Review: "Royal Summer" by Kass Morgan

Royal Summer by Kass Morgan
Published May 2026 via HarperCollins
★★★

Hannah's plan is simple: escape her dysfunctional parents for the summer by interning for one of her favorite authors in Edinburgh. From there she'll write a novel of her own, paving the way to an MFA and eventual success as a writer. There's just one problem: the author bails at the last minute, leaving Hannah without a plan...or an income...and no desire to return home. Lucky for her, the solution is also simple: A prince swoops in, sets her up with a job and new accommodation, and helps heal her heartbreak while he's at it.

Oh, YA. Now, it's an established fact that I am a sucker for royalty books. Royalty in real life: problematic! Royalty in fiction: escapism! I've tried (admittedly not very hard, but still) to develop more elevated reading tastes and all that, but, well, sometimes we just need our escapist fluff.

And escapist fluff this is. This was fun and fast, but there's not all that much that's new here—we have your classic "she's the only girl he's ever met who doesn't recognize him and thus the only girl he's ever met who doesn't immediately throw herself at him, so he is immediately smitten"; the also-classic "his ex is prettier, more polished, and possibly a bitch"; and of course "she's a commoner and an American at that, so his parents don't like her". Oh, and don't forget "he was a playboy troublemaker until she came along, but her sweet innocence is enough to reform him". There's also quite a bit that defies my limited ability to suspend disbelief (the whole thing where Hannah steals a horse comes to mind), but then I suppose that's also pretty par for the course. Summery fluff.

A quick note on genre: This is marketed as YA, and for the most part that feels accurate—it's simple enough and light enough that I'd put most of the book at the younger end of YA. However, there's some pretty explicit sex in here (way more than in the last adult romance I read), putting this closer to NA. On the whole I don't take issue with sex in YA books (real-life teenagers are going to boink whether or not book teenagers do; better to have open discussions about it than to pretend it's not happening), but I'm not a fan of the disconnect between young-YA voice and steamy strip-teases (to say nothing of what follows said steamy strip-teases). Do with that what you will.

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