Title: Royal Defender, Twin City U Book 3
Author: Cecelia Storm
Formats: Reviewed on eBook
Rating: 3 stars
Acknowledgment: Thanks to Gay Romance Reviews for providing an ARC
I came into this novel not having any of the previous books in the series and I still managed to have a ripper of a time reading this!
The “Royal” in the “Royal Dender” is referring to Percy, a British 20-something who has only recently discovered that his birth parents want to come back into his life- due to the fact that a) he’s their heir and b), the minor factor that he’s essentially a Royal (200th or so in the line of succession!). Percy comes across as having a case of what I like to call RBA- resting bitch attitude- with a supporting case of RBF.
The novel is told in dual point of view, with the novel opening from the point of view of Issac, a hard working goalie who is our surrogate into their world and gives us the view that Percy is a handsome, British, know it all (add in a few expletives and you know what I mean).
This gives us the classic trope of enemies to friends to lovers to husbands in the name of a fake marriage- for Percy the fake marriage is to get people off his back, while for Isaac it’s a means to obtain much needed money both for his parents back home and to support a soccer camp that helped him shape who he is today.
There’s nothing inherently bad with this book- yes it has the tropes of enemies to lovers as well as the whole fake marriage thing- but there’s also nothing that stands out about this book.
Storm has a enjoyable writing style- personally i loved it- but I didn’t’ feel strongly one way or the other for most of the characters. The novel holds up well as a stand alone or in the series it is set in.