Book Review: Royally Matched (Book #2 in the Royally series) by Emma Chase

Right off the bat, I have to say that as much as I loved Royally Screwed, I honestly loved Royally Matched a little bit more than Royally Screwed. Having listened to Royally Matched on audiobook two times, I have to admit that I actually loved this book even more than I originally did after listening to it on audiobook a second time. The main reason I would say that I liked Royally Matched a little bit more than Royally Screwed is because as much as I love Nicholas and Olivia as a couple, I honestly found myself liking Henry and Sarah as a couple even more than I liked Nicholas and Olivia as a couple in Royally Screwed; which I’ll talk about in much more detail later on in this review.

When it comes to the overall plot of Royally Matched, the tone of the book as a whole definitely felt a little bit lighter and less angst-ridden than Royally Screwed often did, which is something that I really liked about this book. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really have too many problems with the overall tone of Royally Screwed; I simply thought that the tone of Royally Matched felt very different compared to the overall tone of Royally Screwed. Regardless of whether or not Emma Chase was consciously trying to write Royally Matched in such a way that the overall tone of the book felt much lighter compared to the more angst-filled tone of Royally Screwed; I personally like that they felt very different in tone, because I feel like it’s a great way to set Royally Screwed and Royally Matched apart from each other, while still having them be a part of the same series. After noticing a difference in the overall tone for Royally Screwed and Royally Matched, I’m definitely really interested and excited now to see how the third book, Royally Endowed, turns out from a tonality standpoint.

It was definitely interesting to see Henry struggling with adjusting to his new role as the heir to the family throne at the beginning of the book, especially since it was a role that he had never expected that he would have to fill. While I understand that Royally Matched and the Royally series as a whole is supposed to first and foremost be about the love lives of a royal family, something that I felt Emma Chase should have explored in this book more than she did, was Henry carrying out his new responsibilities as the heir to the throne, and his struggles with adapting to his new role in his family. Ultimately, the fact that Chase didn’t explore that aspect of Henry’s life very much in this book wasn’t really detrimental to my overall enjoyment of Royally Matched; but I still wish that she had done more with that aspect of who Henry is as a character now, especially considering the way he was written in Royally Screwed.

Book Review: Royally Screwed (Book #1 in the Royally series) by Emma Chase

Right off the bat, I have to say that as someone who’s a huge fan of Emma Chase’s books, I was really excited about Royally Screwed and the Royally series as a whole ever since she first announced the series, and I’m very happy to say that I absolutely loved this book. That being said, while I’ve always thought that the overall quality of Emma Chase’s writing for the Tangled series was pretty good, in retrospect I do think that Chase’s writing for the series is somewhat uneven. Tangled (The book) is a very well written, and impressive debut novel from a first-time author; and in my opinion, it’s the best book in the series. Twisted was okay, and it did have some great moments, but it’s definitely not a great book, as far as I’m concerned. Tamed is definitely my second favorite book in the series, and despite the fact that Tied does include some great moments throughout the book, it’s still the weakest book in the Tangled series, in my opinion. When it comes to the Legal Briefs series, I didn’t think the first book, Overruled, was quite as good as Tangled (The book) was, but it was definitely better than the majority of the Tangled series. I felt like the Legal Briefs series pretty much only went uphill from there, making the series better than the Tangled series. That being said, while I don’t necessarily think that Chase topped herself yet again with Royally Screwed, I do think it’s the strongest first book that she has written for one of her book series.

The reason I’m beginning this review by mentioning my thoughts on the Tangled series is because one thing that I found myself thinking about a lot as I was listening to Royally Screwed on audiobook, was that I felt like Chase has really honed her craft if you compare her writing for Royally Screwed to her writing for the Tangled series. Much like Drew Evans from the Tangled series, the primary protagonist of Royally Screwed, Prince Nicholas Arthur Frederick Edward Pembrook, is definitely what I would describe as being a “lovable asshole”. However, compared to Drew, I felt like Chase did a much better job of creating the perfect balance of Nicholas acting like a real asshole at times, while also having him demonstrate a lot of great, redeeming qualities throughout the book as well; making him a very nuanced and lovable character.

When it came to Drew, I started out the Tangled series absolutely loving him, but by the end of the series, he had repeatedly pissed me off, and annoyed me quite a bit throughout the series, to the point where I ultimately simply just liked him a lot by the end of the series. I definitely didn’t love him as much as I did when the series began, especially due to how he was written at times in Twisted and Tied. Plus, he really pissed me off in “Holy Frigging Matrimony”. A big part of why I loved the Legal Briefs series even more than the Tangled series is because I ultimately loved Stanton, Jake, and Brent a lot more than I liked Drew by the end of the Tangled series. That being said, after reading Royally Screwed, I’d say that Nicholas is definitely my favorite out of all the male protagonists in Emma Chase’s books.

Sidebarred (A Legal Briefs Novella): The gang’s all back, and I couldn’t be happier (My thoughts on Book #3.5 in the Legal Briefs series)

Right off the bat, I have to say that as much as I loved Appealed, and while I thought that it was a fantastic ending to the Legal Briefs series, I still wasn’t quite ready for the series to end; mainly because I was loving the series so much. That’s definitely one of the main reasons why I was really excited when Emma Chase announced that she had written a novella for the Legal Briefs series. While I did think that Appealed was a great way to end the Legal Briefs series, I think that Sidebarred was an even better ending to the series.

Prior to Sidebarred’s release, I initially got the impression that Emma Chase had written the novella with the story shifting back and forth between each of the main characters from the series. It was only a few weeks before Sidebarred’s release that I found out that that wasn’t the case, and that Sidebarred was written solely from Jake’s point of view. Personally, as much as I love Stanton, Sofia and Brent, I think that Jake was definitely the perfect choice when it comes to which character from the series should be the protagonist of Sidebarred. At its core, the character development and internal conflict that Jake underwent throughout Sustained was all about wanting to be a part of Chelsea and the kids’ lives, while also thinking that he wasn’t capable of being a family man with a wife and kids.

Sustained pretty much ended with Jake realizing that he had become a family man without even realizing it, thanks largely in part to the “intervention” that Stanton, Sofia and Brent had for him. I love that we got a brief glimpse in one scene from Appealed of what Jake was like after he had embraced the idea of being a family man, with him acting like a protective father to one of the teenage girls in the family when she came to his work with him, and there was a boy there that could have easily made advances towards her. However, that whole scene was written from Brent’s point of view, so we didn’t get that much insight into what had happened with Jake, Chelsea and the kids after Sustained ended. That being said, Emma Chase did a fantastic job of really giving the readers of the Legal Briefs series an in depth look at Jake’s life as a husband to Chelsea, and a father figure to Chelsea’s nieces and nephews in Sidebarred.

When it comes to the plot of Sidebarred, while I’m not sure that the plot and the book as a whole would have worked as well had it been a full-length novel; I thought that it worked perfectly as a novella. The reason I say this is because while Jake and Chelsea do face various problems throughout the book that were genuinely interesting and got me completely invested in the story, the plot of the book and the conflict that Jake and Chelsea face in Sidebarred wasn’t big and dramatic enough to sustain a full-length novel, in my opinion. The plot of the book revolves primarily around the fact that Jake and Chelsea decide to have a baby after Chelsea had thought that she might be pregnant, only to discover that she wasn’t pregnant after all when she took a pregnancy test. I could be wrong about the exact timespan of the book, but Sidebarred takes place over the span of about a year and follows Jake and Chelsea as they try to get pregnant and then follows them through the pregnancy, while they also deal with problems involving the kids and their work. Nothing truly dramatic happens to them or any of the other characters throughout the book. Honestly, I’m perfectly okay with that because I think that the problems that Jake and Chelsea face both as a couple, as the problems that they deal with individually, while also raising Chelsea’s six nieces and nephews, are all very relatable. Plus, I’m really glad that Chase didn’t have Jake and Chelsea dealing with any major drama and angst in their marriage, such as having one of them cheat on the other, or at least be tempted to cheat.