Book Review: The Royal Rogue by Karina Halle

                                             

Book Review: The Royal Rogue by Karina Halle

    When I heard that Karina Halle was releasing a new book in the Nordic Royal series, I screamed. I love this series. Like a lot. The Swedish Prince and the Nordic King are some of my favorite romance books of all time. These books are so cute and funny. It's like reading a fun RomCom movie that's finally not cringey. I actually didn't read The Wild Heir but that was simply out of preference. But I so excited to hear that Stella, King Aksel's younger sister. However, to be honest, I was a little disappointed by this book. But it's for a very specific reason.                                 

    Warning: This review contains Spoilers. 

    The Royal Rogue follows the story of Princess Stella of Denmark, King Aksel's younger sister and the black sheep of her family. As the King's younger sister, she occasionally has to take over her brother's duties when he is away from the country. It's not a fun job, especially when you''re hosting the royal family of the Monaco. The eccentric royal family of Monaco. There, she meets Orlando, the Royal Rogue and the Prince of Monaco. What is suppose to be a one-nigh stand leads to more as Stella discovers she is pregnant. 

    First of all, I really like Stella as a main protagnist. I like the fact that she isn't the typical princess stereotype. She's a divorced single mother who isn't afraid to say what she thinks. Orlando was also not a bad love interest. He was funny but also sweet and sentimental. For some odd reason, he kind of reminds me of Prince Harry. But might be because of the close relationship he had with his now deceased mother. I loved that we got cameos from the other characters in this books. It was so good to read about them again. Other all, the characters were great. In fact, this book was pretty good. It was funny and sweet. The romance between Stella and Orlando is good. This book is marketed as a hate-to-love romance but I don't that's the case here. They got along pretty well right off the bat and there wasn't a lot of "hate" in their relationship to begin with. 

    However, my mine problem with this book has to do with the LGBTQ characters in this book. I was really happy to see that Karina Halle was including a more diverse cast in this book universe. But I don't like how she used them for plot drama in this book. Spoilers: Orlando is in a fake romance relationship with this russian tennis player who is still in the closet. This is the main reason  why Stella and Orlando can't get together right away. I don't like this. I don't like this at all. I'm glad she's making a step in diversifying her cast (which are usually pretty white and straight) but this is not at all how this should be done. LGBTQ characters shouldn't be added just to add drama and tension to your story. It's unnesscay as there are a ton of other way to do this and frankly, it borders a little on a being offensive. 

    Overall, I like this book. This is not Karina Halle's best novel but it's also not her worst. This book was okay but personally could have been better. I just wish she didn't use to her LGBTQ characters as a way to put drama and tension in her plot. I give the Royal Rogue a 3 out of 5 stars. 

Also, the cover is awful. It's such an eye sore!!! The other covers for this series wasn't that great but this one is by far the worse. In my opinion, it's that awful berry pink cover that's ruinning this book.