Truly Madly Royally

Fofo!!

- From Lala’s Book Reviews -Actually rating is 3.5 stars.Going into this book, I had VERY high hopes (so maybe that’s why I’m might be looking into this to much) because a) the cover is adorable and full of promise and b) Owen’s a prince (and we all know how much I love a good story with royals). So to say that I needed this book in my life is an understatement. I don’t know about y’all but I haven’t seen any reviews or thought about this book, but that didn’t stop me from picking it up.I liked this book, but it’s not one that I would foresee myself rereading often (if at all). It’s not a really complicated read that makes you have flip back throughout the book to recall certain events or even make you feel 50,000 different emotions at once (although it does give you some feels). I love a good book that has some predictability and some awww moments probably more than the average person, but I do like to see some depth to the plot with out it being so step by step predictable.I felt like the characters were very one noted or not represented very well. Like they had one main character trait and rarely showed any other emotion except during really intense moments even then it wasn’t much of a change.In the beginning of the book, we find out that Owen is he youngest of his family and is the ‘wild child’ of the group who has a reputation of having fun (it put me in the mind of Prince Harry). So when we see him in America, at college in New Jersey, he’s this really polite, well mannered person and I’m like are we even talking about the same person here! Then as the story progresses, it turns out that Owen does a lot of humanitarian work like building houses and helping children in poorer countries. From the couple hundred pages that I’ve seen of him he seems like a great guy who’s loyal and caring. So is he not this playboy prince that his homeland of Landon perceive him as?Then there’s Zora. I like her because she single handily started an after school program from the children in a neighborhood in New Jersey and she has these great dreams of spreading the knowledge of African American history, but she has a lot of unresolved emotions that deal with her dad leaving the family and acting as if the world is at his disposal and some of the things her brother did when they were younger. And it’s obvious that she hasn’t forgiven them truest because she felt like Owen was going to walk away from her or hurt her because she keeps these negative emotions in her subconscious all the time. Plus it keeps her from building her current relationships with her dad and brother to something worth keeping.I also felt like the way that time passed was very odd. For some parts of the book, it was a day by day thing then we’d skip days or a week before the story picked up and made it hard to tell how time passed.Then there’s the ‘side characters’. And when I say side character I mean Zora’s family and friends and the real side characters of Owens family. I think none of Zora’s family really got any of the on page time they deserved. They were brought in when needed with a few little details and faded to the back when it’s convenient to the plot line. It never felt like they were a constant part of Zora and her life.And don’t even get me started on Owen’s brother’s wedding because it was literally the last 30 pages of the book. So the brother that’s getting married is the 2nd in line to the throne and is getting married to a biracial women. I love the fact that they are looking past skin color and getting married for love. But because This is the big thing that Owen is looking forward to at the end of the summer and is hoping to bring Zora (the quite girl on campus with her headphones in never seeing him) with him to the wedding with him. Still doing good right now. And, it’s a big deal on who the next in line relay sibling brings to the wedding because it shows that this could be the person that they could marry (no pressure right). BUT, what I don’t understand is how Owen didn’t see that his mother didn’t want Zora near him because she was black until the very end. Like couldn’t her see that his mom conveniently called for him when he had a free moment. I just can’t.

I read the description months ago and it peaked my interest. As a preteen to teen I read a few of The Princess Diaries books. I'm so used to this meeting a prince fantasy being played out by cute little white girl from an average town who isn't particularly extraordinary. I've never seen a story like this with a black girl lead so that was exciting.So let's start with the cover. The cover of this book is cute but I'm not a huge fan of it. That's not at all how I picture Zora. Zora is an unambiguously black girl with curly hair who can do a bomb twist out. This girl looks more biracial and clearly the publishers were going for a Meghan Markle look to attract Meghan and Harry fans. This book is so clearly inspired by that romance especially with the inclusion of a royal couple that consists of a biracial woman marrying the Prince's older brother. That particular character felt very Duchess Meghan and Viscountess Emma inspired.I appreciated all the black positivity in this story. Zora is an activist. And not a social media activist like so many young people. But someone who actually goes out into her community and helps people. There's a great dynamic with her family. One of the things I appreciated is this book touched on racism without it being the main focus. So often than not YA books for black teens center around racism when I found most black people's lives don't center around racism on a daily basis. Yes black people deal with racism but they also live normal lives too and have different passions like everyone else.Now for Prince Owen. He was kind of typical bland prince from these types of stories with little personality. He was too perfect and accepting at times. I would've loved him to have a little more depth. I feel like there was more depth towards the end of the story but things were quickly rushed. The romance was sweet but it didn't give me all the feels I wanted.I received an arc from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Adorable- this would make a great Netflix or Freeform movie! The meet cute is adorable and while I didn’t feel Owen had a ton of personality (he was kind of a standard “proper prince”), he and Zora were pretty adorable together. I loved how much he noticed her and paid attention to what she cared about. The best part for me was Zora herself- she’s like a mini Leslie Knope, so driven to help her hometown and her people any way that she can! She had a lot of personality that radiated off the page, and her family did too.

The story is a sweet boy meets girl romance with a twist. It is reminiscent of perhaps Duke Harry & Duchess Meagan's story .