REVIEW - Royally Relinquished - Hayley Faiman

TITLE - Royally Relinquished

AUTHOR - Hayley Faiman

BLURB:

The only thing royal about Caitriona Geneva Grace is the blue of her beat-up sedan. While luxury and vanity are terms she could use to describe her everyday life, they're not words she lives by. Rather, they're words that keep her fed—barely. As a receptionist at a medical spa, her life is far from glamorous, but she gets by. For Cait, anything beats the life she left behind when she said goodbye to her small town after high school. 

His highness, Prince Henrik Stuart, is a slave to his royal status. Bound by duty and controlled by the crown, he fears a future chained to a woman of good breeding--a match not made in love. While known as the foolhardy prince, the thought of settling down isn't what troubles him. Rather, if he could find a woman who cared nothing of his title, he would give her the world.

When a weekend trip leads to a chance meeting, both Caitriona and Henrik feel a spark between them unlike any they've experienced before. To each, the other is too good to be true, but one night of fun cannot be denied.

When she said 'yes' to the handsome, green-eyed stranger, Caitriona didn't know that she was stepping into her very own fairytale.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas...except when it's legally binding.

REVIEW:

Royally Relinquished was an okay book, but could have been better. I was in the mood to read a good royalty book and this one sounded really good from the blurb. I have also read books by this author in the past and really enjoyed them. Unfortunately, I was left disappointed.

The plot of this book is what caught my attention in the first place. Poor girl who led a hard life meets handsome prince and they fall happily in love. Add in the fact that Vegas is mentioned and I thought for sure this would be a wonderful book. What I didn’t like about the plot was that there really wasn’t much more than what I said above. There was not too much setting it apart from other books with similar stories.

The characters in this book just about killed me. Cait was actually a pretty good character for the most part. I liked her inner struggles as they seemed realistic for someone who has led a life similar to hers. I also loved her interactions with her best friend. What I didn’t like was that at times she is feisty and I am rooting her on while other times it is like she lost her backbone. I just felt she needed more consistency. Henrik, our darling prince, was a big jerk. Man I wanted to like him so bad, and I did at first, but as the story developed I just learned to hate him. My favorite parts of this story are when Cait is on her own, without him.

The heat in this book, well there is an overabundance of it. There are some really wonderful scenes that I felt were written really well and I loved them, while other scenes felt forced. I feel like for a good portion of this story it is just steamy scenes, with a couple of interactions with others thrown in just to make it seem like the story is progressing. Honestly, I felt that it made the story feel fragmented. Almost as if I was reading a story, then paused to watch some adult films.

The writing style of this book I did enjoy. I liked the steady pace (other than the heat portion) and the dual point of views. With that being said, I think that is the only part of this book I liked. I really wanted to love this book, but I just couldn’t.

Overall, this was just an ok book. If you are looking for a hot read with very little story content, then this book is amazing, but if you are like me and like more story, then I would say skip this one. While this book had the potential to be amazing, it just fell short for me personally. I would not recommend this book to others.

Star Ratings:

Plot:2/5

Character:3/5

Heat: 3/5

Writing Style:2/5

Overall: 2/5