The Heir Affair by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan

GoodReads Summary:
Making it up the aisle was the easy part: After marrying the heir to the throne, Rebecca “Bex” Porter must survive her own scandals as she adjusts to life in the glamorous British royal family, in this “highly anticipated” follow-up to The Royal We, the “fun and dishy” bestseller and NYT Summer Reading List pick inspired by Will and Kate’s romance (People).
After a scandalous secret turns their fairy-tale wedding into a nightmare, Rebecca “Bex” Porter and her husband Prince Nicholas are in self-imposed exile. The public is angry. The Queen is even angrier. And the press is salivating. Cutting themselves off from friends and family, and escaping the world’s judgmental eyes, feels like the best way to protect their fragile, all-consuming romance.
But when a crisis forces the new Duke and Duchess back to London, the Band-Aid they’d placed over their problems starts to peel at the edges. Now, as old family secrets and new ones threaten to derail her new royal life, Bex has to face the emotional wreckage she and Nick left behind: with the Queen, with the world, and with Nick’s brother Freddie, whose sins may not be so easily forgotten — nor forgiven.
Review:
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me this eARC in exchange for an honest review. The issues I had with this book were much the same as the ones I had with the first book. It was entirely too long. This was an almost 500-page book that just didn’t need to be. I wanted a fun royalty romance, but that’s not at all that this was. This book made me cry several times. It was heartbreaking and sad, but also full of friends and family and so much love. I loved the relationships. They’re complex and messy like most real relationships are. I think that’s what I liked most about this book. The relationships, though most aren’t anything like what royalty must deal with, had real and serious problems.
This book covered real issues like miscarriages and infertility, which I really liked. I’ve never dealt with either of these, but from an outside perspective, I thought they were handled well. I thought they were thoughtful and full of emotion. I cried several times while reading this story.
Overall, while the story was long, there were so many different and interesting plotlines that I was engaged and entertained for the whole story. I enjoyed this one more than I did the first book, but I still think it was too long.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.

The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan

GoodReads Summary:
American Rebecca Porter was never one for fairy tales. Her twin sister, Lacey, has always been the romantic who fantasized about glamour and royalty, fame and fortune. Yet it’s Bex who seeks adventure at Oxford and finds herself living down the hall from Prince Nicholas, Great Britain’s future king. And when Bex can’t resist falling for Nick, the person behind the prince, it propels her into a world she did not expect to inhabit, under a spotlight she is not prepared to face.
Dating Nick immerses Bex in ritzy society, dazzling ski trips, and dinners at Kensington Palace with him and his charming, troublesome brother, Freddie. But the relationship also comes with unimaginable baggage: hysterical tabloids, Nick’s sparkling and far more suitable ex-girlfriends, and a royal family whose private life is much thornier and more tragic than anyone on the outside knows. The pressures are almost too much to bear, as Bex struggles to reconcile the man she loves with the monarch he’s fated to become.
Which is how she gets into trouble.
Now, on the eve of the wedding of the century, Bex is faced with whether everything she’s sacrificed for love-her career, her home, her family, maybe even herself-will have been for nothing.
Review:
This book was entirely too long. Honestly, the only reason I read it at all was that I made the mistake of a late-night NetGalley request binge and didn’t realize that this book existed when I requested its sequel.
I didn’t hate this book it was just way too long. I enjoyed parts of it and others just seemed completely unneeded. While I did really liked Nick and Bex together, I don’t think we needed to follow eight years of their lives.
Usually, when I don’t like a book I have so much to say why I didn’t like it. But that’s not the case this time. I don’t know why I didn’t like this aside from the fact that there was so much to the story that could have been taken out.
There were some things I did like. I did find myself invested in Bex and Nick’s relationship. I also really loved their friend group. I loved that they included Bex into their circle so easily. The characters were the best part of this story. The drama that surrounds these characters was nothing short of ridiculous. I get that Nick is the future king, but I was over it after they graduated college. As for Bex’s twin sister Lacey, I loved her at first but quickly grew to hate her. I don’t understand how a sibling could be so selfish.
Overall, this story was very long but entertaining. I liked the antics of the characters in college, but as they grew older it got a little played out. I think this could have been a really fun book had it been a bit shorter.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.