Mad Soul Child
Written on Jan 3, 2021
#1 New York Times Bestseller
USA Today Bestseller
From strip clubs and truck stops to southern coast mansions and prep schools, one girl tries to stay true to herself.
These Royals will ruin you…
Ella Harper is a survivor—a pragmatic optimist. She’s spent her whole life moving from town to town with her flighty mother, struggling to make ends meet and believing that someday she’ll climb out of the gutter. After her mother’s death, Ella is truly alone.
Until Callum Royal appears, plucking Ella out of poverty and tossing her into his posh mansion among his five sons who all hate her. Each Royal boy is more magnetic than the last, but none as captivating as Reed Royal, the boy who is determined to send her back to the slums she came from.
Reed doesn’t want her. He says she doesn’t belong with the Royals.
He might be right.
Wealth. Excess. Deception. It’s like nothing Ella has ever experienced, and if she’s going to survive her time in the Royal palace, she’ll need to learn to issue her own Royal decrees.
- ISBN13 9781682304563
- Publish Date 19 May 2016
- Publish Status Transferred
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Diversion Books
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 370
- Language English
Reviews
kymmiejournals
Written on Apr 25, 2020
I fcking hate you Reed, you broke my heart!!!! Damn you!
Nicole Lynn
Written on Sep 9, 2017
More of a review to come later 😊
thebookdisciple
Written on Aug 11, 2017
I understand how the Royal boys are heartbroken over their moms death and acting out. But that doesn't excuse sexual harassment. They sexually harassed Ella. Not cool and even if they redeem themselves, I won't ever forgive them for that.
Ella...poor ella. She just wants an education so she can have a better life. In some ways, she is older than her age. Then, she is terribly naive. I get that she is out of her element in this new world of rich kids and teenage drama, so some of her naivety is understandable. She has never had the time to engage in the petty BS that the only thing the rich kids lives revolve around. I love that she got a job.
Because I am not naive to the ways of mean teenage kids, I am CONSTANTLY doubtful of everyone in her life. Whats up with Callum? What is HIS endgame here? WTF is Brooke's deal? Seriously, you know she is up to something but aside from money, I can't figure it out. Val seems like a nice girl, but is she really a friend to Ella or is she up to something too? What is going on with Gideon? See, skeptical.
That ending? BRUTAL!
So, I really like Ella. She has had a challenging life but knows that education is the way out. She can recognize that even though she loved her mom, her mom wasn't the best role model when it comes to men. Ella is an odd blend of overexposed and naive. It worked (for the most part) for me.
In terms of the audio, I am not a huge fan of the narrator. Her attempts to do 'male' voices like Reed's were really bad and made me cringe. Also, even with the speed on 1.25, her speech was slow. I can't imagine how slow it was on 1.0. Sometimes the pauses were so long I thought my headphones stopped working.
writehollydavis
Written on Jun 3, 2017
Kait ✨
Written on Sep 3, 2016
my one complaint is that I feel like these books were meant to be binge read — they don’t feel self-contained AT ALL. like the arc clearly goes beyond book one. which makes them extra addictive, but is kinda annoying to me as well.
stacey_is_sassy
Written on May 27, 2016
One flick of the Royal wand and all her wishes came true…NOT!!!
Geez, Erin Watt, talk about crushing childhood dreams? As a child, I dreamed that a good and kind man would save me from my dreary life, place me in a castle and give me an endless supply of money. Paper Princess sure showed me the ugly side of wishes coming true. Turns out being rich, living in fancy castles and never having to work another day isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I didn’t see the nasty rich people looking down on me because I didn’t know what fork to use. I didn’t think I’d have to prove myself to be accepted. I though people with money got a free pass into society. Don’t you just hand over your gold/platinum/black credit card and the doors open? To think…I should have just been happy with what I had. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
Ella Harper has had a HARD life. Her mother was a stripper who went from one boyfriend to the next but eventually died a painful death from cancer. Ella loved her mother, but she knows that her mother didn’t always do right by her. Her mum loved her so much, and while she did her best, it still wasn’t a great life for Ella. Ella worked three jobs to financially support her mother when she was sick and one of those jobs was stripping. Not full nude mind you, more dancing in skimpy outfits. When her mum died, instead of working to pay for medical bills, her money paid for a roof over her head and food in her belly. Ella is old before her time. She never met her father all she knew was his name was Steve and the watch she wears was his.
Imagine young Ella’s surprise when her world gets turned upside down. She’s kidnapped by a man…with a driver…who drives the car into the back of a PLANE…and tells her he is her deceased Dad’s best friend and he’s now her GUARDIAN. Hells bells…WOW!!
Now, young Ella’s been around the block a time or two. She’s not so keen to put her life in the hands of this supposed “Guardian”, Calum. But, he speaks a language that Ella understands. He negotiates with her to come and live with him. Hmmm…sounds a little too good to be true. Ella’s willing to take the gamble though because she’s had it rough, she thinks she can tough it out until she’s finished school.
So, young Ella moves into a castle. Unfortunately, she has to share her space with Calum’s 5 sons and they are not nice boys. These guys are big, brawny and EVIL. They go out of their way to make Ella’s life hell both at home and at school. But Ella’s made of sterner stuff.
I loved seeing Ella stand up to these guys and the nasty girls at school. Her strong will and determination see her overcome hurt, bullying and invasion of her privacy. Eventually, her “brothers” decide she’s not so bad and start to defend her when she’s targeted. There’s this one brother though that she can’t get out of her head. Talk about falling for the bad boy…
Reed Royal is the second oldest of Calum’s boys. He holds way too much power at the school his brothers and Ella attend. He knows the rules, and he knows what he can get away with…so breaks what he can and twists the rest to his favour. Seeing Ella, gets his heart pumping, but he doesn’t want attachments. He has plans. But he can’t get his “sister” out of his head.
Paper Princess is just part of the story. Those mean boys haven’t had the easy life that first impressions lead you to believe. Losing their mother and having a father who put business and his best friend first, leaves them questioning his change into Super Dad. It doesn’t help that Calum has a blonde bimbo living with them and he quite often displays his fondness for her body…IN FRONT OF THEM.
We are left with a horrible and wicked ending. I AM SO SUCKED IN!!! What was Reed thinking? Why would he go there? Will Ella recover from this?
I’m kind of glad that I jumped on the bandwagon late…I don’t have to wait as long as all the other suckers (sorry my lovely friends) have had to wait. I need to know…WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?
Oh…and by the way, I don’t like or read YA normally and I gave this 5 stars. I’m not converted as such, but I really did not think I could love a YA as much as I did this one.
To buy Paper Princess from Amazon - http://amzn.to/1UhodgM
I’m an Aussie chick who loves to read and review romance, drink coffee, be a Style Setter and stalk David Gandy. To see more of my reviews, fashion, food and pervathons -
liz089
Written on Apr 26, 2016
REVIEW.
I noticed this book before and, in my mind, it was some sort of Princess Diaries. You know, nerdy, cute girl learning how to act as a Royal and meeting cute guys and everything is just adorable. I mean, look at the cover !! Does it not look like it will be all cute and fluffy !?!
Damn how wrong was I !! Of course my own fault, for not really reading the description.. but this book was so NOT a cute little book. Not at all.
Don’t get me wrong, it was most certainly a good one, but not what I had expected. This book is something else. It held me captive through the end, and I had two very late nights. This is one of those books that make you want to continue even though you know you should stop because you have to work in the morning, but can’t. I kept telling myself “just one more chapter, then I’ll put it away and go to sleep..” of course, it is many chapters and hours later when I finally could put it down.
So this story is about a girl who had a though life. She was alone with her mother and had little money. They travelled a lot to survive and in the end her mother got sick. She took care of herself and her mother at any cost, doing things girls her age should not be doing. After her mother past away she didn’t want to end up in foster care and tries to survive on her own. Suddenly a man (Callum Royal) appears who claims to be her guardian now that both her parents have died and he comes to take her with him. He was her father’s best friend and wants to offer her a better life. After some bargaining she comes with him and finds out he has FIVE sons around her age who she is going to live with. Their mother just died two years back and their relationship with their father is very bad, they blame him for their mothers dead and don’t listen to him at all.
Apart from all that, they are filthy rich. Like really really rich rich. Of course they send her to a special rich people school and she does not really make a lot of friends. The Royal guys rule the school and since they dislike her, everybody treats her like trash.
But, things happen and they start to get to know each other better.. some even very much better..
Until things at the end go terribly wrong...
THE END OF BOOK ONE.
The damn ending !! Oh my God !! I did not have such a HUGE CLIFF-HANGER in a while and it was really really very mean to end a book like that. I really hated what happened at the end and.. My poor heart..
And now I have to wait a couple of months before I get to continue !! I do not want to spoil anything so I won’t go into details.. but that ending.. It was so terrible. I mean imagine, you’re going towards the end of an book and you’ll think maybe they have their happy ending and in the next book we will get to know more about the other brothers and how their story continues. But that does not happen. Instead, I got a very scary feeling that things are not going the way they should be going and then the last couple of pages just ripped my heart out.
I love it when a story can do that, and what a story this was. Even though some parts seemed kind of Obvious, she did give it a twist and some stuff happened that I did not expect at all. It did not get boring for one moment and for something with a lot of sexual content in it, the romance did not drive out the rest of it. I really dislike when a romance takes over the plot, but this one kept right on track. Greatly done !
I did really liked the main narrator, she is very tough and brave, but most of all; she does not let bullies get away with tormenting her. She fights back just as hard and don’t let people play with her. But not only that, you also see her growing throughout the story and getting more mature.
So because I liked her, I felt a lot of compassion towards her, I completely empathized which made me feel right along with her, and started to fall with her.. and then THE ENDING.
I finished this one in the middle of the night, I should already have been asleep for at least an hour or two and then THAT happens. I did not know what to do !! I was wide awake and too shocked and hurt to fall asleep. I lay awake for over an hour, going through all of the things that happened.. and I just.. NEED the second book. I NEED my happy ending.. but after what happened, how can they possibly have a happy ending? What he did was so horrible he should never be forgiven. But then I start making excuses for him.. But to be honest? There is no excuses for what he did. And that ending kind of made me dislike the book more.
What I also didn’t like was the whole unlikelihood of it all. Okay it is one thing that some rich guy finds you and wants to take care of you (Okay not very likely but still). But he has not one or maybe two, but FIVE gorgeous sons !? Seriously ?? That is just not realistic at all.
But apart from that.. damn those guys were HOT. Put me in a house with them any time haha. But no seriously, even though all of them were very hot and heavy.. they all have their issues which made them more human. Shit happened and they all process that in their own way, and it was interesting to see. Can't wait to get to know them even better.
FINAL THOUGHTS.
But all in all, I really enjoyed this book. It is so great to read something that is written so easy to fall into and made my heart flutter and break. Even though I hated the ending and I really dislike it when a writer leaves you all broken up with a cliff-hanger, she did do a good job and I would like to give this book 4 Freyja’s for that.
And as last, I want to give some kind of warning that this is NOT a fluffy and cute read. It is full of sexual content and they are very graphic about it. So if you don’t like that kind of thing, or not really an adult yet.. I would not recommend this one. If you do like it, hell yeah read this book if you don’t mind a huge cliff-hanger that breaks your heart in the process.
Now I have to wait.. DAMN.
whisperingchapters
Written on Apr 12, 2016
Ella has lost it all. She's all alone, trying to make ends meet so she can stay in high school and graduate. Suddenly, Callum Royal arrives, claiming he was Ella's father's best friend and he was named as her legal guardian. Ella doesn't want to go with him but Callum promises to give her money if she stays to live under his care. Ella agrees because she wants the money to go to college. But life as a Royal is not easy and Ella has to fight to stay.
Can I just say that Ella is such a badass and so fierce! I freaking loved her and admired her. She didn't take shit from anyone, especially from Reed and Easton Royal. These two made it impossible for Ella yet she stayed strong throughout it all. I really liked Easton from the beginning and I was happy to see him befriend Ella. Reed, on the other hand, was a tough cookie to swallow but in the end, I was head over heels. Although, I didn't like how he would want Ella, then kind of push her away. It was a back-and-forth thing going on.
The ending gave me whiplash! I couldn't believe what was happening and my heart broke into pieces along with Ella's. I need book 2 in my life so I know what happens! I need answers!
Overall, Paper Princess is a very entertaining story with strong-willed and fierce characters and everyone needs to read this book!!
Rowena
Written on Apr 6, 2016
Talk about drama. This book was filled to the brim with it but I couldn't put it down. Ella was a great protagonist and those Royals...holy hell. That cliffhanger?? Hot damn. July needs to get here soon. I need more!