Across the board, my top complaint when it comes to stories featuring royal characters is that they just don't dig deep enough. Admittedly, it's hard to capture all the nuances of giving up one's life and anonymity in exchange for dubious fame and lifelong duty. And so when presented with such a situation, most stories tend to settle for frivolity and superficiality. Of course the crown is shiny, the crowds adoring, the love interest handsome and dashing. What else is there?
So I went into The Heir Apparent with the same sort of low expectations. But I'll tell you what, this book impressed me from almost the very first page. Finally, here is the royal story I have been waiting for.
Lexi left the British royal life behind and is now working her way through her medical residency in Australia. And even though the hours are brutal and the pay nonexistent, she's living her best life. But when a helicopter appears on New Year's day bearing news of her family, that life is over. Now she must come to terms with what it means to be first in line to the throne and what she must sacrifice to be queen.
I feel like Rebecca Armitage was really smart here. Instead of trying to build out an entire British royal family and its inevitable dysfunctions from scratch, she borrowed heavily from the existing one. And so everywhere we look in here, we see characters and situations we recognize—a beautiful and beloved mother who died too young; an absent father who was emotionally unavailable; two siblings, one who stayed and toed the family line, the other who escaped and tried to lead a normal life; and surrounding it all, an institution that sells out one another to make the monarchy look good.
In the midst of all this dysfunction is Lexi. She's a likable and relatable main character, and she very much anchors the story. The writing has enough depth while at the same time retaining all the spark and fun you'd expect from a tale like this, so I couldn't help but want to read more.
I like that the romance never became the center of this story. A lot of books would misstep here and devolve into the sort of sappy happily ever after that bares no resemblance to reality. Instead, while we get some scenes with our hopeful couple, the focus remains where it should be, on Lexi's choice.
This story boils down to a dysfunctional family drama, albeit one played out on a grander, more royal stage. And it did such a good job, seamlessly weaving in tidbits from the real British royal family that it managed to feel both fresh and familiar.
This was quite a compelling debut. I'm curious if Rebecca Armitage will try to carve out a niche for herself as a writer of fictional royal drama or if she's going to veer more in the dysfunctional family/coming of age direction. Time will tell.
Readaroo Rating: 4 stars
0 comments:
Post a Comment