User blog:7GSTF/The Royal Romance - a Retrospection

It must be said that I am no fan of The Royal Romance or any of its successors. From the very start, this book was made to be more than anything else, a money spinner. In that at least, they succeeded. This series has made money if PB is to be believed, and a lot of it at that. Stretching a remarkably long 4 years, this series has essentially seen the highs and lows of PB - from the Endless Summer and TC and TF era, to the lows of TNA and TW. However, this series has long been- mostly a terrible bore. While the first three books were tolerable, and hell, even good in some instances - the characters of Madeleine and Olivia being particularly notable in that regard, the series as a whole is one floundering, bloated, hot mess at this point.

The first three books followed a reasonable plot - that of marrying into the Cordonian royalty and protecting the one you love. The books since then have been, well, to say the least, awful. The Royal Heir started adding more and more ‘unknown’ stuff to the whole situation, the worst of which was the presence of a hitherto unknown sister, and the suspicious death of the mother. There can be no question that this series has jumped the shark, not once but many, many times, and that it jumped the shark a long time ago.

To tackle this series, I think a rather unorthodox approach would do nicely. To begin with, I will tackle the first three books separately and the next ones - The Royal Heir separately. This is necessary as the first three books can be considered as a completed trilogy that had an unwanted addition in the form of the books that came thereafter.

The Royal Romance - book 1, 2 and 3.

I will be blunt. This is a decent series at best. 6.5 out of ten. The plot isn’t too wayward, as it revolves around MC and prince Liam, and their impending marriage or non marriage. There are not too many characters, and those which do exist are well developed. Maxwell is a delightful character, and one who endears himself to the reader instantly, and is a great ray of light in the whole situation. Drake might be a grumpy man, but he is a genuinely good man who cares for his friends and has a heart of gold. Hana is sweet and bubbly, and Liam is steadfast. These are to be expected, as they are the protagonists. The good part about the first three books was the fact that the antagonists were believable as well - from Olivia, to the old king, to Anton, Madeleine, and so on. They had reasons for their behaviour, and they meant what they said. They were even interesting to some extent, as most of their struggles were tied in with Liam’s family history which was initially introduced to us. Also, Anton’s manipulations were nicely executed over two books, and it felt fresh, and the plot still had a semblance of tightness then. The action was well paced, and there were fewer pointless party  scenes, which had become a staple by the fourth book, which inevitably led to their decline as well. Also, the MC in these books is an underdog, and is therefore, a genuinely likeable character. Unlike in the later books, she isn’t an insufferable know it all or an extremely obsessed mother, or even a bit power hungry. Essentially, the MC has my sympathy in the earlier books, and she loses it big time over The Royal Heir series.

An overextended plot does this series no favours either. However, it is not so obvious in the first three books. The inherent goal of the plot, which is to marry Liam, or any other LI still remains crystal clear to us. Betrand in that regard greatly helps the story along in these books, as his story also starts to become more and more important to the central plot. Olivia is a good character here. Her character arc of a villain to an extremely redeemed and lovable friend is fantastic. She is decently written, has a good motivation to behave the way she does, and is extremely protective of those she trusts. In many ways, she is a great example of an anti hero, something which she continues to portray in The royal heir too. Her obsession with knives is funny too. All in all, she is one of the characters who keeps these books readable, as after a point, the MC is completely intolerable with her high handedness.

The Royal Heir

A completely unnecessary series. Other than being used to milk money, this series had no purpose after the happy ending of TRR 3. The story was essentially over after the marriage of the MC to whoever she so chose, and the ‘big bad’ that had been hyped up from the first book had been ‘successfully’ dealt with or so we thought. Oh, the poor fools that we were. This book has a continuing series of villains who can be best described as excellent replacements for each other - from Godfrey, to King and Queen of the other kingdom, to Barthelemy, to the Via Imperii, and in there - Queen Sigfried. The only real redeemable, mildly interesting character is Liam’s sister who is introduced in the final book. Her past is certainly interesting, and her character is mostly gray, something which is instantly attractive to read and empathise with.

Characters

Liam is a tolerable character here, and while he is perfect beyond measure - seriously, I haven’t seen a larger hearted person than this guy in the entirety of choices, and essentially has almost no weakness, other than a rather obvious problem of trusting people too easily. But, the goody two shoes act can sometimes fall into the trap of extreme cluelessness and naivety, and this can become extremely annoying after a point of time.

Drake is tolerable, as the standard, gruff, hard to love but extremely protective of his friends - love interest, and there is barely any real depth to him until the story starts to uncover the fate of his father, his aunt and his mother, as well as his sister’s liaisons with Betrand. Drake can be ignored for most of the first two books of the series. His story only starts to get interesting after that.

Maxwell is a delight! Yes, I said it, Maxwell is a delight. Yes, I acknowledge that some might find his behaviour trying and extremely annoying after a while, but he represents some much needed comic relief to the whole series, and his obsession with squids is adorable to say the least. A wonderful, light hearted character, and his exaggerated version of the events of The Royal Romance is hilarious too. There isn’t a hint of shadiness about this guy. Only goofiness. However, I will concede that his schtick began to get really old with time, and by the first book of The Royal Heir, you can see that the armour of humour of his is filled with cracks. By the end of the final book of the series, you just can’t wait for it to be over. His jokes become rather tiresome and haggard, and honestly, it isn’t all that surprising, considering how overused they have become by this point.

Olivia - the saving grace in the first three, and one of the few reasons the last four are interesting as well. Her enmity and her later friendship character arc is one the best PB have ever executed, as she comes out of her shell in her own way, and is eventually one of the MC’s fiercest allies and most useful friends ever. Her past being discovered, her conflict with Justin, and then her aunt and her eventual fearsome loyalty towards the MC is something that feels earned, and rightfully so. None of her actions seem even remotely as though they jumped the shark.

Hana - Continuing the theme from above.... Hana as a character is completely uninteresting due to the reasons above. Unless you are married to her, there is little to write home about. Boring, honestly - seriously - If Hana isn’t married to you, she is essentially invisible throughout the majority of The Royal Heir books. A small amount of drama with her mother apart, her story and her character have little significance in the later books. A wasted character after the first three books, in all honesty.

Bertrand - A good plot concerning his marriage and later his father’s extreme treachery bring his character to life, particularly in the latter series of The Royal Heir. He is an unusual character, who improves with the passage of the series, and not the other way around, which is par for the course. His helplessness and befuddlement when faced with situations that commoners face everyday brings some much needed heft to a character. An imperfect character? Absolutely. But I would rather have this guy than most of the picture perfect characters that Choices has been doling out over the recent past.

Madeleine - An excellent character - almost perfectly gray in every which way, and completely wasted in the final book - where her redemption story could have been completed in a brilliant manner. Her unlikeability itself is a key character trait which is often lost on people, and she is good at what she does. A rare character on the side of the MC whose main interest is in power. An unusual ally. Interesting all the same, and her story is easily one of the very few high points in The Royal Heir saga.

Godfrey - Far more tolerable than Barthelemy, considering it was the first time the bad parent plot was used for treachery in the TRH series. (King Constantine and Hana's mother were the first two), but his plot is only for elevating Madeleine. Nothing much else.

The Enemy King and Queen (Bradshaw and Isabella) - Yes, they are quite insignificant to me, as their story is one to forget, annoying and extremely irritating. They can be swept aside into the dustbins of irrelevant characters of Choices.

Barthelemy - The point where they were so oblivious to jumping the shark the first time with the creation of the Royal Heir series, that they jumped again with this contrived story of this guy and his fake illness. Absolute unneccessary, wastes everyone's time and is better dead than alive, honestly.

The Via Imperii - What is this?! A clown show?! For all of the hype surrounding their power, these guys take up only one book, and their downfall is hilarious in its simplicity and ridiculousness. Every character saving Lena - Liam’s sister - is essentially a complete buffoon who doesn’t know danger even if it danced in front of them nude.

Lena - The only saving grace of the final book. Her relationship with MC’s daughter is the highest point for certain, and certainly worth spending diamonds for. Her historical trauma, complicated past, and love-hate relationship with her brother the king makes for a reasonably gripping narrative. Again, this character as a whole is unnecessary, and it does feel quite a bit of the time as though that the character has been shoehorned in instead of actually being an integral part of the story. She could’ve been introduced earlier - maybe even in the first three books… as there was definitely potential here that was horrendously wasted. Not a great look for PB whatsoever.

My rating of the series -

All in all, in terms of its importance and money making ability, this series is probably PB’s magnum opus. In everything else, it falls short spectacularly, more so in The Royal Heir. The story starts to jump the shark excessively by the sequel series, and honestly, reading it becomes increasingly painful. The characters become exceedingly annoying as time has gone on, and I have a feeling that moving forward, fewer people will have fond memories of this series. All that being said - The Royal Romance gets a 6.5 out of 10 as mentioned before, while The Royal Heir gets a 5.5/10 from me. Disappointing, on the whole, jumped the shark, extremely lengthy, overstayed its welcome, and wasted several characters with great potential by either underusing them or overusing them. Disappointing.