The Royal We, Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

I have been in love with this book for so many years that it simply feels natural for me to talk about it. My love for this novel is so deep that I can still remember the time that I first saw it at the Grove's Barnes and Nobles in California. Honestly, this book is much more than you think, when I was first reading it, I thought that this would be a simple romance novel, yet as I continued I discovered that this novel talked about so much more, which I will be talking about later on in this review. Also, I have been so obsessed with this novel that I have tried so hard to find similar novels, which have led me to novels like Romancing the Throne by Nadine Jolie Courtney and The Heir and the Spare by Emily Albright, which have only made me realize that this novel is such a precious gem.
The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan tells the story of Rebecca Porter or simply "Bex," who is just starting the school year at Oxford, yes, England, after she decided to take a year abroad from Cornell, where her twin sister, Lacy is still at. On her first day, she meets a rather handsome young man that goes by the name of Nicholas, simply known as Nick or AKA Steve as his friends call him when they are in public. Both bond over a conversation about monarchs with syphilis before Bex realizes that Nick is the future heir of the country. In the place where she is staying, she meets the people that will end up becoming her best friends. There's Cilla, Gaz, Joss, and Clive, who also happen to be Nick's best friends. On the other hand, it is almost inevitable for Bex and Nick to fall in love with each other, I mean, they binge-watch a series together almost every night, yet their love is simply not meant to be because Nick's already dating India and of course, Bex has been snogging Clive, literally Nick's best friend. The group goes through so many adventures and creates so many memories that as the story goes, you will feel like you are part of the group as well. 
I want to start by talking about the characters because I simply loved them so much! I love how Bex is someone that really doesn't care about gossip or royalty because it creates funnier scenes, like the syphilis scene. Although I did hate whenever she was being impulsive. I loved Nick because he portrayed vulnerability in certain scenes, while he was also seen as a prize by girls and simply as a friend by the other main characters. I really liked how the authors really emphasized on Nick's background and lifestyle, even though he was seen as a normal person by the group of friends because they gave us so much more of the character, which made me love him even more! As much as I love Bex and Nick, my favorite characters were Cilla and Gaz because they were SO funny that I cried due to the laughter. I loved Cilla's stories and Gaz' comments. 
On the other hand, I absolutely loved how this is basically royalty. I loved how they truly portray the lifestyles and the people, like Nick's family, including his father and his brother, Freddie, who I also love very much! I adored how the authors touched a lot on the things that you would expect in a royal family, like the pressure and the useless things that people can do for show or drama. 
I truly think that this book has made me become obsessed with the royals as much as they are! (FYI: the authors run a site called Go Fug Yourself, which I am obsessed with now as well). In the beginning, I truly didn't care at all about royals, yet now I am simply fascinated by their lifestyle. 
Also, I believe that Nick, Bex, and Freddie being inspired by William, Kate, and Harry is just a plus!
Something that I was not expecting from this novel was the many topics that it covers. I loved how they really emphasize on family, enemies, dreams, friends, love, jealousy, expectations and the unexpected. Although the novel is really long, you will feel like the novel is so short because of the so many different stories that are included. 
From the first page all the way to the last one, I was hooked, so much that I became obsessed with the audiobook and I still listen to it all the time, although I will admit that I only replay the scenes that I like, like the karaoke scene and the one that they talk about seeing Cats! If you're going to read the novel, be on the lookout for those!
Lastly, I want to congratulate the authors because they did an exceptional job with this novel. They were able to take such a complex world and narrate it in an incredible and not only heart-warming, but inspiring because this novel really made me want to try the unexpected and new things, just like Bex did when she moved to the other side of the world, to be something that her sister wasn't and to find herself in the world. Also, this novel has really made me wish that college is as fun as they describe it here, although I believe that it depends on the friendships that accompany me. 
I truly recommend The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan because it is witty, smart, fun and includes charming characters that will enter your heart from the very first time that they appear on paper! 

5 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua 

Red Queen, Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard 

This is the third time that I have the first novel of the series. I read it for the first time a couple of weeks after it came out and I completely fell in love with it, I was charmed by the different abilities of the characters and by the simple, yet different welcoming that the author offered us from the very beginning. The relationship that I have with this book made me go above and beyond that, I completely fell in love with the way the three main characters worked and progressed throughout the novel. A year afterward, Glass Sword came out and I read the first book once again before reading the new installment and once again I was completely lost in this dystopian, yet fantastical world. So, two years forward, I have decided that since the series ended, it was time for me to take the time once again and re-enter the world that became so dear to me. Now that I read it years later, I did notice different aspects of it that have made me simply enjoy more the story. 
Red Queen happens in a country that we come to know as Nortia, its society is divided in two: Silvers and Reds, these being the color of the people´s blood. Yet, Silvers have different abilities, some families are able to control fire, enter people´s minds or even control metal. Our main character, Mare, is a Red and as a consequence, her family is extremely poor, which is the common life for Reds. All of Mare´s brothers have been sent to war as a consequence of them not being able to find a job and Mare is sure that her fate is the same since she wasn´t able to get a job and cooperates to her household by stealing from other people, specially Silvers. By her desperate attempt to save not only herself but her best friend, she makes the choice to connect with people that are working in the underground market and she soon realizes that there is a whole new world out there that is trying to make a change for the society. Yet, Mare moves on with her life and her life completely changes when she meets a young man that she was about to steal from. After somehow getting a job at the palace, Mare´s life changes when she realizes that she is completely different from what she was thinking. She has the complete power to control lighting.
First, I want to talk about Aveyard´s incredible way of narrating and writing a novel. The first thing that has caught my attention every single time that I have read this novel is the intricate way in which she describes and exhibits, not only Nortia but the society that they live in. She is able to take this complex bubble, which holds a whole world, and presents it in a way that every single detail seems fascinating, and I truly believe that it has nothing to do with the story being super creative, which it is, but it has to do completely with the fact that her writing is just so incredible because the words that she uses makes it seem as if it was real. 
Also, I loved the perfect mix she was able to get between romance and action, meaning that it wasn´t just too full of action or dramatic scenes like most dystopian novels do, but it had several romantic scenes that made me swoon over the two princes that I absolutely love at the moment. Something that I want to point out is that since she was able to reach a balance between the different type of scenes, we did get only a few scenes for each prince, but those were just so memorable and showcased them greatly that I believe that any more scenes would have been too much. Also, Aveyard did a great job giving the stepbrothers a distinction because every word and movement that was narrated matched the character, which I thought would be very hard to achieve in a novel that is so complex as this one.
Red Queen is pretty fast paced and I really enjoyed that because I don´t like following the same problem over and over again, so Aveyard was always able to keep my mind going and wandering around the different problems and important scenes that were happening throughout the novel. 
I think the only thing that I felt a little disappointed with was that it followed the typical dystopian pattern. In the sense that it first introduced everything and then, problems and more problems happened and several of them were pretty easy to predict beforehand and the surprise factor was not always present, but I do understand that dystopian novels are harder to write and therefore, the similar pattern is usually the easiest way to get the novel done. 
On the other hand, I want to discuss the characters. I am not going to talk a lot about them since I preferred to discover different aspects of their personalities as the story went on since they all have only small scenes throughout the novel that truly make them shine. But I would like to mention that I absolutely adored the different powers that each house had and the way those powers changed their personalities and the way they acted regarding their surroundings. 
I think I didn´t hate Mare, I just disliked her because she is like other dystopian female leads. She acts without thinking about things and later blaming herself and she is too headstrong, which causes her to get into trouble and get emotionally hurt. Yet, I highly enjoyed her personal comments because they were usually funny and it felt nice to be able to laugh after going through so much with the characters and the atmosphere.
Lastly, I want to mention how I found it so detailed the ways that the characters were planned because every single detail about each one of them was so intricate that it truly enhanced the reading experience for me. 
Overall, Red Queen is a super creative, fun and swoony first installment to a series that will take you to another world, which you will find fascinating and inspiring after following characters that are sometimes heartwarming and other times heartwrenching, all while delivering to give you laughs and tears. 

4 1/2 out of 5 Stars 

Love, Sua

Romancing the Throne, Nadine Jolie Courtney

Romancing the Throne by Nadine Joline Courtney

I am OBSESSED with Royal romances. It started a couple of years ago when I read The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan. I just fell in love with the whole concept of falling in love with princes and having friends that have always lived well because of the old money they have always lived surrounded by. But honestly, what I really like is all the drama that always surrounded these characters and these stories. I mean, everything that happened in the story was eventually going to cause drama. After completely falling in love with everyone in The Royal We and obsessing myself with the royal story, I was craving for more. So, I started researching books that were similar. Honestly, I had such a long journey, I read The Heair and the Spare by Emily Albright and that didn´t end well because I liked the story, but I thought that the story was just too similar in a lot of parts to my favorite royal-romance novel, but not really fun like The Royal We.
That´s why when I first knew about Romancing the Throne, I was hesitant to read it. I knew that the story was somewhat going to be different from The Royal We since in this novel two sisters want to date the prince, but there was also another part of me that wasn´t sure about reading that type of novel because I knew that I would feel uncomfortable reading the novel and rooting for a couple knowing that her sister was also in love with the same guy, but honestly, it somehow worked in this novel and I am going to explain how later.
Romancing the Throne by Nadine Joline Courtney tells the story of Charlotte and Libby. Charlotte attends a private school with some of the teenagers that will become the most important people on Earth, including Edward, the prince. On the other hand, Libby attends an all-girl school that is the most competitive academically.
During summer break, Charlotte is invited to a party at India´s, one of Edward´s close friend, house. When Charlotte gets there, she sparks a conversation with Edward and they end up together the whole night and Charlotte goes home thinking that her chance to be Edward´s girlfriend has finally come.
But suddenly, Libby´s school is involved in a scandal, so she decides to transfer into Charlotte´s school in order to be able to get into a university and suddenly, Libby´s life changes completely. She is part of the group of people that will someday become the most influential and now that she is finally living with Charlotte, she is eager to meet Edward, Charlotte´s boyfriend.
Charlotte tries really hard to make Edward and Libby get along since they are the two people that she likes the most, but every time that the two are together, they seem to be getting closer that at some point, everyone in the group starts doubting that the two are only being friends since they are always acting very close to each other and they seem to be enjoying themselves.
Now, Charlotte and Libby seem to be fighting for the prince, while trying to keep the sister code.
So, I did enjoy Romancing the Throne, but it isn´t my favorite novel. There were too many things that I didn´t enjoy, but I found Edward to be super cute that I decided to keep reading.
I want to start by talking about the characters because I believe that this is going to be the longest part of the review.
So, I want to start by talking about Charlotte since she is the main character. I didn´t like her voice AT AT ALL! I found her extremely annoying because she was trying too hard to be something that she wasn´t and I know that if she wasn´t like that, the story would be completely pointless, but this made her look very immature. Also, her reactions made her very immature because she reacted very dramatically to everything!
On the other hand, I actually liked Libby a lot, but her character was rather plain because Charlotte was just too focused on herself that she wasn´t able to tell us how her sister was! But from the little personality that I got to see, I thought she was very nice and I really liked her. Yet, from what Charlotte explained about her sister, Libby was just a walking stereotype because the only thing that described her was that she attended an all-girls school and she only liked to study, so much that she didn´t even have friends. I was annoyed to see how Libby was just described as a stereotype because she wasn´t the main character. Similarly, Charlotte is portrayed as a stereotype as well. She liked to party and have fun with wealthy people and she just liked sports, which makes her the exact opposite of her sister, which makes them compete with each other continuously.
Now, Edward is a completely different story because I found him to be super adorable! The way Edward was portrayed was weird because he seemed to be a very typical YA male character, but at the same time, I found him to be very mature and act differently and entirely like a prince, he reminded me a lot of Nick from The Royal We, but in his youth since Nick is a college student when we meet him.
Similarly, I liked the way the main characters were surrounded by other supporting characters because they helped us understand the type of characters that they were, yet, on the other hand, I believe that the characters that were chosen to be part of the group were a bit similar to the group of friends from The Royal We. Also, I wanted them to have more personality and be actual characters rather than just names that were mentioned throughout the novel. 
I want to take the time to talk about how much I loved Libby and Edward. They were just SO cute! I mean, after immediately falling in love with Edward from the very first scene in which he was introduced, I still didn´t believe that he was the perfect guy for Charlotte because they felt more a fling rather than them actually dating. So, when Libby and Edward were finally together, I actually think that they were good together because they seemed to fit together very well and her story was going to be much more fun because she was new to the school and she was trying to adjust being part of a group of friends and having classes with different people, that´s why I would have liked to have the story narrated from her point of view or at least have the opportunity to know more about her relationship with Libby. So, in my opinion, approaching this novel from Charlotte´s point of view was a bad idea.
Similarly, I didn´t like the way the dialogues were because they made me roll my eyes and I found them very annoying and like I mentioned before, Edward was the only thing from this novel that made me keep reading.
Additionally, I was confused throughout the novel because it wasn´t specified that the story was in England. I mean, they only talked about Sussex Park, but they never said that it was in England, especially because they played hockey and they talked like Americans. 
Overall, I did not enjoy Romancing the Throne as much as I thought I would.

3 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua