Royal by Winter Renshaw
Series: Rixton Falls, #1
First published on February 21, 2016 by Createspace
Genre: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary
392 pages
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Find on Goodreads
Get it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2P861y2

His name is Royal, but he’s no prince charming. He’s not even a prince – though you could say I loved him once upon a time.

He was my older brother’s best friend.

Growing up, he sat at our dinner table every Sunday, teased me mercilessly, and pretended I annoyed him.

When I was old enough, he took me on my first date.

Royal taught me how to drive. Escorted me to my junior prom. Gave me my first kiss…amongst other things. He was my first taste of toe-curling, all-consuming, can’t-sleep love.

We had our whole lives ahead of us. There was never anyone else for me but him.

And then he disappeared. No letter. No explanation. Not even a goodbye.

My sisters and brother never forgave him, and my parents forbade me from speaking his name in our house ever again. For all intents and purposes, we were to pretend Royal Lockhart never existed.

I’ve spent the last seven years trying in vain to forget my first love, but just when I think I’ve finally moved on, guess who’s back in town?

Review

As you can read on the sypnosis above, this story started when they were still kids. Royal was his brother’s best friend and became an official part of their family when one time his brother brought him to their house. He’s a foster child so he doesn’t have any stable family at all, but is very likeable especially to the girls in their school. She can’t see why he’s very popular with all the girls when all he does is  to annoy her. Then at the age of 13, suddenly, her feelings towards Royal starts to change. Until at the age of 18, she finally admits that she loves him. After that, they became the inseparable couple until he took off without any explanation why. He came back after 7 years hoping he could have her back.

Before we proceed, I would like to warn you about some spoilers. So read on your own risk *wink.

I’m a sucker for teen romances so during the first few chapters, I find this story quite refreshing to read especially that it was written in a diary format. I love how their relationship progresses from being her annoying brother’s best friend to her first love. But then, all of that was destroyed when he just left without any explanations at all. 7 years later, she’s about to get married until Brooke, the man she was supposed to marry, cancelled the wedding. He ran off with all of his clothes but while on the road, he was involved in a car accident which until now, is unconscious. Which left her responsible, excluding his mother, to take good care of him until he wakes up. If I were her, I’m not sure how long I would last until I punch him in the face for cancelling the wedding, unconscious or not, whether I love him or not.

I’m not fond of stories where one of the characters  abandons the person they said they love, whether with explanations or not. But surprisingly, this story was able to hold my attention because it’s quite intriguing why he left and only came back 7 years after. It was perfect timing too, but I guess it’s for the better because she got to find out that everything she knew about her fiancé is wrong. And that intensified my desire to kill that Brooke dude myself. I thought the blame will be reversed to her, but she caught him talking to his mistress and that confirmed he’s faking the “not remembering anything about cancelling the wedding” thing. Well, there’s really a lot of things this dude did to her but I don’t want this review to be a major spoiler so I’ll just leave it there for you find out *wink. Besides, he finally got his karma.

The revelations were always put on hold until finally he told her what happened. I thought it was something intense like killing someone, but is still intense because it turns out it’s his sister’s doings. It was also heartbreaking because the only person that he thought would help him abandoned him. He’s 19 and scared and told him what happened but didn’t believe him. Instead of consoling him, he told him to stay away from his family, especially Demi. Sucks right? But atleast this time, aside from his biological mother, someone finally believed that he was innocent.

He’s been on parole for the past 5 years that’s why he can’t go away. He’s been checking up on Demi for those years while working as a mechanic for a living. Stalking much eh? Then one day, his sister came back and asked for his forgiveness. It took a lot of pushing until she finally told the police what really happened. The scene where he handed Demi’s family the letter clearing his name of any charges made me cry. I dunno. I’m just so affected with Royal’s story that I can’t help but be happy for him. Now, he can finally have his life, family and Demi back.

For the main characters, well, I feel neutral to both of them. I don’t hate or like Demi and I don’t remember squealing in delight because of Royal. Nothing really special but atleast they both did their part well.

And for the ending, well, it’s HEA baby! I love that the author makes up to Royal and gave him the ending that he really deserves. It’s just perfect.

I’m giving this story a 4-star rating. Aside from the ending, the whole story wasn’t exactly what I would call perfect but it was sure a satisfying read. Besides, there’s still more from this series to read.

It’s my first book from the author and I can’t wait to read more. I hope Derek, Demi’s brother will get his own book too.

Challenges

• 2017 New To Me
• 2017 Mount TBR Reading
• 2017 eBooks Reading
• 2017 You Read How Many Books?
• 2017 Review Writing

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