Monday 12 February 2018

The Royals Series - Erin Watt


The Royals Series – Erin Watt

#1 Paper Princess


#2 Broken Prince



#3 Twisted Palace




I stumbled across the Royals Series one cold miserable Saturday morning. I’m not quite sure what I put into Amazon that brought these books up, but a quote by Jennifer L Armentrout and an intriguing blurb on the first book ‘Paper Princess’ made me purchase this pretty damn quickly. For purposes of avoiding any spoilers, I will only provide a brief description of the first book, and just my thoughts and overall opinion on the series as a whole.

From strip clubs and truck stops to southern coast mansions and prep schools, one girl tries to stay true to herself.

These Royals will ruin you…

Ella Harper is a survivor—a pragmatic optimist. She’s spent her whole life moving from town to town with her flighty mother, struggling to make ends meet and believing that someday she’ll climb out of the gutter. After her mother’s death, Ella is truly alone. 

Until Callum Royal appears, plucking Ella out of poverty and tossing her into his posh mansion among his five sons who all hate her. Each Royal boy is more magnetic than the last, but none as captivating as Reed Royal, the boy who is determined to send her back to the slums she came from.

Reed doesn’t want her. He says she doesn’t belong with the Royals.

He might be right.

Wealth. Excess. Deception. It’s like nothing Ella has ever experienced, and if she’s going to survive her time in the Royal palace, she’ll need to learn to issue her own Royal decrees.

I have to admit, I am one of those readers where if a book sounds too good to be true, I’m sceptical as to whether it actually is. So the fact the blurb jumped out to me, I wasn’t too sure if I would like the story as a whole. But I was pleasantly surprised, and considering I read all three books in one single weekend. I think that says a lot about this series and what Erin Watt is capable of producing.

Ella Harper is our lead protagonist in this novel; we are thrown right into the story, with no slow build up. We learn pretty quickly that Ella is a fight or flight type of girl, and as vocal as she may be, she is all about taking flight in a sticky situation. I quite liked Ella’s character, I like that even though inside she may be absolutely terrified, she would ensure to never show her weaknesses, which in all honesty, is an incredibly tough thing to be able to do. I really enjoyed the fact that in such a male dominated household, where quite frankly some of the actions of said men were incredibly chauvinistic and arrogant at times, she defied them all. Never allowing them to stop her from doing exactly what it is she wanted to do. From being plucked out of a world where she struggled, from simply surviving one day to the next, to this whole new world of extravagant luxury and money. It was an interesting transition to watch evolve throughout the story. I was shocked by the end of the first book when I learned only a month or so had passed, as I feel the events Ella is involved within and all the experiences she has during her stay at the Royal’s house, it certainly felt like it was a longer time period.

Paper Princess is certainly a bumpy ride, from meeting and having to live with the unwelcoming Royal boys, to transitioning to a new school, which gives the movie Mean Girls a run for its money. Erin Watt provides a story as entertaining as the next, and she certainly throws in some very unsuspecting curveballs.

I will warn you that each of these novels ends with a cliff hanger, well books one and two do. Twisted Palace is the last book as far as I’m aware that focuses on Ella Harper. But some of the cliff hangers really do leave you with your jaw hanging wide open. I had a small inkling as to where book one was heading, but book two wiped the floor with me. To which I absolutely love when I never see something coming such as that.

The character developments across the series are stronger in some areas than that others. I feel that we see more changes and development in the characters of Ella, Callum, Reed and Easton. However, I feel we were lacking a great deal in the area of the twin brothers Sebastian and Sawyer. I do have a sneaky suspicion this may be as a result to a spin off series possibly in the future, which I already know Easton has. So maybe Erin is leaving the twins to revisit another time as there is certainly a story where they are involved and I would love to get my teeth into it.

As a whole, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this series, to sit and binge all three over the course of a weekend, and to come out the other side needing more. I feel this is a real testament to Erin Watt and her story telling. I love to be surprised, and I love that as dubious as I was about this series, I really found it entertaining and gripping at points. I found them all to be quick easy reads, and I didn’t find there to ever be a dull moment. Not in the Royal house anyway.

I would say if you enjoy a quick easy read, with a story following a strong female protagonist and her essentially rag to riches story, with a lot of curveballs in between. Then this is certainly something you should pick up. I am now incredibly curious to see what other work Erin Watt has produced, and even more importantly picking up Easton’s story.

I have given this series a 4 out of 5 stars

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