Royal Pain

by Megan Mulry

• ISBN10: 1299648878
• ISBN13: 9781299648876
• Publish Date: 1 January 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 9 June 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc
• Imprint: Sourcebooks Landmark
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[Rowena]

Bronte keeps a lookout for a rebound to help mend her broken heart, and when she meets Max Heyworth, she’s certain he’s the perfect transition man. But when she discovers he’s a duke, she has to decide if she wants to stay with him for the long haul and deal with the opportunities– and challenges– of becoming a royal.

This book follows Bronte and Max on their very bumpy journey to their happy ending. Bronte and Max first meet up when Bronte moves to Chicago and sees a very good looking Max in the bookstore. Max is just as smitten as Bronte is and they agree to go out. Bronte isn’t in the right frame of mind to jump into another relationship (after her last relationship just went up in flames and she moved to Chicago to be with him, to boot!) but she does want someone to keep her company so upfront about all of this with Max, they start a friends with benefits relationship.

And it works for them…until it doesn’t work anymore because they’re nearing their end date and Bronte is completely smitten with Max and doesn’t want to let him go. Well, lucky for her, Max doesn’t either. I forgot to mention this but Bronte has a thing for the British royalty. She loves to keep up to date with what Kate Middleton is up to and Prince William and Harry too….so when she finds out that Max is a real life Duke, she has a conniption fit. One, he lied to her about it (omitting the fact still counts as a lie) and two, he expects her to move to England to be with him and well, she already did that for some other guy and she’s not too wild about jumping to do that again. Drama ensues.

Now, I was expecting a chick lit type of book when I picked this up for review and though the story starts off that way, this book ended up being more of a contemporary romance than anything else. Not that I was complaining, I’m all about romance.

The romance between Max and Bronte starts out as something to pass the time and turns into so much more and I really liked Max for Bronte. He kept what he was from her because he wanted her to get to know him as he is before she found out what he was and I was okay with that. Understandably, Bronte was pissed when she found out but I was okay with that too. What I liked about Bron was that she said what she meant to say and meant what she said. If she was mad at Max then she told him. She wasn’t the most perfect of people and I was good with that. She made mistakes, Max made mistakes but in the end, I liked them together and really enjoyed their story.

I definitely recommend this book to fans of contemporary romance, this book was a cute contemporary romance and I’m glad that I read it.

[Cocktails and Books]

I adore books with hot British men. Give them a title and I'm a goner. Make that titled, hot British man down to earth, pushy and adorably sweet all once and I'm reduced to a puddle. Megan Mulry has reduced me to a puddle with her wonderful, wonderful Max Heyworth.

Bronte Talbott is a woman who has been jaded by what she considers bad instincts when it comes to men. After she quits her jobs, moves half way across the country to be with a man, who she later finds out, was only providing lip service when he said those three magical words, you can understand her feelings. When she meets Max, she doesn't trust what she feels and definitely doesn't want to believe a word that comes out of his mouth. She develops all these dating 'rules' that have to be followed that will allow minimal impact to her heart. She doesn't count on Max calling her on her 'rules' and challenging her to open up to him and trust that he'd be there for her. Bronte has a hard time letting go of everything that happened in her past with her father and the men she thought she loved. It almost costs her because she was so unwilling to bend, but she finally go the message.

As for Max, he was jaded in his own way by his past with a mother who would rather shop than care for her three youngest children. While he knew he would one day need to marry and produce an heir, he was determined to do it on his own timetable and after he achieved his PhD. But when he met Bronte while sitting on the floor in the Sci-Fi section of a bookstore, everything went out the window. Max may have been willing to play along with Bronte's 'rules' he knew what he wanted and was determined to ensure he had her by his side for the long haul. It wasn't easy for Max, since he was so willing to give everything to Bronte while she seemed to push him to play by her rules. Max had to decide what he wanted more and if doing things Bronte's way was what was going to make him happy.

This was a quirky, but really enjoyable book. Bronte is brash and sometimes way off base when it comes to Max, but the two of them were absolutely perfect for each other. And who doesn't love a woman who takes the use of the "F" word to a new extreme! This is definitely one you should pick up.