Review of Suddenly Royal by Nichole Chase

Title/Author: Suddenly Royal (Suddenly #1) by Nichole Chase
Publisher/Date published: Avon Books, November 26th 2013
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Samantha Rousseau is used to getting her hands dirty. Working toward a master’s degree in wildlife biology while helping take care of her sick father, she has no time for celebrity gossip, designer clothes, or lazy vacations. So when a duchess from the small country of Lilaria invites her to dinner, Samantha assumes it’s to discuss a donation for the program. The truth will change the course of her life in ways she never dreamed.

Alex D’Lynsal is trying to keep his name clean. As crown prince of Lilaria, he’s had his share of scandalous headlines, but the latest pictures have sent him packing to America and forced him to swear off women — especially women in the public eye. That is, until he meets Samantha Rousseau. She’s stubborn, feisty, and incredibly sexy. Not to mention heiress to an estate in his country, which makes her everyone’s front-page news.

While Sam tries to navigate the new world of politics and wealth, she will also have to dodge her growing feelings for Alex. Giving in to them means more than just falling in love; it would mean accepting the weight of an entire country on her shoulders.

Guys, I have watched the Princess Diaries movie SO many times and I love the plot of someone discovering they're royalty (because I'm still hoping it'll happen to me one day ;) or maybe not as it seems to complicate things enormously...), so obviously I jumped on Suddenly Royal! And you know what, Suddenly Royal is basically the Princess Diaries, but with naughty bits.

I liked Samantha. She's a smart girl, she values her education and loves her best friend and stepfather. But the whole 'she doesn't know how beautiful she is' thing was getting old really fast. I mean, seriously? I'm getting a bit tired of this character trait. Why is the good girl always unaware of her looks and the bitch confident about the same thing? It's like you can't be a decent person if you know you're goodlooking. And it drives me crazy! Because I know people who are goodlooking and aware of it and are genuinely good people.

ANYWAY.

Alex is a good guy who didn't have the best taste in women in the past. I truly believed he cared about Samantha and he showed it and I liked him. He was a bit old-fashioned alpha male though with the whole overprotectiveness and everything. I was a bit put off by him at first because he basically wants to leap straight into bed with Samantha within an hour of meeting her and later on he's going on about how it wouldn't just be physical for him and all that stuff a girl probably wants to hear, but he was a bit of a creep at first. And he did really grow on me, but I wouldn't have gone for his 'You'll end up hating me or in my bed, and I know which I'd prefer' attitude. That's just... Just no.

So there was a whole lot of lust at first sight and Alex does a whole lot of chasing Samantha, and while liked both of them, I wasn't really into the whole story. The book had a definite Disney/Cinderella feel to it and it confused the crap out of me that we'd go from those moments to sex scenes and back again. I really thought we'd get a fade to black anytime soon but nope. Not that I mind those parts, but it was just such a contrast!
I really wanted to love this book and I'm not entirely sure why it didn't happen. Maybe it's that a lot of the secondary characters were a bit like cardboard puppets, just placed there to make Alex and Samantha look good. And I'm also still a bit confused why a crown prince would make the effort to travel to the US to search for long lost members of his country's royal families. I mean, if you're a crown prince you have people for that right?

Suddenly Royal was an entertaining book, but it never got beyond that for me. Some of the characters fell flat and I just couldn't really get into the story the way I wanted to.

My rating: 2,5 stars