Royally Lost by Angie Stanton is another quick summer read. I picked this up because it wanted a fun and light book to read. I’ve put off reviewing this for almost a month.
About Royally Lost
Royally Lost by Angie Stanton
Published by Harper Collins
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Chick Lit
Ratings: 2.5/5
Initial ThoughtsDragged on a family trip to Europe’s ancient cities, Becca wants nothing more than to go home. Trapped with her emotionally distant father, over-eager stepmother, and a brother who only wants to hook up with European hotties, Becca is miserable. That is until she meets Nikolai, a guy as mysterious as he is handsome. And she unknowingly finds herself with a runaway prince.
Nikolai has everything a guy could ask for-he’s crown prince, heir to the throne, and girls adore him. But the one thing he doesn’t have…is freedom. Staging a coup, he flees his kingdom and goes undercover on his own European tour.
When Nikolai and Becca meet, it’s their differences that draw them together. Sparks fly as they share a whirlwind of adventures, all the while dodging his royal guard. But Becca’s family vacation ends in a matter of days. Will Nikolai and Becca be forced to say goodbye forever, will his destiny catch up to him, or will they change history forever?
I was super excited about starting this book. The synopsis totally called my attention and I couldn’t wait to start and finish off before my trip to EUROPE.I’ll admit, the cover totally got me with this one. It looked like the perfect summer read and I figured it’d be a cute, fun, quick read.
Right from the beginning, I couldn’t help but compare Nikolai to the prince from the movie The Prince and Me starring Julia Stiles. He’s a womanizer and enjoys partying just like the prince in the movie, Eddie. However, that’s where the similarities end. Nikolai’s parent treat him like he is still in grade school and Nikolai responds by acting like a grade school boy. He decides to escape his “punishment” to teach his parents a “lesson.”
On to the biggest problem I had with this novel: the main character, Becca. To sum it up: she’s an ungrateful, spoiled whiny little brat. And that’s putting it nicely She’s on a trip through Europe with her dad, stepmom and brother. Now, I do not expect everyone to be very interested in history and culture, But this girl was so incredibly ungrateful!
I’m not even kidding about the amount of Europe hatred that goes on here. All Becca does is bitch and moan and bitch and moan.
Her dad and stepmom have DRAGGED her across the ocean for a trip across Europe, I mean how dare they. It’s all HISTORICAL stuff and ew, yuck, why won’t they move on and live in the present?
Think I’m kidding?
“The kids in Europe must hate history class. These countries go back so freakin’ far. At least the U.S. is barely two hundred years old.”
As a fan of rich European culture and travel, Becca’s attitude just majorly pisses me off. She’s surrounded by so much beauty and culture and doesn’t respect it even for a second. Her attitude continues for the rest of the book, complaining about everything and generally being a stick in the mud.
Onto the thing that could make or break this novel: the romance. The short version: it broke the book. The long version: it was cheesy as hell instant love. The ONLY reason Becca and Nikolai ever noticed each other was because apparently they both look very good. And really, this “love” that they have by the end of the book isn’t based on much more than that.
Nikolai was just a really bland character, and all we know about him is that he’s handsome and a runaway prince. That’s it. I literally couldn’t tell you any more about him or his personality. But of course, Becca loves him.
Then there’s the love that Nikolai feels for Becca, which isn’t based on much more. All he knows about her is that she’s pretty, that she “loves nature” (which is what Becca told him, yet we never see any examples of it), and that she’s “funny” (sarcasm). Oh, and let’s not forget the most clichéd line ever: “You’re different from any other girl I’ve met”. This is what their love is based on, and nothing more than that. I’m sorry, I just don’t buy it.
And…For me it was A book about a girl who travels around the world, meets a prince, and they fall in love. What could go wrong? Royally Lost had everything going for itself, it has a great cover, a great idea, and an amazing-sounding plot line. My biggest problem with this book was the dialogue. To me, it felt so robotic and inhuman, like the characters had no emotion, like they weren’t even alive. Because of the dialogue, I had such a hard time investing myself in any of the characters, making Royally Lost a fairly big disappointment.
The main characters Becca and Nikolai had the most awkward and choreographed encounters. They were unbelievable, and the fact that they’re love story progressed from “accidentally” seeing each other around Europe just made me want to snicker to myself because it was so unreal. This book could’ve still been decent with the encounters that Becca and Nikolai had throughout the book, but the immaturity of Becca and Nikolai and their inhuman dialogue would’ve had to been stripped of this book. Because of these imperfections, the love story in Royally Lost didn’t develop much, and neither did the characters. Overall, there were many problems that I had with this book, including character dialogue, development, and maturity. I was very sad to not have loved this book
Closing ThoughtsMajor disappointment. Those are the words I’d use to sum up my feelings for Royally Lost. I picked it up looking for a fun and fluffy read. Unfortunately, it just ended up making me angry. Honestly, I wasn’t even looking for something extremely good and meaningful, just a fun, summer read. It seems that was too much to ask, though.
Being the Prince of Mondovia allowed him access to a lot of pretty girls, most of whom wanted to kiss a prince. But none drove him crazy like Becca.
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