I’ve spent eight years wishing I’d fall out of love with Derek Knightley. Blowing out birthday candles, chasing after shooting stars, making it rain spare change into mall fountains—every time it’s the same wish: forget about Derek.
But the day he walks back into my life, I realize there are two things time has yet to soften: my feelings for him and his chiseled jawline.
It’s infuriating that my heart still races when he walks into a room. I refuse to fall prey to old unrequited love, so I decide the less I’m around him, the better. Avoidance is key.
Unfortunately, Derek isn’t going to make it easy. As a teenager, I would have crawled on my hands and knees to attract his attention. Now I can’t seem to escape it.
I’m not sure why he’s bothering. He’s not just out of my league—he’s out of my tax bracket. As the sole heir to the Knightley Company, he’s as close to American royalty as you can get. As for me, I’m just a part-time princess at Knightley’s flagship magical theme park.
I spend my days playing make-believe, but Derek has no use for fairytales. His unwavering confidence makes it clear he thinks I’ll surrender in the end.
He’s just biding his time.
Making me sweat.
His Royal Highness always gets what he wants.
And he wants me.
Nope. I just couldn’t get on board with this one. And it’s extra sad because I actually like the author!
Look, if I ever had a crush on a guy ten years older than me when I was just out of high school – which I’m sure I had – I would be super creeped out if that guy actually showed an interest in me.
But the heroine here is still holding out on her crush from 8 years ago. On a guy who was 10 years older than her and happened to be her mentor in a professional mentoring program. In the blurb, this crush is referred to as love. It gave me the mistaken impression that these two must have had a strong connection. But no. They had only a few coffee meetings, and one long meeting where she unloaded her problems on him. And then she decided to e-mail her 28-year old mentor when she was merely 18, that they should get to know each other.
And guess what he did? He didn’t reply. The gall!
So she not only blames him for not returning her affections 8 years later, she also blames him for not having replied to her mail. The ridiculousness of it all! If I were in her place, I’d be gladder than ever that nobody replied to my mail, because I’d send such a dumb email only when I was drunk or high.
And that’s not even it. The heroine actually tells him all this when they meet in the present time and holds him responsible for breaking her heart a lifetime ago. First of all, who does that?! Second of all, who does that?! Her entitled behavior is not only immature but also delusional. This is just not normal. And I hate that the author normalized it. I even found the hero annoying for letting her get away with it.
As if this absolutely immature and ridiculously entitled behavior wasn’t enough, the heroine is also happy playing a fake princess in a theme park. The owner, who happens to be the grandfather of the hero – repeatedly offers her a better position. But she keeps refusing. Again, who does that?!
The whole theme park setting was another thing that just left me baffled. Maybe it’s because I have very little knowledge about how things work in these places, that I found it all very ridiculous how playing a prince and princess was given so much importance. I’d also expected the title of the book ‘His Royal Highness’ to be a little more literal. If not a real royal prince, then maybe a figurative royal figure of a city? I don’t know. I’d expected anything except what the story offered. And I’d probably have found the intentional misleading title cuter, if the story had meat in it.
★☆☆☆☆
I’m desperate and destitute when Lockwood Construction rolls into my small town with an offer too good to pass up: high wages to any able-bodied man willing to join their crew.
The Girl Made of Clay
My favorite kind of romance – slow burn! And burn it did.
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