Review: "The Rules of Royalty" by Cale Dietrich

The Rules of Royalty by Cale Dietrich
Published December 2024 via Wednesday Books
★★★

Princess fantasies!*

Jamie has every expectation of a normal life, until his mother drops a bombshell: his father is king of the small European country Mitanor, making Jamie a prince—and his life will never be the same. Meanwhile, as the second prince of Sunstad, Erik has never had or expected a normal life—but things get a lot more interesting when the king of Mitanor asks him to provide some informal support to Europe's newest prince. They'd both young, gay, single (more or less), and pretty...and even if getting together is risky,** neither of them can help the mutual interest.

This is described as a modern (gay) take on The Princess Diaries, which in a lot of ways feels about right. It's wish fulfillment: Jamie suddenly has everything under the sun(stad) that he could dream of, including the full support of both his families and an apartment suited for, well, a prince. There are very few expectations placed on him—while in The Princess Diaries Mia groans over her princess lessons (and, frankly, has a lot fewer eyes on her, growing up before the age of cell phone cameras and social media), when the news breaks about Jamie he's just asked to take some tips from Erik. Despite the sudden scrutiny, Jamie makes very few faux pas,*** which I'm actually glad of; I get tired of books in which characters are thrust into the spotlight and it never occurs to them to brush their hair or think before they speak.

It's...not a super realistic book, or a subtle one. A lot of things are glossed over: Jamie is basically told that he can step into the life of a prince and do whatever he wants (or, not quite, but that's the general vibe), or he can go back to the US and continue his life there (never mind that he'd probably never have a moment of peace again); he's routinely encouraged to speak to the media and stand up for things he believes in. There's very, very little standing on ceremony, including when security protocols are broken and Jamie is allowed to decide to brush it off and continue into an unsecured situation. Mitanor has somewhat flexible inheritance laws, but there's neither conflict nor really interaction with Jamie's half-brother (who might suddenly have competition as presumptive heir to the throne), and instead the villain of the book is a homophobic politician who leaves a trail of slime in his wake. I also thought it was quite sad how quickly Jamie takes to calling his biological father (the king) "Dad" because "He's earned it" (loc. 4000****)—never mind that Jamie has a stepdad who's been in the picture for five or six years and has actually helped raise Jamie, but never gets beyond first-name status. (There's nothing wrong with first-name status! But it has to hurt to see a kid take the attitude of "well, you raised me, but he gave me DNA and is a king, so we all know who gets 'dad' status".) I also rather wished that we'd stayed in one POV throughout, as I couldn't tell Jamie and Erik's voices apart, down to Erik using casual American slang.

But it's a princess fantasy book. I know I'm not supposed to be looking for something super realistic here—better to look for the fancy apartment and polite princes and suddenly limitless possibilities. (And, of course, for a queer Princess Diaries.) Check your practicality-o-meter at the first page—it'll be waiting for you at the end of the book.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Never mind the general lack of princesses here—this sort of book is always going to be a princess fantasy book for me.

**Risk/risks/risky count: 31

**Yes, I looked it up, and both singular and plural are faux pas, with a slight variation in pronunciation.

***Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.