Royals by Rachel Hawkins

Meet Daisy Winters. She’s an offbeat sixteen-year-old Floridian with mermaid-red hair; a part time job at a bootleg Walmart, and a perfect older sister who’s nearly engaged to the Crown Prince of Scotland. Daisy has no desire to live in the spotlight, but relentless tabloid attention forces her to join Ellie at the relative seclusion of the castle across the pond.

While the dashing young Miles has been appointed to teach Daisy the ropes of being regal, the prince’s roguish younger brother kicks up scandal wherever he goes, and tries his best to take Daisy along for the ride. The crown–and the intriguing Miles–might be trying to make Daisy into a lady . . . but Daisy may just rewrite the royal rulebook to suit herself.

“Hold up, what’s going on? Sorry, I was having an existential crisis, so I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Leave it to a teenager to think a summer escape to Scotland with a full royal treatment is an existential crisis, am I right? Daisy, listen up girl. Enjoy all the hottie Scotties, the rolling hills, the model cows. Pretty soon, you’re going to be a grown up, and it’s HARD.

“The train is rolling, my Daisy-Daze,” he says in a low voice. “Best to get on board before you’re crushed on the tracks.”

I am a firm believer that things come into your life at the times they were meant to. Sometimes, it changes your whole world view or puts you on another path. Other times, it gives you answers to questions rattling around in your head. And then there are the things that simply put a smile on your face. Things that make you chuckle no matter how hard things are.

Royals falls into that last category. It’s a very familiar trope – part Princess Diaries, part Pride and Prejudice – but Rachel Hawkins brings a lot of humor and excellent storytelling in weaving these well-known threads together. This book is pure fun, and I can’t wait for another installment.

And Daisy, me? I’m still…figuring things out, too.

XOXO