Royal by Winter Renshaw

Category: New adult romance
Publication date: 02/21/2016
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: No

This book, for me, is a prime example of why you shouldn’t trust all book reviews and authors with a “best seller” status.

via GIPHY

Plot overview: Demi’s first love, Royal, returns after a 7-year unexplained absence to win her back after her fiance (who she really wasn’t all that fond of, anyway) was in a horrible car crash, resulting in a medically induced coma.   

I hated Demi with the fire of a thousand suns. I have kinder thoughts about disease-carrying ticks than I have about Demi. She was a complete and utter doormat and I had ZERO respect for her. Oh, how I hated her. Let me count the ways: 

1. She agreed to marry a dude she was fairly lukewarm about because she was still in love with her highschool sweetheart. Why not be honest with the dude—and yourself—and be alone for a while? Maybe sort out your feelings and find a way to move on? Nope...not Demi. She’d rather stay in a bad relationship for no good reason. 
2. When the fiance dumps her and then is in a horrible car crash, she still sits at his bedside everyday, so as not to offend his mother. How about you be honest with the mother and not sit by the dude’s bedside like a doting fiancee? 
3. She lets Royal waltz back into her life after 7 years and doesn’t push him for an explanation as to where he’s been or why he left. Why? Because he doesn’t want to talk about it. She should’ve told him to eff right off until he WAS ready to talk about it. But, no...not Demi. She’s far too weak to ever do something that straightforward. 
4. When the dude wakes up from his medically induced coma and Demi confronts him about some shady stuff he’s done, he claims to have amnesia. She doesn’t necessarily believe him, but decides that she can’t leave him until he remembers because that would make her look bad. Don’t worry, Demi. In my eyes, you couldn’t possibly ever look worse. 
5. Royal admits to stalking Demi over the past few years. It doesn’t bother her. She even admits to putting photos of her with her fiance up on social media, hoping Royal would see them and be jealous. Classy, Demi. Totally classy. 

Royal wasn’t the worst hero I’ve ever seen (if you’re able to overlook the stalking thing), but he was a manwhore who had plenty of “fuck buddies” when he wasn’t with Demi. I have very little patience for so-called heroes who screw around with tons of women while supposedly pining for “the one that got away.” 

And don’t even get me started on Demi’s parents who abandoned Royal in his time of need, even as they insisted he’d “been like a son” to them—which was a horrible turn of events that they never really properly apologized for. Demi’s sister managed to annoy me several times, too, by being terribly judge-y about how Demi wasn’t spending enough time glued to the fiance’s bedside. 

Overall, this was a sickening stew of unlikeable characters, over-the-top angst, and a complete lack of communication between, well, everyone. Blech. But, since my mom said I should always say something nice...the cover is pretty. That is all.        
 
Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
Total stigma-fest.

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