Hello all!

After the joys that the Royal Wedding brought to us all last month, I thought it’d be appropriate to read and review a book about a wedding…a Royal wedding.

In the first couple of chapters, we first meet Polly and learn more about her past, her present and what she wanted from a future. We also learn more about Jake…the entire reason she doesn’t want to get attached again.

“What she definitely didn’t want, under any circumstances, was another good-looking, arrogant, brilliant, self-confident bastard like Jake.”

(Apologies for the naughty word but I was quoting.)

We see a conflicted Polly here. A Polly that with every negative comes a positive, yes he’s arrogant but he’s also good looking, yes he’s a self confident human but he’s also brilliant. It feels like she’s battling her subconscious, finding reasons to keep him there. I mean I can totally relate and I think a lot of us do, I think we all fight with our thoughts to some extent in order for us to see someone in a not so bad light even though others would only see the bad.

She tells us that:

“The initial storm of misery had passed, but Jake had ebbed ever since at the edge of her consciousness, ready to break in at unguarded moments and twist her bruised heart anew.”

Again, I can totally relate to this too. And it’s scary to think about and realise. The thoughts may not bother you for months, then when you start seeing someone or speaking to someone, all those memories and thoughts of being hurt, of being let down and of being lied too come back and you instantly project those images onto the new person you’re seeing and you end up in an cycle that you struggle to get out of and let me tell you, it’s not easy. I’m still stuck in it!

Anyway, things seem to be going much better for Polly as someone else was filling her thoughts instead of Jake…the stranger with the dog!

This stranger with the dog turns out to be Max, a university student studying to be a vet. But this trainee is hiding a secret…he is actually crown prince of Sedona. But shhhh, it’s a secret!

Meanwhile, in Chapter 3, we meet another character – Allison, or Alexa as she’d like to be called. Alexa is very different to Polly. Alexa has a dream, to be a socialite – an upper class lady, marrying into the riches and royals…not just a northern lass from Manchester. Unfortunately things don’t quite go to plan with eventually every plan she had going pear shaped and after failing her university exams – she was now back home and all alone.

“The upper class had short memories…”

After not even being home 24hours, being so close yet so far away torments Alexa –

“…she saw her former acquaintances falling out of exclusive night clubs, hanging with the band at hip music festivals or playing drunken hide and seek at weekend house parties. None of which she was invited to, and obviously never would be again.
She would clench her fists with helpless envy at this glittering life she had once been so close to, but which now seemed further away than the moon.”

Now if you hadn’t already have guessed, Alexa is nothing more than a scheming social climber, a class-hopping cruise missile. Aiming for the top and nothing less will do. Alexa is more than happy to settle for anyone with a title or money…no matter how unattractive they are to her.

But will Alexa get this life she craves? Or will her hard work and scheming be undone?

We also see the innocence of children, their want and need to impress yet also their relishment in having some responsibility, a specific job to do. Take Kyle for example:

blockquote> “No we’re not digging for gold, we’re digging for two-thousand-year-old toilets!…but if you want modern ones, there’s some by the entrance.”

There is humour and innocence all wrapped into one and captures the children’s persona’s perfectly.

There’s also some heartfelt chapters with Max’s mum, the Queen. Her unhappy ascension and marriage to the throne and ultimately her loyalty to the throne, a loyalty she must honour instead of remaining loyal to her son and his wishes, something she knows all too well about. But Queen Astrid is carrying a secret, a secret which could change absolutely everything.

PS Chapter 61 is an absolute heartbreaker and tear jerker! You have been warned!

So will there be a royal wedding after all? Or will it all come crashing down?

Read the book for unexpected twists and turns throughout.

The two main characters, Polly and Alexa remind me of Darcy and Rachel in Something Borrowed…except Polly and Alexa aren’t best friends. In fact, they’re total opposites. Whilst Polly is penniless, working her way up the archeological ladder Alexa is trying to be everything she isn’t and forcing her way into a life she’s can’t afford.

I would have absolutely have loved more chapters on Polly and Max. In the few chapters we see them in, they seem to be the perfect couple and I’d love for there to be a sequel just focusing on them.

The majority of the book is focussed on Alexa and her mission to the top. We learn of her initial fall from a height, meeting Barney, a trusty accomplice in this title finding mission and eventually how it all ends up for her.

Please follow the link below if you think this is book that you’d love to read!

Sorry for the taking so long to review!

Forgive me please followers?!

Until next time, happy reading folks!

D x