Colin Sinclair’s parents, the were assassinated by a rebel faction in their home country, the Isle of Man. Almost immediately after they were killed, Colin and his siblings were exiled from their kingdom by that country’s Parliament. Where were they exiled too? America, more exactly a suburb one hour outside of Charlotte. Which is a pretty crappy thing to do to two teenagers, two tweens, a toddler and an infant.
Colin meets Della during an angry confrontation over him evicting her family from their cottage on the grounds where Colin’s house is. After realizing that he might have signed the papers without looking at them (and possibly being sleep deprived), he apologizes to Della and tells her that her family can stay indefinitely. During this time, Della meets Pierce and Aiden and falls in love with them.
Fast forward 10 years,
Della and Colin have become best friends (and each are harboring a secret crush on one another) and are co-raising Colin’s brothers, Pierce and Aiden. Della doesn’t know that Pierce and Aiden are Colin’s brothers. Even more, Colin hasn’t come clean that he is royalty. Actually, any of his family, to be honest. Imogene, his sister, is the Queen with Charlotte, Theo, Pierce and Aiden as Princes. Della just thinks that Colin is a suave businessman who goes to London, a lot.
Colin is summoned to London by Prime Minister Davies, a nasty old man who is the head of the Parliament of Colin’s kingdom. He has news regarding their exile (which Colin has been tirelessly petitioning to life it) and needs Colin to fly into London ASAP. When he goes to the meeting, he given a proposal. Their exile will be lifted if he A)marries a woman of their choosing and B) Parliament crowns him as King. Bit of a side note, this is a matriarchal rulership. There has always been a Queen…never been a King.
Colin decides to take matters into his own hands regarding who he is going to marry. He refuses to be pushed into a marriage like his grandmother and mother and he refuses to let the Parliament push him around anymore. He decides that he is going to tell Della who he is and then ask her to marry him.
The sex between Colin and Della seemed forced and I saw no connection between them, sexually. Not that it wasn’t hot, because they were flaming hot. Maybe it was because I thought that there was really no attraction. We had no build up. No flirting. Just, getting married and hopping into bed.
I did like Colin a lot. From the minute his parents died, he assumed responsibility for his brothers and sisters and he started working on getting their exile repealed. At only 19. Of course, he had Beaumont, Tressie and Della helping him. But still.
I liked Della too. She was sweet, sassy and loved Colin for who he was, not who he is (if that makes sense).
There were a couple of plot twists that took me by surprise and I thought I had figured out one but there was more to it and I was genuinely surprised. The other plot twist, which was revealed around the same time as the other one, kinda blew my mind. Not what I expected.
The ending was what I expected, with everything wrapped up neat with a bow. And I loved the epilogue, that was 5 years later. Made me all teary eyed. I honestly can’t wait to read the rest of the books.
How many stars will I give Royal Scandal: 3
Why: I loved the book but I felt that the dialogue was stilted and the romance between Colin/Della seemed very forced. The book did lag in the middle but the author did recover nicely. Overall, a nice book that would be perfect for the beach/pool.