'Her Royal Highness' Book Review

Heartwarming and adorable, Her Royal Highness was exactly the type of book I needed to read. Rachel Hawkins truly delivered in this romantic f/f ya novel.

❝ No, what surprises me is the sudden, jolting, and undeniable realization that even though I didn’t want to, I’ve fallen for an actual princess. ❞

When February of this year rolled around, there was a wonderful trend going around in the book community called "f/f February." While I didn't contribute as much to the trend as I was originally planning to, I finally got around to reading this masterpiece that had been on my TBR for eons. I mean, come on... royalty trope but make it gay? Sign me up, please.

First, I want to discuss this beautiful cover. They tell you not to judge a book by its cover, but we all do it. The blue, grey, and white monotones are eye catching, and the design is simplistic without being underwhelming. Truly it's *chef's kiss* amazing.

Overall, and without spoiling, I loved this novel. This book serves the grumpy/sunshine trope, royalty trope, forced roommates trope, and is set at a boarding school in Scotland. Even better than this, it's so so GAY! The story follows a "normal" American girl from Texas, Millie, who gets accepted to a prestigious boarding school in Scotland for her senior year of high school. She shows up at this school only to discover that her roommate is not only beautiful to a royal caliber, she's an actual princess. As expected, romance ensues and Millie finds herself with a "sort-of-best-friend/sort-of-girlfriend." Millie cannot decide if this new step in her life is a positive one, or if she's simply setting herself up for more heartbreak... because everyone knows that 'happily ever afters' and 'fairytale endings' are just for books. (right?)

Even though this is the second book in the series, there's no need to read the first one to understand the plot of this one. I also haven't the first novel, though I have heard from my friends that book one is a good and heartwarming read! The characters from book one—Daisy and Miles—make an appearance a few times throughout this novel, but the main characters are Millie and Flora. Both Millie and Flora's backgrounds are explained and there is no confusion from having not read book one.

---

all spoilers for 'Her Royal Highness' are below!

---

First, Millie Quint. I enjoyed her characterization right away, even though there were slight instances of "mary sue-ness" and "i'm not like other girls." These were few and far between and I believe they were mostly brought about by the type of characters she was surrounded by. One of the very cool things about Millie is that she wants to be a geologist!! I see so few main characters with an interest in science that is so consistent throughout the whole novel. One of the main reasons she wishes to attend the boarding school in Scotland is because of all the cool geology aspects of it. She has a set of rocks that she brings with her, and she lines them up on her windowsill. This is honestly the most bisexual thing to exist—like if you had a rock collection when you were young, and even more so if that obsessions carried over into your teen years or adulthood, then I'm pleased to inform you that you are gay. (My rock collection says hello, by the way.)

After a brief introduction to Millie's family in the States, she's off to Scotland. (Her father is adorably sweet, by the way. Not to mention, extremely supportive of Millie in all ways.) At her Hogwarts-y boarding school she is thrown into the deep end with a whole host of rich kids—most of whom are aristocrats or actual royalty. Millie is the odd girl out and there on a scholarship, which sets her even further apart from the rest of the students. Not to mention, she arrives at school only to realize that her roommate is a princess and a mean girl. This is where the rivals-to-lovers is properly introduced, and I've decided that this trope serves a spectacularly fine meal if it's f/f.

Second, Princess Flora. I have not one word to say against her. I most definitely have a soft spot for mean girls—especially mean girls who are soft only for their love interest. And then tack on the fact that she's a lesbian and this'll be a f/f story??? Sheer perfection. Flora is under a lot of pressure from her mother—the Queen of Scotland—and Flora is doing everything that she can to get kicked out of this boarding school. But then, through Millie's perspective, we start to see Flora changing. Essentially, Flora is humanized in Millie's eyes both Millie and the readers start to see beneath the surface. I believe this has a lot to do Millie coming out as bisexual.

This was written with incredible accuracy, in my opinion. Though we don't get Flora's perspective, it's evident that Flora acts completely different around Millie once she's aware of Millie's queerness. There was suddenly a shared experience between the two girls, which is reminiscent of a group friends in high school who—after they graduate—all find themselves to be a part of the LGBT+ community. There was a reason that they were friends besides the obvious. They were bonding over shared experiences, much like my group of friends, as it turns out.

On the topic of the LGBT+ community and coming out, we got two really great coming out scenes in this book. We know that Millie is bisexual from the very first chapter, but she later comes out to her friends at the boarding school. Both scenes were handled very well, and the sexuality of the two girls is never called into question. The fact that they're gay is never seen as something strange, and it was very nice to read about queerness without all the discrimination and "wait, you're gay" moments. In actuality, there's a great "wait, you're straight???" scene with a side character that had me laughing. It was such a nice turn about, in my opinion. Honestly, this felt like a book for queer people, not about queer people. Everything was super casual and queerness was a non-issue.

As for side characters, Lady Sakshi and Perry were purely delightful. Their relationship made me giggle on numerous occasions. The fact that Sakshi is this towering woman with a supermodel level of beauty and a boisterous confidence, and she's in love with this average looking, quiet man, who is wholeheartedly devoted to her... it's addicting. This is one of the tropes that I live for, and reading about their relationship development was like icing on top of an already perfect cake. Then there was Sebastian, Flora's brother. I'm really hoping that there will be a book about him next!

I'm going to wrap up this review with a few of my problems with this novel. Firstly, I believe that the characters could have been fleshed out a little more. Some things were one-dimensional and the story could have benefited with more character information. Lastly, the ending was very abrupt, and there were some angst that was unnecessary and that disrupted the flow of the story.

In conclusion, every sapphic girl deserves to fall in love with a princess. This was a quick and short read that made my heart very happy. Queer people deserve sappy romance stories that have flaws just as much as straight people do—maybe even more.

I give this book four stars. Happy reading everyone!

---

thread of my thoughts as I read here

photo collage from this pinterest board

gif from WIX