Review: Paper Princess (The Royals #1) by Erin Watt

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. 

Title: Paper Princess (The Royals #1)

Author: Erin Watt

Publisher: Berkley

Original Publication Date: 4/4/2016

Expected Publication Date: 9/19/2023

 

Review:

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for supplying me with an egalley of this book to read and give an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I love me some Elle Kennedy...I mean Erin Watt. Either way, it's like an addiction. And, of course, I need to shout out Jen Fredrick as without her this pseudonym would not exist. I have to read everything Elle Kennedy writes; on her own or with others. Though I feel she should stick to NA rather than YA because even her YAs tend towards NA. I'll say the same thing I did all those years ago when I read this the first time, definitely reads more like an NA. But this author loves her crazy rich kid stories, so I just went with it.

As I finished this book, I realized it was then I got the title. Paper princess, on paper, money, a will, whatever you want to call it. It's all paper. And what does paper do easily? Why, it burns, of course!

What drew me in? You mean besides the author? That would be this cover. It's so pretty. It almost looks like a fantasy cover. But, believe me, this is as far from fantasy as you can get. YA, well, if you count the ages of the main characters, yes. But the actual plot is a little more mature than that. It's all good though because I love a romance, with some steam, and some twists. Especially a big twist that acts almost as a cliffhanger.

You know that saying, "Money changes everything"? Well this book will show you it sure does. And not always in any kind of positive sense.

Ella, 17, alone, eeking out her life just so she can graduate and somehow get a degree that will help her survive. Working whatever job will make her the most money and trying to pretend she's not alone in this world. Enter Callum, older, mysterious, and offering Ella a life that will easily help her get to her goals after she's spent the last few years trying to fend for herself. But bringing her into his world may just break her even more.

One thing this author always does is make me empathetic for her characters. It's what always keeps me reading. Were these her most fleshed out characters? Not by a long shot. I need more about who they all are. I am expecting future books to follow their stories, but at the same time I'd love a little glimpse of what that might be. While I loved Ella, I think Easton is my favorite character in this book, Obviously broken and in need of someone who can reign him in, I thought perhaps Ella might be that person. And not in a romantic way, but in a sisterly way. After all, she pretty much slid into that roll when Callum brought her home. But we only get a small glimpse of that and the, poof, it's gone. I hope there's more in the future!

Pacing wise, this one read fast. I read it in just 24 hours. The mark of a book is one that keeps me wanting to pick it up. I honestly could not wait to finish work so I could finish the book and find out what all the big secrets were. Guess what, this one didn't wrap that up. Which is why I'm itching to dive into the next Royal book.

Was a sad when it was done? Yes. Do I want to run and start book 2? Also yes because the ending leaves so much unanswered. Is this my new guilty pleasure? Well, yes, yes it is.

Where will Ella go? What has Reed done? What is really Callum's ultimate goal? Will Easton change his wicked ways? Will we get more of the twins, Sawyer and Sebastian, and what they are like or are they just background fodder? Do we get to see Brooke take a nose dive off a cliff? Is Dinah with her? All things I need answered.

So I will dive into the next book and anticipate another fast paced, romantic, plot twisting ride. And I'll enjoy every moment of it.

A New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Elle Kennedy grew up in the suburbs of Toronto, Ontario, and holds a B.A. in English from York University. From an early age, she knew she wanted to be a writer, and actively began pursuing that dream when she was a teenager.

Elle currently writes for various publishers. She loves strong heroines and sexy alpha heroes, and just enough heat and danger to keep things interesting!

Jen Frederick is the USA Today bestselling author of Unspoken, part of the Woodlands series, and Sacked, part of the Gridiron series. She is also the author of the Charlotte Chronicles and has had several books on the Kindle Top 100 list. She lives in the Midwest with a husband who keeps track of life’s details while she’s writing, a daughter who understands when Mom disappears into her office for hours at a time, and a rambunctious dog who does neither. Email her at jensfrederick@gmail.com.