Book Review: The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Heir Apparent
Author: Rebecca Armitage
Publisher: Cardinal
Publication date: December 2, 2025
Length: 409 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

An irresistible modern fairy tale about a British princess who must decide between her duty to her family—or to her own heart.

It’s New Year’s Day in Australia and the life Lexi Villiers has carefully built is working out nicely: she’s in the second year of her medical residency, she lives on a beautiful farm with her two best friends Finn and Jack, and she’s about to finally become more-than-friendly with Jack—when a helicopter abruptly lands.

Out steps her grandmother’s right-hand-man, with the tragic news that her father and older brother have been killed in a skiing accident. Lexi’s grandmother happens to be the Queen of England, and in addition to the shock and grief, Lexi must now accept the reality that she is suddenly next in line for the throne—a role she has publicly disavowed.

Returning to London as the heir apparent Princess Alexandrina, Lexi is greeted by a skeptical public not ready to forgive her defection, a grieving sister-in-law harboring an explosive secret, and a scheming uncle determined to claim the throne himself.

Her recent life—and Jack—grow ever more distant as she feels the tug of tradition, of love for her grandmother, and of obligation. When her grandmother grants her one year to decide, Lexi must choose her own destiny: will it be determined by an accident of birth—or by love?

The Heir Apparent is the newest pick for Reese’s Book Club, and it’s a great choice. Luckily for me, I was browsing my library’s website on the day this was announced, and was able to snag a copy right away.

Let’s start by talking about what this book isn’t, before I get into all the marvelous things it is. If all you’re going by are the cover and the blurb, you might be tempted to slot this book into the romance category, and that would be a mistake. Don’t be fooled by the “modern fairy tale” description — it’s really no such thing. This isn’t a story about a commoner suddenly discovering she’s secretly royal or getting swept away by a romance with a prince. In fact, while there is a love story embedded within the novel, it’s just one thread out of many that weave together to form a compelling whole.

I actually think the Australian cover and synopsis do a much better job of conveying the book’s tone and content:

Lexi Villiers is a 29-year-old Englishwoman doing her medical residency in Hobart, 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. Following a terrible accident, Lexi finds herself the heir apparent. 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.

Doesn’t that sound very different?

In The Heir Apparent, Lexi is a medical resident in Tasmania, living in a shared cottage on a vineyard with her two closest friends, possibly about to admit the deep feelings she has for one of them. She’s also the granddaughter of Queen Eleanor of England, third in line to the throne after her father and twin (but two-minutes-older) brother Louis.

As the book opens, a helicopter arrives to inform Lexi that her father and brother have been killed in an avalanche while skiing in the Alps. Lexi is whisked back to England to take her place with the family for the elaborate rituals of mourning — and to take up her new position as heir apparent.

Lexi is all too aware of what this means. No more medical career, a life lived fully under the microscope of public (and paparazzi) scrutiny, the never-ending drama of palace intrigue and back-biting and scandalous leaks. And she should know, better than anyone: Her mother was the tragic Princess Isla, living in a loveless marriage while her husband pined (and carried on with) his first true love, eventually divorced, stripped of titles and protection, and the most gossiped about woman in the world. Lexi is still haunted by nightmares related to Isla’s tragic death when Lexi and Louis were teens. How can Lexi embrace a life that destroyed her mother so thoroughly?

At the same time, Lexi loves her grandmother and was raised with duty to the Crown as the highest calling. As Lexi navigates a return to life as a royal, she must weight the responsibilities and privileges hurtling toward her. The Queen gives her a year to make a decision: Accept her place as heir apparent and all that entails, or walk away permanently.

If the general outline of the royal family sounds familiar, but slightly changed, there’s a reason. In the world of The Heir Apparent, royal history veered from our own centuries earlier, when Barbara Villiers — historically, mistress to King Charles II — became Queen. Here, the royal family is of the House Villiers, and Barbara is revered as the strong, intelligent queen who created a dynasty.

And yet, the parallels to the real-life royal family are obvious, from the long-lived Queen Eleanor to the scandals surrounding Lexi’s parents’ marriage and divorce, to her mother’s heroism in visiting war-torn countries and speaking out for children, to the unending speculation surrounding Isla’s death. Lexi is in some ways a stand-in for a certain prince, as she walked away from her role as a working royal years earlier in order to achieve a life of her own far, far away, resulting in estrangement from her father and brother. And of course, the palace leaks and manipulations in the novel are quite as devious and inescapable as we’ve heard described over and over again in real life.

What I loved about The Heir Apparent is the inner look at what this life means to Lexi. It’s not cut and dried; she’s bound by tradition, love for family, and the respect for the Crown that’s been drilled into her since birth. At the same time, she’s seen just how poisonous such a life can be, as the secrets that haunted her closest family members led to pain and suffering, over and over again. Lexi is a complex character who’s fought hard to pursue a life of meaning, choosing service as a medical professional over the much loftier type of service life as a royal entails, and she’s found joy in it. But she can’t walk away, once she becomes the heir apparent, before truly giving this alternate life a chance, weighing whether she can be the future Queen that her grandmother expects, as the world watches to judge whether she succeeds or fails.

The book is structured around the events following the helicopter’s arrival, but interspersed chapters take us back to Lexi’s childhood, teen, and early adult years. Secrets are teased and slowly doled out. We know there’s more than Lexi is sharing about her past; we know she’s haunted by the family estrangement and how she cut ties with her brother over the past several years. But as we see in the chapters set earlier, they were once incredibly close. How their lives split and fell apart is key to understanding who Lexi is now, as are the rest of the secrets that eventually get revealed as the story progresses.

An underlying theme throughout The Heir Apparent, beyond the family drama and palace intrigue, is the overarching question about the role and relevancy of a monarchy in the modern age, as well as the dark side of the monarchy’s history of colonialism and empire. The author does not shy away from these aspects, and this subtext provides yet another layer to Lexi’s struggle to understand her role, what’s expected of her, and what her choices ultimately mean.

For those who enjoy the peek-behind-the-scenes vibe of royal-themed novels and movies, there’s plenty of that here as well, as we see Lexi poked, prodded, smoothed, painted, and shaped into a princess worthy of public display. The inner workings of palace life are revealed, with scenes involving the various aides and assistants and vastly complex protocols that control every inch and second of royal family life.

The Heir Apparent is certain to appeal to fans of The Crown. Those who read and enjoyed Prince Harry’s Spare will find certain emotional resonances here as well in areas where Lexi’s experiences feel achingly familiar. I’ll throw in a more offbeat reference too: The Heir Apparent strongly brought to mind The Goblin Emperor, which is a stellar example of fantasy genre storytelling and world-building. The Goblin Emperor revolves around a character so far down the line of succession that he’s considered worthless — until a freak accident kills off the Emperor and all of the older heirs. In that book as well as this one, the main characters must navigate finding themselves heir to the throne when it was absolutely never even considered a possibility. It’s fascinating to compare the parallels in these very different stories.

Summing it all up…

Well-written, emotional, and utterly gripping, The Heir Apparent tells a great story while also providing food for thought and an emotionally relatable main character. I felt completely invested in Lexi’s choice, battling with myself over what the right decision might be, and unable to put the book down before we finally learn what Lexi’s path will be.

Even for readers who don’t normally take an interest in royalty, the experiences of the main character here make for compelling reading. Highly recommended.

Resources and information:

Blog post via Reese’s Book Club: https://reesesbookclub.com/how-do-you-trust-your-loved-ones-when-every-secret-is-a-weapon/
Author bio: https://rebeccaarmitage.com/about/
NPR review: https://www.npr.org/2025/12/07/nx-s1-5600903/a-royal-romance-novel-with-the-british-throne-at-stake
Publishers Weekly review: https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781538776308

Purchase links: Amazon – Audible — Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

4Feb2023

Audiobook Review: Spare by Prince Harry

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Spare
Author: Prince Harry
Narrator: Prince Harry
Publisher: Random House
Publication date: January 10, 2023
Print length: 410 pages
Audio length: 15 hours, 39 minutes
Genre: Memoir
Source: Audible (hardcover from library)
Rating:

It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on.

For Harry, this is that story at last.

Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight.

At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love.

Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . .

For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

I know there’s been a lot of general chitchat online about Prince Harry basically oversaturating the market with multiple presentations of his story. There was the Oprah interview that more or less kicked things off, the multi-part Netflix series Harry & Meghan, and now, the release of his memoir, Spare. Given how much coverage has already been dedicated to this royal couple, is a book really necessary? Is there anything new that hasn’t already been shared? Yes, and yes.

In Spare, Prince Harry narrates his life (literally, for those listening to the audiobook), essentially starting with the devastation of Princess Diana’s tragic death in 1997. For Harry, a boy of just twelve years old, her death was beyond comprehension. In fact, as we see in Spare, he spent years deeply believing that his mother was actually in hiding, just waiting for the moment when it would be safe to reunite with her boys. Throughout the section of Spare that covers his youth, he refers to his mother’s “disappearance”, never her “death”. It’s chilling, to say the least.

The book is divided roughly into thirds, covering his childhood and youth, his army service, and his relationship with Meghan. The first third, Out of the Night that Covers Me, is the most powerful, and actually brought me to tears several times. Strip away the Royal Family trappings, and what we have is the story of a boy suffering a tremendous loss and not having the support or resources to deal with it. The events, as they unfold through Harry’s memories, are overwhelming, baffling, painful, and isolating.

As the narrative moves into Harry’s teen and young adult years, he covers his growing devotion to working and living in Africa, his search for meaning and purpose, his experiences in the army (in the book’s second section, Bloody, But Unbowed), and the ongoing strains of his family relationships, especially with his father and brother.

And finally, section three of the book, Captain of My Soul, gets into his romance with Meghan, the viciousness of the media attacks on her, and the couple’s departure from official royal life. Most of this is familiar already, but it’s still interesting to hear Harry’s perspective and gain new insights on the internal struggles he experienced and the painful interactions with the family members he should have been able to count on.

I listened to the audiobook, which I think is the way to go. Prince Harry does the narration, and of course, it’s especially moving to hear him tell his own story.

For the most part, I found him sympathetic and straightforward. Yes, I suppose we could scoff at the “poor me” aspect of it all — after all, being royal is the ultimate state of privilege, isn’t it? He acknowledges all of this, and yet also points out the absolute weirdness of suddenly being cut off after a lifetime of trained dependency. His father isn’t just his father, he’s also his boss, his business manager, and the controller of all of his funds. Harry points out that he’s never carried money or placed an order online. What kind of way to live is that? (He does mention that he has an inheritance from his mother that he and Meghan didn’t want to touch, since they wanted it to be for their children… which, okay, that’s a nice goal, but then it’s hard to feel too sorry for them when Harry gets into the extremely high cost of security, then mentions buying their perfect home in Santa Barbara).

Still, there’s a sadness throughout when it comes to telling the story of being part of an emotionally withholding family — a family that’s also a business and an institution, where closest relationships come with heavy strings and expectations and requirements, but not a whole lot of space for difference or grief or nonconformity. It’s hard to imagine the enormous pressure of being under constant scrutiny and harassment — Harry’s harshest stories and commentary are leveled at the corrupt media and the “paps” who show no mercy when it comes to getting a story or a photo, even when these stories and photos put people’s lives at risk.

Overall, I found the storytelling powerful, honest, and unflinching. Harry is open about his own flaws, his emotional struggles, and his doubts and fears. He very clearly explains and illustrates, over and over again, the ongoing impact of his mother’s death and how that informs his worldview, as well as his unending need to keep his wife and children safe at all costs, even if that means breaking with his own family and all that being royal entails.

Of course, media coverage has been focused on the big “reveals” (such as misunderstandings between Kate and Meghan, the fuss over Meghan’s wedding tiara, etc), but in actuality, Spare is at its most affecting as the story of loss, grief, and family.

Well worth reading, and I highly recommend the audio version.

25Sep2019

Shelf Control #184: The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out my introductory post, here.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: The Royal We
Author: Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan
Published: 2015
Length: 496 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

American Rebecca Porter was never one for fairy tales. Her twin sister, Lacey, has always been the romantic who fantasized about glamour and royalty, fame and fortune. Yet it’s Bex who seeks adventure at Oxford and finds herself living down the hall from Prince Nicholas, Great Britain’s future king. And when Bex can’t resist falling for Nick, the person behind the prince, it propels her into a world she did not expect to inhabit, under a spotlight she is not prepared to face.

Dating Nick immerses Bex in ritzy society, dazzling ski trips, and dinners at Kensington Palace with him and his charming, troublesome brother, Freddie. But the relationship also comes with unimaginable baggage: hysterical tabloids, Nick’s sparkling and far more suitable ex-girlfriends, and a royal family whose private life is much thornier and more tragic than anyone on the outside knows. The pressures are almost too much to bear, as Bex struggles to reconcile the man she loves with the monarch he’s fated to become.

Which is how she gets into trouble.

Now, on the eve of the wedding of the century, Bex is faced with whether everything she’s sacrificed for love-her career, her home, her family, maybe even herself-will have been for nothing.

How and when I got it:

I bought a used copy when I stumbled across it in a thrift store.

Why I want to read it:

I seem to remember seeing some positive reviews on various blogs when The Royal We came out. I’m not really someone to ooh and aah over royalty, but this does sound like good escapist fiction, so it might be worth a try. Although… for a plot that sounds pretty light and fluffy, it’s got a hefty page count! The length of the book may be why I haven’t actually picked it up to read yet.

What do you think? Would you read this book?

Please share your thoughts!

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Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

15May2019

Book Review: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

A big-hearted romantic comedy in which First Son Alex falls in love with Prince Henry of Wales after an incident of international proportions forces them to pretend to be best friends…

First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations.

The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. Alex is busy enough handling his mother’s bloodthirsty opponents and his own political ambitions without an uptight royal slowing him down. But beneath Henry’s Prince Charming veneer, there’s a soft-hearted eccentric with a dry sense of humor and more than one ghost haunting him.

As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. And Henry throws everything into question for Alex, an impulsive, charming guy who thought he knew everything: What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?

Swoon.

Swoony swoon swoon.

For whatever reason, probably based on the cover, I thought this was going to be a sweet, light YA romance. But considering that the main characters are in their 20s, two healthy, lusty, consenting adults, I’m not sure how to categorize this. Is this what’s meant by new adult? Can we just agree that this is fiction featuring young-ish grown-ups, and forget about putting it on the correct shelf?

Red, White & Royal Blue is a delicious mix of sexy romance, hearts-and-flowers-worthy first love, politics, scandals, and plenty of hot and heavy action between two very attractive 20-ish young men. Who are, you know, royalty and the American version thereof.

Alex is the son of the first woman president, now up for reelection. He’s a smart-aleck who acts out plenty, but at heart he’s a policy geek who dreams of a career in politics for himself, following in the footsteps of his mother and his Congressman father. Henry is the second son of the heir to the British throne, the younger brother who’s handsome and pampered and kept very isolated from authentic experiences and relationships. The two have collided repeatedly over the years and are, at best, frenemies (without the friendship part), but after a public spectacle involved smooshed royal wedding cake, Alex and Henry are thrown together in a public relations ploy to defuse the media focus on their supposed fight.

As they start spending time together, Alex and Henry develop a strange connection via late night phone calls and texts, discovering unexpected shared life experiences and connecting through the strange reality of living life in a fishbowl, always under the scrutiny of the press and the public. When their fake friendship develops into true friendship, Alex finally realizes (after a surprise New Year’s kiss) that his friendly feelings for Henry run deeper than expected, and also, he finally understands that he’s bi and just never actually faced it.

Things blossom pretty quickly between Alex and Henry, and their encounters are hot and steamy and full of passion. But there’s also a lot of hiding and creating false narratives to throw their families and the public off their trail, and it’s exhausting. In this day and age, you wouldn’t expect coming out to be such a big deal, but Alex and Henry are not at all people in normal circumstances. The tabloids are already obsessed with their every move. What would happen to US/British relations if the truth was revealed? What would it mean for the President’s chances at reelection? What what it mean for the British monarchy to have an heir to the throne (third in line, in fact) publicly acknowledge that he’s gay?

Red, White & Royal Blue handles the issues with humor, political savvy, and a surprising depth of feeling. It’s hard not to feel sorry for both Alex and Henry. Each faces different sorts of pressure, and while either on their own coming out might be news for a bit, putting the two of them together can only lead to an explosion of scandal. Alex and Henry are adorable together, and their romance is lovely and funny and passionate in all the best ways. At the same time, it’s amusing to see the scurrying of secret service and campaign managers who need to keep the two in line, and how simple things like dating require NDAs and removals of cell phones just to get off the ground.

The politics is really entertaining too. First off, yes, it’s just as awesome as you’d think to have a story about a woman in the White House. I loved the President’s relationship with her kids, how no-nonsense she is, and yet how she comes through when she needs to. Seeing the royal family in action is a whole other set of fun, especially as the younger generation confronts the Queen about what they want out of life and what they’re willing to do to get it.

I was a little doubtful at the beginning, but pretty quickly, I was swept up in the giddy fun and the super-cute romance of the story. There are definitely lots of pretty steamy, detailed sex scenes, so ya know, if you prefer your fictional romances to be more flowery and less sweaty, you might think twice about picking up this book. But otherwise, prepare to swoon! Red, White & Royal Blue is escapist romantic fiction that hits lots of high points, starring very public figures without losing out on the personal, emotional connections that make a good love story.

And a final word — Red, White & Royal Blue would be adorable as a movie! Netflix, are you listening?
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The details:

Title: Red, White & Royal Blue
Author: Casey McQuiston
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication date: May 14, 2019
Length: 432 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley