Royal Charmer by Kylie Gilmore

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Alice
First thing you should know about me—I’m on my honeymoon on Villroy Island without my groom, which was a no brainer given how my ex-fiancé decided to “accidentally” fall in love with my best friend. I don’t want to talk about it.

Second thing: I’m a romance author on a generously extended deadline, and I’ve sworn to use this time away productively. So far my editor has hated all of my ideas featuring the crushing of men. Romance is dead within my blackened heart.

I’m about to admit defeat when a prince with an image problem falls into my lap. And for some crazy reason, it’s decided that me posing as his fiancée would be a good idea. The last thing I want is to actually be committed to someone, but a fake engagement may make this next book write itself.

Lucas
I enjoy being the world’s most eligible royal bachelor (the internet voted and I won), but that’s not all I am. I want to contribute to the kingdom, be part of the legacy. I should be the CEO of our new business venture, but my oldest brother, Gabriel, the king, blocks me at every turn, convinced I’m too flighty.

So when Gabriel’s wife, Anna, the unconventional queen offers me a chance to prove myself with the bankers, and the only catch is bringing along a fake fiancée, I reluctantly agree. The ends justify the means, and Alice needs the fake engagement to inspire her story. 

I never expected to fall. Yet here I am, hell bent on convincing a woman afraid to get involved that she belongs with me.

Royal Charmer

Fake engagement to a prince!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙❤️💚💜
Steam: 🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌏
Character development: 😊😄😘
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

The heroine: Alice – she is an author of regency romance who lost her zeal for writing romance when her Fiancée cheated on her with her longtime best friend. Alice is on her honeymoon, which was paid for, so she decided to go alone in order to try to get some ideas for her upcoming book which she needs to complete a draft for within a few weeks. Her honeymoon is at the royal castle on Villroy island, a small sovereign nation near France.

The Hero: Lucas – he is a prince of Villroy island, he is the third son, so will never be king. He has a reputation of a playboy since he is very handsome and has been seen dating many models and celebrities. Though he is now back on the island because he wants to be taken seriously by his family, especially his brother Gabriel the King. He wants to take over running the family business so Gabriel can focus on being King and on his pregnant wife Anna.

The Story: Alice is quite depressed at the start of the book and can’t think of anything for her romance other than a twisted tale of a love triangle where the heroine takes down both men. When she begins spending time with Lucas, things start to turn around for her, especially after she befriends Queen Anna. They come up with a fake engagement between Alice and Lucas to get her creative juices flowing and to also help Lucas to improve his reputation and make him look better as an option to run the family business and meet with bankers to get funds for their ideas for a spa that will encourage tourism to their island.

I generally like the fake engagement trope, but this one was rather bland to me. There wasn’t really anything that brought me into this story. The characters weren’t very compelling, and the storylines were cute, but not exciting. I didn’t feel a lot of chemistry between Alice and Lucas, they seemed more like friends than two people attracted to each other. Also, Alice had some hang ups because she was a curvy girl and Lucas had dated models in the past. So, I hated that part. I like the royal storyline, but it just wasn’t enough to bring this book from a three star to a four star read. There were also a few scenes that made me cringe a bit, like one where Alice suggested they practice kissing so they would look comfortable doing it in front of others.

This audiobook was told in dual points of view via dual narration and was narrated by Troy Duran and Stephanie Wyles. I love just about anything Troy Duran narrates; he has a terrific voice and shows a lot of emotion through his voice. Stephanie Wyles is good, and also shows emotion but I am not too fond of her voice.

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