn't put you above someone else or make you better in any way, get over it.

• The sudden shift in their dynamic was so unrealistic. There wasn't a proper development in their feelings towards each other, it went from not liking each other to 'hmmm she's not that bad' to 'nevermind I actually loved you the whole time' without any steps in between.

• Milly is describing nothing about Flora, other than how pretty she is. I could paint Flora's face like a photograph because I have every fucking detail burned into my ears (I listened to the audiobook) since Milly can't shut up about it. Believe it or not, girls who like girls also like personalities? We don't like girls just because they are pretty. I know, such a shock!

• I know that Flora is a fucking princess, Milly! I fucking read the synopsis! Every second sentence is 'Flora is so pretty! But she is the princess of Scotland and she lives in a castle in Edinburgh! Did I mention she is the princess?!' At one point, it started to feel like Milly addresses Flora as the fucking princess of Scotland, every time she mentions the name.

• 'Ohhh, I'm so plain and normal! I have boring brown hair and brown eyes, boohoohoo! The princess is too good for a normal girl like me, I'm so normal, boohoohoo!' - Milly, 2018

• I actually really liked Flora? She was a multifaceted character that was really brought to life by the narration. It's just sad that the actual text -well, Milly's words- don't portray her as such.

• The representation of the fake Scottish royals felt clishé and stereotypical.

• A fucking princess kisses a girl in public during the royal wedding procession and ... That's it? The book ends?

• Speed up the first 100 pages of nothing and add another 100 at the end, then the plot would be worth getting through. 300 pages shouldn't have felt this long.

• This read like a middle-grade novel with teenage characters. If I had found out that Milly and Flora were 12 instead of 17 I wouldn't have been surprised.

◇◇◇

One thing I liked:
• The narrator did a really great job at all the different accents and distinguishing between all the voices.

◇◇◇

I just really wanted a sapphic romance book to gush over. This definitely wasn't it.

But If you're in the mood for some pure fluff with no angst what so ever, this is the book for you. I just had hopes, that weren't met (I should have known before since I was aware of the books this author has written before but hey, a girl can dream).
Profile Image for Nash (all too unwell).
315 reviews847 followers
August 11, 2021
“No, what surprises me is the sudden, jolting, and undeniable realization that even though I didn’t want to, I’ve fallen for an actual princess.”

Buddy read with Naomi💖


⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 stars


You find someone. you fall in love. And turns out he is a PRINCE
*Gasp*
Yeah no.

You find someone, you fall in love. And turns out, SHE is a princess. HELL YES.

Her Royal Highness is a cute, fluffy and absolutely adorable story about two girls who meet in a creepy boarding school and fall in love.

I absolutely loved this story. I was looking forward to reading something that I would find adorable and would make me happy and that is exactly what I got!!!


Plot

“It’s not cool to stare, I know that, but this is literally the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen in my life.”

When Millie leaves Texas fleeing from all her problems, the last thing she expects to find in Scotland is true love. But everything can change.
When she first meets her roommate, she is sure she will hate her. Especially after learning that she is a stuck up princess. But when Millie gets to know Flora better, she realises that she is not as bad as she seems.
The last thing Millie wants is to get her heartbroken again. But is it possible to not fall for someone as wonderful as Flora?


Writing

The writing is like really cool. It's one of those few books where the teen characters actually feel like teens talk instead of older people.
I really loved it!

Characters

Millie is extremely cute! I really love her. She is super fun to read about!! She is clever and loves geology. I find that hard to get bcz I hate that but she loves it so okay!
She is fun, quirky and really sweet. She loves her friends and would do anything for them.

description



Flora is the one I absolutely adore. She is kinda dark and mysterious. At first, she seemed a bit jerky, but now I LOVE HER. She is dramatic but I love that. I loved her relationship with her family especially her brothers!
She like Millie would do anything for the people she loves and I WOULD DO ANYTHING for her💖💖

description



ROMANCE

The entire book I was like JUST FORKING KISS already. I mean it took forever for them to kiss.
I loved their romance. It was so pure and sweet and cute!!
I was fangirling over both of them the ENTIRE time. 💖🌈

I loved how they both supported each other. The kiss, IT WAS totally worth waiting for💖
I wished we had an epilogue where they like kissed and said cute stuff to each other🥺💖


In conclusion I loved it soo muchhhh

I recommend it to anyone looking for a very cute f/f romance that will make you swoon the ENTIRE time

Related blog post : https://booksandbrownies820513218.wor...

|Blog|Pintrest|

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My rating system:
5⭐ - I loved it soo much! New favorite
4⭐ - It was really good! But something was missing
3⭐ - It was nice..but had more potential
2⭐ - I did not like it at all!... It could have been soo much better
1⭐ - Nope. Just No. I hate it
Profile Image for April (Aprilius Maximus).
1,093 reviews6,577 followers
July 3, 2019
1.) Prince Charming ★★★★★
2.) Her Royal Highness ★★★★.5

-----------------------------------------------

THIS WAS SO CUTE. I just wish there was a little bit more at the end!!! I wanted an epilogue SO BAD!
Profile Image for Lauren Lanz.
688 reviews248 followers
June 10, 2021
A sapphic, Scottish, royal roommate romance… the synopsis for Her Royal Highness reminded me vaguely of Red White & Royal Blue, and so who was I to wait? I had to jump on this immediately (especially during pride month!!)

While this wasn’t the most sophisticated or well developed story, it was a quick and admittedly fun read that doesn’t require much thought—just what I needed!

~★~ What is this book about? ~★~

When Millie catches her girlfriend cheating on her at the end of senior year, she’s devastated. The perfect escape presents itself, however, when Millie receives an acceptance letter to her dream school in Scotland. Once she arrives, Millie meets her roommate Flora, who turns out to be the royal pain-in-her-butt princess of Scotland (whom she definitely won’t develop a crush on)!

~★~

If I’m being honest, Her Royal Highness was entertaining, though not much else. The writing was pretty weak, which definitely hindered the story, yet I found myself flipping through the book quickly anyways. I really enjoyed Millie’s friends (Sakshi and Sebastian especially!) though I wished for a bit more development on her part.

Some things I did enjoy were the shenanigans that Millie and Flora got into (like the camping scene, or the pub scene). This book—despite not being very finessed—was loads of mindless fun, which I can really appreciate. There wasn’t as much romance as I expected from this story, but I really enjoyed the pre-relationship banter anyways!

The pacing was good, up until the point where the protagonists get together. Beyond then, things go from a first kiss to “I’m madly in love with you” really fast. For such a short book, this didn’t bother me too much, but from an objective standpoint it’s perhaps a reason that the novel could’ve been a few chapters longer (because the ending was very rushed, too). Overall, Her Royal Highness was an enjoyable yet forgettable read.
Profile Image for clem.
520 reviews373 followers
May 22, 2019
⭐️⭐️⭐️ cheesy stars

description

I liked the lesbian rep and love story but it wasn’t remarkable in any way. I felt like the characters were decently crafted but not explored as deeply as they could have been. The cuteness was there but I didn't really feel a romantic connection between the characters, therefore, I didn't really ship it.

The rest of the characters blur in my mind, which shows how poorly developed and used they were.

The romantic plot was pretty straightforward and classic, so no surprises there. I wish there was more diversity in this book, and more comparison between the top 1% and the bottom 99% our MC is a part of. It could have been deeper and explore other things than the romance but it stayed focused on that.

If Netflix buys this and turns into a movie I wouldn't mind spend 2h watching it but it could have been better.
Profile Image for Trina (Between Chapters).
858 reviews3,759 followers
July 15, 2019
Cute story. Enjoyed Flora much more than I expected I would from the TINY bit we saw of her in the first book. The scene where the main character from this book meets the main character of book 1 was great! These books worked really well as companions and I hope there are more in the series!

Audiobook: 5 stars. The narrator had excellent accents (Texan and Scottish) and switched between them flawlessly. She read with personality and emotion. Exactly what an audiobook performance should be.

tw: cheating (not the main romance), being stranded in the wild
Profile Image for tappkalina.
650 reviews402 followers
February 18, 2021
I don't want to be rude, but Rachel Hawkins has a boring writing style, she gives me zero emotions and her characters are flat. I read 3 of her books already, so it's not only this one.
I read Royals just so I could read this, but honestly, Royals was better.
Profile Image for Davina Herondale.
429 reviews207 followers
June 11, 2019
11. June 2019

that moment you realize teenagers have more of a love life than you do

God damn, this was so cute

Rachel Hawkins could write, like, 6 more stories in this setting and I would buy them ALL.

Flora and Millie? S'CUTE iltsm

Now i'm casually waiting for her to announce the Sebastian story bc my bb boi deserves so much also

I need more of Daisy and Miles

I want a story for Elle and Alex and how they met

ugh I love this anthology of stories

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
20. April. 2019

Big shout out to netgalley for providing me with an arc excerpt!

Just like the previous novel in this series, you will be captivated by the first page. Hawkins is extraordinarily talented at grasping you from the moment you open her books.
----------------------
HI YES HELLO I WOULD LIKE TO SELL MY SOUL FOR AN ARC?? PLEASE AND THANK YOU
Profile Image for Olivia (Stories For Coffee).
594 reviews5,604 followers
Read
April 1, 2021
This was such a cute, quick audiobook to read!
I had such a great time with it and seeing Millie and Flora start off on the wrong foot, develop their friendship, and become something more along the way. Their romance was lighthearted and sweet, and it was refreshing to have no actual heavy stakes. Everyone accepted their relationship and it was honestly just wholesome to read about.

I do think the last quarter of this novel was wrapped up too quickly and the conflict that was thrown in at the end was very random and could have been edited out. It also got old reaal quick when Millie continually told us that she was rooming with a princess. She mentioned it nearly every chapter and it was too repetitive, and the audiobook narrator was pretty annoying with her uses of accents but other than that, I came here for a light romance and got what I asked for

AT A GLANCE
- Bi American girl goes to a Scottish boarding school where she has to room with the Princess of Scotland
- Soft enemies to friend to lovers romance
- Lesbian love interest
- A wholesome read
Profile Image for Stacee.
2,711 reviews702 followers
April 21, 2019
I had liked the first book in this series and was absolutely here for gay princesses. Sadly, this one fell short for me.

Millie was just okay to me. I did love her smarts and dedication and love for her family. Flora was actually more of a marshmallow than I was expecting and was quite sweet. I just couldn’t ever get invested in either of them or their relationship.

Plot wise, it was boring. I do love a good boarding school setting, but this didn’t do it for me. The entire story read like “this happened and then this happened and then this happened” and that got really old really quick. The saving graces for me were Saks and Perry and I could have easily read 100 more pages of just the two of them.

Overall, it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t see the connection between the girls and the ending definitely left me wanting. However, if Seb is getting a book, I’ll probably read it.

**Huge thanks to GP Putnam Sons BFYR for providing the arc free of charge**
Profile Image for h o l l i s .
2,405 reviews1,855 followers
March 31, 2019
Listen, HER ROYAL HIGHNESS is not just a lovely sapphic royal contemporary but it's also.. fun. I thought this of the first in the Royals series, too. Are they perfect books? No. Infact, I thought the mini breakup in this one to be.. not awesome, both a little sloppy and too out of nowhere, but that doesn't negate all the warm fuzzies and overall entertainment, and did I mention fun, that it provided. And I needed some (a lot) of fun, so, #winning.

"Millie, you know this is just a school, right? This isn't your Hogwarts letter."
"And you're not an owl but this is absolutely the closest thing I'm ever going to get to a Hogwarts letter, so hand it over."

Also like the first in the Royals series I'm rounding up because of all said fun. This is a fairly short, and rather uncomplicated, sorta-hate-to-love, thrown in with being roommates at a boarding school in Scotland, plus the royalty element, and maybe some staying-warm-for-survival, and listen, I could go on; Hawkins doesn't skimp on the tropes and cliches and I wanted, and loved, them all.

"Wait, you're straight?"
"Yeah. Wait, you didn't think I was? Saks, we've known each other since we were five. How could you not know that?"
"It's hard to tell with you lot, to be honest."
"My lot?"
"You know. Pale weedy aristocrats."

We have some fabulous diversity, besides the gay princess element, and I loved the supporting cast of besties, as well as a mini reunion with some of the characters from book one in this series. Really, my only complaint was already mentioned : the break-up was dumb. But whatever it was resolved in like twenty pages, so, voila!

"They're just people. End of the day, same as anyone else."
"Do you actually believe that?"
"Oh god, no. Bloody terrifying, the whole lot of them, me included."

If you want something a little silly, a lot fun, and different from your typical royal YA romance, pick this one up. It's charming, it's sweet, and you'll probably laugh out loud. I know I did.

3.75 "what's Scotland got that Texas doesn't? other than discernible seasons, I guess" stars


** I received an ARC from the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **
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