Two of my least favorite tropes are second chance romances (which is ironic considering that’s technically what my own love story is) and royal romances. However, some authors make it entirely possible to overlook your own personal preferences, because their stories are just that good. Emma St. Clair is one of those authors for us, we’ll read anything she writes, regardless of genre or trope.
You know what else I don’t love, first person point of view. That gave Royally Rearranged two strikes. That’s how much we like Emma St. Clair. So much so that we eagerly looked forward to a book I knew contained both of those things.
I must admit that the pretentiousness of the royalty did get to me a time or two, but Emma’s writing is so witty and so emotionally driven that I found myself really liking the story.
Even with the first person, I loved the dual perspectives. The reader was given a glimpse into what was real and what was a mask giving the characters good development.
I did feel like while we got a lot of background on Rafe and you love him more and more with each thing you learn. I didn’t feel like we got that same character background with Seraf. We get to see her current life and a lot about her dealing with the concept of love and what it means, but I feel like all her past memories are tied into Rafe and Callum and not many are just her. I think the moment she steps up for her country and for Rafe would have been a little more powerful if we knew a little bit more about her than just her ice princess façade and her relationship with the two boys.
I liked it more than I expected to for a royal romance, but I shouldn’t have been too surprised considering how much we love Emma’s writing.
**** Low Language, Moderate Romance (there were quite a few innuendos in this one just a heads up), Moderate Violence (I put it here, just to give a trigger warning for those that might need it about the emotional and physical abuse of Rafe’s childhood, though never very descriptive, it is a major plot point to the story, but one that was handled really well by Emma.)
The Buy-In
I think one of the reasons I don’t love second chance romances is the whole hindsight thing. I look at how the relationship failed the first time and I think, if they would have just done ____, all this pain and drama could have been avoided. But that’s not human nature is it? And I love it when an author gets real with their characters.
Emma’s characters and her writing is so witty and fun, but they don’t ever loose that realness. The town of Sheet Cake for instance, is hilarious. It is over the top and ridiculous, but you can picture it. Emma writes it in such a way that its real. You close the book reminding yourself that’s it’s fictional. You can’t take the next plane to TX and visit this town and these people, who you feel like you know. But you want to, cause the writing is just that good.
The one thing I couldn’t picture though, was the giggling. Both of us that read it thought the same thing. I have never heard a grown man giggle and I couldn’t picture it. I admit that the odd trait did pull me out of the story when it happened, but so much else about Pat was endearing that we still both loved the character.
My favorite part of the story was how well Emma wrote their relationship. Even with the initial fall out, and all throughout the story; neither of them were all right and neither of them were all wrong. Real life is never that black and white and the way Emma balanced that just added to the realism.
Emma also had some awesome foreshadowing throughout the story. In so many ways. With Pat and Lindy, the town of Sheet Cake, and the stories to come. It’s the kind of writing that leaves you anxious for the next in the series.
**** Low Language, Moderate Romance (Pat and Lindy are married early on in the story and do have married people conversations and there is one closed door scene at the very end of the book, but the way Emma handles it all I still wouldn’t put this in a High category), Low Violence