Published March 2024 via Delacorte Press
★★★
Read this almost exactly a year to the day that I read the first book in the series—and again on a long flight. In Royal Scandal, Evan has started to find her footing within the royal family...more or less. But as the book goes on, and death threats turn into murder attempts, it becomes ever clearer that not everyone is happy with her new role—and they'll do anything to stop it.
I was very entertained by book 1, but I am not as convinced for book 2. Because...as much as I wanted this to be a series, I was hoping for new conflict in each book. Instead, it seems that the conflict is: book 1) Evan gets used to being a royal in the public eye, and not everyone wants to see her succeed; book 2) the same people really, really don't want her to succeed; and book 3) presumably she vanquishes the people who really, really don't want her to succeed. Was it still fun to read? Yes. But it reminded me of why I stopped reading YA dystopian trilogies—the second book always felt like a placeholder between the plot and worldbuilding of the first book and the conclusion of the third book. Cliffhanger and all.
Will I read book 3 anyway...? Well, yeah. Ideally on another intercontinental flight. And I can confirm that, especially when the third book is out, it'll make for a nice light series to zoom through all at once. But I think I'll not be too sorry if this stays a trilogy rather than growing longer.
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