The Heir Affair by Heather Cocks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This delightful, wrenching, hilarious book is literary anglophile crack, and I adored every moment I spent burning through it the past few nights.
Background: This is the sequel to “The Royal We,” a fav published several years ago that is basically a fictionalized story of Wills and Kate, i.e. the darlings of the UK royal family. Read no further if you don’t want that novel spoiled…. In “The Royal We,” the Prince of Wales is Nick, a sincere, handsome, and fun-loving young royal enrolled at Oxford, and Rebecca — or Bex — is the tomboyish and refreshingly cute American who ends up rooming with one of his toft Oxford besties. Their meet-cute moment and her proximity to his inner circle results in friendship, then romance, a proposal, and ultimately marriage. It isn’t without it’s major bumps and breakups, including an unfortunate turn when Bex makes out with Nick’s red-headed rougish younger prince brother Freddie (ahem, Harry, anyone?). The first novel ends with the pair wedded, but with much to sort through.
This sequel, several years in the waiting, opens a few months after said marriage. A devious journalist friend has spitefully published amplified details of the alleged fling between Bex and Freddie, the nation is in a tizzy, and Bex and Nick and trying to figure out how to sort through it. This is the launch pad for a novel that covers the first few years of this duo’s marriage that is realistic in its ups and downs and challenges, and is all the more colorful for his romantic royal British backdrop and a chaotic crew of beloved secondary characters who keep the pages a’turning. Is Bex’ basically innocent fling with Freddie really in the past? What power plays will brittle Queen Eleanor pull next? Just what secrets was Eleanor’s now-deceased royal sister Princess Georgianna keeping in her Kensington apartments? What will villainous journalist Clive pull next? And don’t count out fun storylines from Bex’ spirited twin sister Lacey, and other favs like Lady Bollocks, baker Gaz and his lovely wife Cilla.
I loved this sequel! Hope fans of “The Royal We” enjoy it as much as I did, and I hope we haven’t seen the last of Bex and Nick.
View all my reviews