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From the publisher:
Lexi Villiers is a 29-year-old Englishwoman doing her medical residency, working too hard, worried about her bank balance, and living with friends. It’s a good life, and getting even better, because as the dawn is breaking on New Year’s Day, Lexi is about to kiss the man she loves for the very first time.
But by midnight, everything will change. Because Lexi is in fact not an ordinary young woman. She is Princess Alexandrina, third in line to the British throne — albeit estranged from the rest of her family and living in voluntary exile on the other side of the world. But following a terrible accident, Lexi — the black sheep of her family and, until this moment, always destined to be the spare — is now the heir apparent, first in line to the throne once her grandmother, the elderly queen, dies.
Called back to do her duty, she arrives in London to a palace riven with power plays and media leaks, all the while guarding painful secrets of her own. Palace waters are treacherous, rumors are rife, and selling each other’s secrets is a family tradition. And with the crown just within her grasp, Lexi must choose what bonds she will keep … and what she is willing to leave behind.
My take: I could have enjoyed The Heir Apparent … had it not already seemed so basically written from the start. It was all “tell, don’t show.” So much exposition. I feel like a touch of exposition and explanation is fine, but this was all exposition … a tenth of the book. It just felt like an immature writer. And Reese Witherspoon CHOSE this??? I read about 10% and just couldn’t stomach the writing anymore. I definitely appreciate light and breezy romance, including not-too-realistic royal tropes, but this was not great. So I DNF’d. No time to waste on bad writing.
Rapid Rating: High.
Profanity includes 10 uses of strong language, around 15 instances of moderate profanity, about 5 uses of mild language, about 20 instances of the name of Deity in vain, and about a dozen uses of British profanity. Sexual content seems light: there’s kissing and brief references to sex, mentions of removal of clothes, but intimacy is closed-door.
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