Royal Marriage Market by Heather Lyons Review!

Author: Heather Lyons

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Date Published: December 15th 2015

Publisher: Cerulean Books

Page Number: 335

Synopsis:

 

Fans of The Royal We will not want to miss this epic love story!

Every decade, the world’s monarchs and their heirs secretly convene to discuss global politics and social issues—and arrange marriages between kingdoms.

Elsa may be the Hereditary Princess of Vattenguldia, but she finds the entire situation archaic and unsavory. While she wants what's best for her country, she isn't about to jump into an unwanted relationship—let alone a marriage—with a virtual stranger. Of course, her feelings matter little to her parents, whose wheeling and dealings over trade pacts and alliances achieved at her expense begin the moment they set foot in California for the Summit. So when a blindingly handsome royal runs into her, she doesn't hesitate to tell him there's no way she's marrying him.

Christian is all too happy to agree: no marriage. As the Hereditary Grand Duke of Aiboland, his main goal is to get through the summit without a bride being foisted on him. Which is why he suggests they help each other field potential intendeds. As Christian slowly gets to know Elsa, though, he realizes they have a lot more in common than just their feelings about the Royal Marriage Market. Only he can't fall for her, because royal or not, they're not meant for each other.

Elsa and Christian will have to evaluate matters of the heart verses those of state and crown, and decide whether or not tradition trumps love.

 

Review:

     I cannot tell you how excited I was when Heather announced that she would be publishing a contemporary romance novel. Beforehand, Heather had only published fantasy/paranormal novels (whose reviews of you can find here: The Collectors' Society , The Hidden Library, The Deep End of the Sea ) so I was really looking forward to seeing what she had in store for me. Then when I heard that Royal Marriage Market was about royals, arranged marriages, and romance I immediately marked down the release date because I was not going to miss that wonderful combination.  Let's just say that I was NOT disappointed.

     The book is told from two different perspectives: Elsa and Christian's. Now, if you have been following me for a while then you know that I don't usually like dual POVs because it gets too confusing most of the time, but with Royal Marriage Market their perspectives flowed easily and they both had such unique characteristics that it was really easy to switch between them and not get them mixed up.

     I have to say that right off the bat I knew I was going to love Elsa. I was immediately thrown into the story and Elsa was a firecracker from the start. Even though she was a princess she was not afraid to speak her mind, but she didn't hold back for the sake of her being royal as well. She was also really funny. She made me laugh more than a few times throughout the book and I love it when a character makes me laugh like that. She was determined and she was not backing down even when her parents were forcing her to marry someone she didn't love. I loved that about her.

     Now for Christian. I really felt for Christian as soon as he was introduced. He was forced to behave all of his life since he was a prince, and he was ready to take the chains of his royalty off and call it a day. I also wanted to hit his mother, the She-wolf, because she was so freaking evil and mean to him. She definitely sparked my protective instinct towards Christian. I immediately loved him because of his determination to not do what his mother wanted. I also loved how quick witted he was. Basically I loved everything about him. He always had a good comeback when he and Elsa verbally sparred, and he made their interactions so fun. It didn't hurt that he was hot as hell. The scenes where Elsa and him interacted were always filled with snarky remarks, hilarious jokes, and secret glances that were filled with passion. Together they practically burned up the pages, and I was SO jealous of Elsa, you have no idea. I need a Christian in my life (that sounds funny, but you know what I mean).

     Now let's talk about the plot, which is amazing. First of all, this book is about kings and queens, princes and princesses, I mean that's cool enough, right? But to add to the awesomeness, all of the royals attend a summit meeting where the Monarchs force their heirs to marry. Talk about adding a plot that will definitely stir your emotions and have you hooked from the start. I cannot tell you how invested I was in this book. From the very start, I knew that my emotions would be sucked into the story, but I was not expecting this book to make my heart race and hurt as much as it did.

     I swear Elsa and Christian's parents pissed me off so bad that I couldn't put the book down. I was determined to see if Elsa and Christian would show their parents the error of their ways in a very mean and large scale manner. Along with this book's ability to make me extremely angry at the characters it also made me wish I was a princess. Don't laugh, it's true. It also made me want a love like Christian and Elsa's. Their love was a slow burning one, but once they both realized how they felt, nothing could keep them apart not even their crazy parents. And let me tell you, the sexy time they had practically burned up the pages. Whew. Heather did an amazing job at making me fall in love with Elsa and Christian's love. I cannot talk about them enough, to be honest. This whole book surprised me because not only did it have conniving parents and an epic love story, it also had a touch of suspense and danger towards the end, which I did NOT expect. This book really had it all.

     To sum it up, I loved this book. You wouldn't think this was Heather's first time diving into the contemporary romance genre because she portrayed the genre perfectly and added her own special touch to it. I not only want to see more contemporary romance books from Heather (among her other genres), but I need to. If you don't believe that I loved it so much then maybe the fact that I stayed up until 6 AM to finish this book will convince you. 6AM. I'm not even kidding. I don't think I've been that dedicated to finishing a book in a while. Needless to say, this book is one of my favorites for sure. I definitely plan to reread it again soon. I give Royal Marriage Market five out of five stars!