i really really wanted to love this book, instead i found myself impatient for it to be over. i'm going to try and be kind about it in this review, mostly bc i am unsure of why this book did not work for me.

firstly, i do think that nell stark can write. i think that her writing can be quite nice, i like the way she set up these characters and their background, i just dont think the follow through was very good. her writing isn't clunky or repetitive, just kind of ... dry. it was like like if someone was baking a cake and they have all the right ingredients but used the wrong amounts of everything, this was supposed to be a steamy romance and i'm sorry to be blunt but tell me why my coochie was BONE DRY the whole way through. it was mechanical, it was boring, and i skimmed the sex scenes, i'm sorry!!! the dryness of the writing made it also feel kind of unemotional so i didn't really care about the characters.

probably the worst offender is the insta love. i've read insta love before but THIS was egregious. are you telling me that kerry was just SO UNDENIABLY SEXY that sasha was compelled to whisk her away and woo her? they meet in a CLUB in the DARK and say precisely TWO LINES to each other before sasha's like "yep this is the one, drop the anchor" when she is a closeted princess, make it make sense!!! i simply refuse to believe that one kiss was so good that sasha was like fuck it imma risk the monarchy. this, of course, was not helped by the fact that sasha and kerry have zero chemistry lmao. their dialogue is so weird and stilted, i don't know what either of them see in each other. wow, kerry is sexy and made u feel not shitty about your dyslexia? i'm sure that is good grounds for wanting to renounce your claim to the throne. also I'm sorry, because apparently I am going to rag on the writing: their romantic dialogue was so cringey. at one point they literally did speed dating questions like "what's your favourite book/movie?" "how many siblings do you have?" and "what's your greatest fear?" like PLEASE spare me this dry ass conversation. in what world is this supposed to convince me that they have a burning passion for each other that's so bright it could take down the monarchy.

i can kinda see why sasha might continuously seek out kerry, but i cannot for the life of me explain why kerry complies?? she's a supposedly studious rhodes scholar who has worked extremely hard to get to where she is, only to never be seen working hard in the book. at the end she's like "my grades are exemplary" and like WHEN have you been studying?? we never see her do anything without sasha, which is kind of another issue with the book. every scene that doesn't have sasha and kerry in it is skimmed over, like the writing itself sort of glosses over other events happening; i'm convinced that if this were a movie, these scenes would be depicted through montage. sometimes one of kerry's classmates would be mentioned and I would be like "oh yeah she has class." even Harris was just a GBF honestly.


i thought the plot point of Sasha renouncing her claim to the throne was kind of anti-climactic, I know it was supposed to show her devotion to kerry and how much she would be willing to give up for her, but it was just so weird that she was going to do it even when they weren't technically together and Arthur was in a coma. I know she said that she was giving up the crown to be able to "live her truth" but I don't buy it? the stakes just felt so low bc i wasn't convinced by the media portrayal in this book. i know it's hard to depict fame, but sasha didn't seem like a royal, just a rich person with other responsibilities. i hope you can recognise the nuance, bc while she kept going on about everything that was expected of her and needing to wear a wig outside, sasha basically roamed around and did whatever she wanted to. kerry also agreed to go public and wasn't concerned in the least about the amount of attention she would get from it, which just seems unrealistic for a commoner to just jump on board with that, no questions asked. sasha lived too normal of life to convince me that she's a royal.

i'll refrain from picking apart every little thing now. this is one of those books on my classic lesbian lit shelf that i never read and finally got around to, and i am truly bummed that i didn't enjoy this book. especially bc it started off so strong! the first
few chapters are so good, they do a wonderful job establishing all these character traits and motivations, all of which just seem to disappear as the book goes on. what happened to sasha's party planning business? i thought she wanted to prove to her father that she truly loves her job and that this isn't just another excuse to go party. instead it appears that this detail was only introduced so that Sasha could plan the Scottish getaway for kerry. what happened to kerry's studious manner that led her to being a rhodes scholar? i loved that she was so ambitious and determined, and she's really into soccer and running, but all she does is follow sasha around as emotional support for the rest of the book. such a shame.