Fandomly Bookish: BOOK REVIEW | RELUCTANTLY ROYAL by Nichole Chase

Title: RELUCTANTLY ROYAL (Suddenly #3)

Author: Nichole Chase (Website | Twitter)

Publisher: Avon

Publication Date: August 26, 2014

SYNOPSIS

Maxwell Jameson Trevor, prince of Lilaria, hates his royal role. Despising the limelight, he takes solace in his art studio and steers clear of any drama. But when one of the newly discovered royals passes away, Maxwell's brother Alex asks him to break the news to the old man's granddaughter. Though he hates to be the bearer of doom and gloom, he doesn't want the poor girl to find out from the tabloids. For Maxwell knows all too well how devastating that could be.

Coming from a broken home and modest background, newly ordained Lady Meredith Thysmer has seized her chance to make a better life for herself and her son. She's not afraid to use her best assets to get what she wants. But when the unpretentious yet devastatingly handsome Max delivers his news, her plans for the future come crashing to a halt. In the challenging days ahead, Max's compassion, humor, and steadfast loyalty to Meredith and her son win her over. She quickly finds herself doing something she swore would never happen again: falling in love. And yet Maxwell still refuses to completely drop his guard. Somehow Meredith's got to find a way to seduce this reluctant royal.

GOODREADS

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I can't believe that another great and fluffy series has ended, *sigh*. Bye bye, Suddenly Series! I'm sure that these stories and characters will always be dear to my heart, especially Chadwick! [HAHAHA! Seriously, I love him to death!] One of the things that I love the most about this series is of how realistic and detailed the characteristics and personalities of the characters are. You’ll be dreaming to be a part of their crew and just hang out with these royals. They aren’t the snobbish and “head held high” type of royalties but they’re just normal human beings who make fun of their siblings, who gets flustered, who fall in love and all that. And it’s fun reading and witnessing them in moments like that. *swoon*

Suddenly Royal, Recklessly Royal and now we have the last book to complete this series – Reluctantly Royal, which focuses on the story of Max (sibling to Alex and Cathy from the previous books.) I love the fact that Max get to have his own book because it feels like the series has now come to a full circle and readers get to read the stories for each sibling. Plus, Max is a very interesting character that we’ve met in the previous books because he shies away from the spotlight that comes along with him being a prince. That’s like inevitable when you’re a prince, right? Weird in a way but you’ll surely want to know more about the back story of his character.

I enjoyed Reluctantly Royal as much as the other books of the series. The story is narrated from two POVs (Max and Meredith) which is quite a change considering that the first two books were from the voices of the female lead characters, right? The narration was quite good but it cannot be helped that their voices goes from very distinct to confusing the hell out of me scale on who’s doing the talking in that specific chapter. But all in all, it’s a good attempt in the dual POV scene and it’s really great to hear/read from both of our main characters’ point of view. Reading books in dual POVs, feels like the author entrusted you and given you a head start on something. And I appreciate that.

Suddenly Series definitely has a heart. Nichole Chase sticks to the core (the heart or the soul) of her series which is family and love. And because of that it strongly weaved the entire series together. Come to think of it, Reluctantly Royal may be the story about Max and Meredith’s relationship but at the forefront of it we can see the elements of valuing and caring for our family. It may also have been the one which paved way for their relationship to blossom. This book isn’t just about mushy stuff but it teaches us on how to deal with family matters, standing up for ourselves and family first before anything else. I really love that.

Max and Meredith’s relationship may have been fast in my timeline but my goodness! There’s just that spark between them. The chemistry was undeniably there and the sexy times in this book are just *fans myself*. In terms of Max’s character, there was this drastic change that happened to him in this book. I don’t know if it was just because of him stepping up to the plate or if it was the author’s way of showcasing him breaking out of his shell. It was so drastic. It was good change, though. But if I have to choose, I would love to see the “slow-mo” effect of the changes in his character. I think, it would’ve delivered a greater impact.

“In the challenging days ahead, Max's compassion, humor, and steadfast loyalty to Meredith and her son win her over.” Yes, Meredith has a son and you’ll surely look forward to the scenes where Max and her son, Marty, interacts with each other. They are just so cute, comfortable and in sync. Your heart will just swell with their son and father-ish moments.

Ahem, Chase certainly gave us a treat with the here and there appearance of our previous characters (Alex, Sam, Cathy, David, Chadwick and more) with their side-stories injected in this book. For the last time, we were given a chance to witness these characters together and helping each other out. I’m just in love with how their family is and the entire dynamics between them.

Though, this book kind of gave me a whiplash because everything just went swinging. The time frame and pacing of events of this book was bordering fast and rushed which was the reason why some moments weren’t believable to me. But I’d be lying if I say that I didn’t enjoy it (and learned something from it) because I really did. It was just fitting and perfect for me because I was really busy with RL and this one was an easy, sweet and heartwarming read. I’m sure fans of Nichole Chase and Suddenly Series would love to read the final book. It was a real treat seeing this series come to a close.

Rating: 3.75 stars