A review by liralen
Truly Madly Royally, by Debbie Rigaud

3.0

Super cute and with a lot more depth than the cover would have you think. This is pure princess fantasy (fun fact: every time I shelve a book as 'kings and queens', I consider renaming the shelf 'princess fantasies'), but more serious topics (community engagement, race) are woven skillfully throughout the book. Also, for all that there's drama (harassment from the press, the Other Woman, Zora's father popping up at inopportune times), it's wonderfully low-key, and Zora has her head screwed on right: she doesn't mouth off to the press; she acknowledges that if another girl likes the same guy (or if the guy likes the other girl), there's nothing she can do about it and that's okay; she appreciates her father for his good points even as she is sometimes embarrassed by him.

Zora's also heavily involved in her community. She's taking a summer pre-college course at a respected (fictional) university, but when the day ends, she's back to thinking about how she can make a difference to the people around her. There are plenty of YA heroines trying to Make a Difference, of course, but I love that a lot of Zora's actions (bringing hair products she doesn't need to a low-income family with several daughters, for example) are just ingrained in her rather than being Big Statements. Better, she's part of the community she's helping rather than coming in from outside and trying to 'fix' things. I love that when Owen (the prince) steps in to help, it's also not in a Big Gesture way: sure, he could probably throw money at things, but instead he
Spoilersteps up to be a dunk-tank victim
, which is a lot sweeter and less relationship-minefield-y. I love that the drama is generally really understated, shying away from the cliché.

The end doesn't entirely work for me. The book builds up to a trip to Owen's (fictional) country, but in the process it drifts away somewhat from the community-organising angle, and...more than that, I think the end just felt more rushed/predictable than the rest of the book. There isn't really a chance to explore Zora's status as an outsider or for them to consider whether they really want a long-term relationship.
SpoilerOwen tells her that he's going to the fancy fictional university near her home instead of to a university in his own country, and while he says it's for his own reasons rather than for the sake of the relationship...well. I saw it coming from miles away (from the moment Owen says he conveniently has 'the option of starting college here in the fall, but I'll be attending back home' (loc. 158) the first time they meet, in fact), but I needed more conversations about that throughout the book to believe the sudden change in plans.


Still...wouldn't a sequel here be fun? Like, send Zora to a study-abroad programme in Landerel her junior year of college. Have their relationship get more serious, and have Zora wrestle with what a serious relationship would mean—with the fact that she'd never not be in the public eye again, and that Owen's Landerel commitments would probably end up taking precedence over her New Jersey commitments.