#AND THEN ALMOST GOT AWAY WITH IT queen behavior. very hilarious self sabotage

[hellcatchvalley]

laudna: the sword is cursed. and bad. it will corrupt you. orym: hm. source? laudna: trust me. orym: mm. doubt. laudna: also i want to spiritually inhale it. orym: the sword you said was too cursed and corrupt to Use? you want to Eat it? and feed it to the evil woman in your chest? laudna: yes. orym:

[thesffcorner]

Her Royal Highness

Her Royal Highness is the second book in the Royals series, written by Rachel Hawkins. It’s more of a companion novel, following entirely different characters, and though I personally would recommend reading Prince Charming first, you don’t have to. This book follows Amelia or Millie, a 17 year old girl from Texas, who gets a scholarship to MacGregorston, a Private College in Scotland. Once she gets there, she realizes that in addition to dealing with the new timezone, weather and school system, she also has to deal with her roommate: Her Royal Highness Flora, the Princess of Scotland. The reason I say you should read Prince Charming first, is because you might be a little confused as to what kind of parallel universe this is where Scotland has a Queen; well in this book series both England and Scotland have royal families, and we follow the Scottish one, which is really like our real world British Royal Family. This whole series for me comes with a caveat; if you are like me, and you are not interested or have mixed to negative opinions on royalty, the British royal family or tax draining monarchy in general, you still might like this series, because shockingly, though at no point condemning the royals, Hawkins is at least critical of them, and there are many instances in the book where actual important things are discussed. It also helps, that in both books, the lead characters isn’t obsessed or even interested in royalty; both Daisy, and here Millie are very oblivious and sometimes outright hostile to the glamour and strangeness of that kind of living, which presented itself as a nice ‘straight man’ to the still very patriarchal, very imperialist royal family. So let’s talk about this book. Unlike the first book, which focused more on Daisy getting to know the family, lifestyle, and her relationship with her sister, here the focus is the relationship between Millie and Flora, and their gradual move from enemies, to friends to lovers. As such I ended up really enjoying their romance. Hawkins excels at enemies to lovers; there was a perfect amount of time devoted to each section of the relationship, and at no point did I think that things were moving to fast or dragging. Even when Millie and Flora and Millie are ‘enemies’, their rivalry is mostly just petty, like speaking loudly on the phone, putting tape to separate their dresser, or insulting each other with supremely dorky insults. The parts where Flora does do things that are extreme, and could put Millie into physical danger or in danger of expulsion/losing her academic scholarship, are treated as serious events, and Flora is always called out on her behavior and suffers consequences. Since this book is so focused on the characters, I’ll talk about them first. Let’s start with the supporting cast: Sakshi, Perry, Sherbert and Sebastian. Sebastian and Sherbert we met in the last book; Seb is Flora’s twin brother, and Sherbert is part of his friend group, a boy who is dating the Crown Prince of Greece (I think. Or maybe he’s just the son of a wealthy Greek businessman). If you’ve read book 1, there is not much difference between how Seb is there, and how he’s here; he’s his usual charming self, a bit of a hot mess, and his little scuffle at the end of the last book doesn’t seem to have done much damage to his reputation, or even his relationship with his siblings. I really liked his and Flora’s dynamic; they are very similar, except as it tends to go, Seb is allowed to get away with a lot more things than Flora is, which I felt was both intentional and frustrating. They are however ready to throw down for each other at any point, and I liked that Seb got to be the one who makes Millie see the error of her actions in the end. Perry was not a character that had a lot to do; he hates the school because his parents forced him to go there, and he has a crush on Sakshi. There were some funny bits with him, like ordering the wrong kind of beer for Seb out of spite, or his conversation with Sakshi about whether he’s been gay the whole time they had been friends. Overall he was the gloomier foil to Sakshi’s bubbly, larger than life personality. Sakshi was my absolute favorite character. I need the next book to be about her, she was amazing. She is extremely feminine and sharp, while also being physically imposing at 6ft tall. I loved her friendship with Flora, loved how supportive and genuine she was with her, and I even enjoyed her ‘project’ to ‘fix’ Seb, so she can marry a prince and have the biggest philanthropy/charity platform in the UK, which falls away when it turns out that he’s a Harts fan. Even her being an Arsenal fan couldn’t deter my love for her character. As for our leads, let’s start with Flora. I liked Flora a lot; at first she’s the typical mean girl/snobby girl, but it quickly becomes clear that she’s not just catty; she’s willing to throw down and cause some physical and property damage, in her bid to get expelled. She has a very strained relationship to her mother, and to the expectations put on her by royal life. I found this very interesting, and I wish it was explored more; as is the book just doesn’t have time to properly address this relationship, mostly because we are seeing it from Millie’s perspective. I liked that Flora was the more active and willing participant in the relationship between her and Millie, and their banter was hilarious. The things I didn’t like about Flora, like her stubbornness and her willingness to disregard the well being of others for her own personal goals were addressed in the book, by the other characters and she changes by the end, to be less flippant. Millie was the character I liked least. It’s not that I hated her, but she was a pale comparison to Daisy who I related to a whole lot more, and found just simply funnier. Millie was a bit grating, very much a goody two shoes; she’s never broken a rule, she’s obsessed with geology, she only cares about school, avoids conflict. She also has this almost… fetishistic fascination with Scotland? Like she’s obsessed with Scotland, but doesn’t actually know anything about Scottish history or politics other than the most stereotypical things like Braveheart? She does improve significantly, and I like that for a change it was actually her that messed things up. When her fight with Flora begun, I really didn't understand what her big deal was; I still don’t understand why it matters whether Flora broke up with her ex, or her ex did; Flora not wanting to be just a secret to her ex is a perfectly valid reason to break up with someone, regardless. Whatever went down in her previous relationship has no bearing on her current one, and Millie blindly believing what a trashy tabloid writes was really dumb, for someone who’s portrayed as otherwise a sharp and sensible character. The only thing I did agree with Millie on, was Flora paying her tuition. Flora shouldn’t have done it at all, let alone done it without consulting and asking permission from Millie. We get hints on this class inequality between the girls, but it should have been a clearer examination on how their opposing view on money clashes. Flora is a princess, money means nothing to her (even though her money come from unfair taxes, and seizure of lands that should be public property, but this is a kids book, so maybe we can ignore socialism for a bit), so paying for someone she cares about it just that; a nice gesture. But when you don’t have money, or have very little, like Millie, every cent someone gives you feels like you are now in their debt, and you may never be able to repay it. It could have been a genuinely complex argument, but like Flora’s relationship to her mother, the book doesn’t devote enough time to it. The ending too felt a little rushed; while it is in Millie’s character to rush into things and do self-sabotaging things for a person they love (like not wanting to go to Scotland because she has a girlfriend), it still wasn’t great. It doesn’t help that the book just ends; we don’t get any resolution on things like Millie and Jude, Flora and her mom, or the scholarship. Regardless of the flaws, I still think this book is super enjoyable and fun. I really loved reading it, and I think if you liked the first book, or even if you just want a cute sapphic love story, this is the book for you. I will definitely read whatever else Rachel Hawkins has published because she’s convinced me that she’s a really solid, very funny author.