*BOOK REVIEW* Royally Lost by Angie Stanton

So it's about time to start another book review. For all you contemporary gurus who love a funny, lighthearted romance set in Europe then check out this new novel by Angie Stanton... Royally Lost!

 

{Title: Royally Lost}

{Author: Angie Stanton}

{Total Pages: 336}

{Date Published: May 6th 2014}
{Publisher: Harper Collins}

Royally Lost is about two teens, one a prince of a foreign country and another just an ordinary girl, running away together and exploring the European countries and avoiding at least some of the countries' most significant and boring cathedrals. Let not forget about all the fun in ditching the paparazzi who's been on the royal prince's tale since day one, oh and let not forget about screwing with the Royal Guard!
So this is how this review will go so you can get the most of it and grasp my thoughts on this book clearly. I will base this review on 6 things. They are: Dialogue, Cover, Storyline's Compatibility with its Summary, Characters, How Logical Scenes and Settings are, and finally, the Pace.

So now to begin!

{Dialogue}

 

Alright so this one is going to be hard. It honestly was one serious, never-ending roller coaster. The dialogue started off rather slow with cheesy lines from everyone. After maybe the fourth or fifth chapter though the cheesy sentences and weird dialogue evened out. Maybe the author was just trying to make the awkwardness between Becca and her Dad (and stepmother) more realistic but still... some of it was unnecessary. After a good and believable dialogue, though some of the cheesiness and childish remarks returned, this time though they made more sense in the situation.

Finally the dialogue became easy and enjoyable to me, though sometimes being close to the age of the protagonist I had to sit back and just go, "this is not how a 17-18 year old should be sounding."

 

 

 

 

It sounds childish. It was like a whole bumper car scenario, you'd have sentences that just oozed cheese with "I can't believe this is our last day. I don't want this to end" and "I can't imagine tomorrow without you. I never new I could fall for someone so fast." Then on the other hand you had wonderfully developed thoughts and dialogue. So to wrap it up. Dialogue was uneven.

 

So for dialogue Royally Lost receives 3/5 stars.

 

{Cover}

 

 This is probably one of the categories I was most excited to write about. The cover is just magnificent! If your drawn in by cute, girly, covers then heck to the yeah you should pick this book up! This cover is very appealing to the eye and I find that many YA, teen contemporary, light-hearted romances are trying to accomplish that very true-to-life, cute and lovable theme for their covers.

 

Royally Lost proves this to be true and receives a 5/5 for Cover.

 

{Storyline's Compatibility with its Summary}

 

 All righty, here is the summary for Royally Lost!

 

Dragged on a family trip to Europe’s ancient cities, Becca wants nothing more than to go home. Trapped with her emotionally distant father, over-eager stepmother, and a brother who only wants to hook up with European hotties, Becca is miserable. That is until she meets Nikolai, a guy as mysterious as he is handsome. And she unknowingly finds herself with a runaway prince.

Nikolai has everything a guy could ask for-he's crown prince, heir to the throne, and girls adore him. But the one thing he doesn't have...is freedom. Staging a coup, he flees his kingdom and goes undercover on his own European tour.

When Nikolai and Becca meet, it’s their differences that draw them together. Sparks fly as they share a whirlwind of adventures, all the while dodging his royal guard. But Becca's family vacation ends in a matter of days. Will Nikolai and Becca be forced to say goodbye forever, will his destiny catch up to him, or will they change history forever?

 

Now in just a few short words, this story completely mirrored what the summary suggested.

I've found books where the summary doesn't add up and the story is just a tad off kilter. I hate that. It's like being lied to. It's like this... when you order a cheese burger plain you expect to get a PLAIN cheeseburger. Instead you get lettuce, tomato, onions, mustard, ketchup and your sitting there going...

 

 

 

Not cool brother. Not cool. But, thankfully, Royally Lost did not do such a thing!

 

Royally Lost gets 5/5 for Storyline compatibility.

 

 

{Characters}

 

 Characters oh characters! I do believe I'll begin with Becca.

Becca is a teenage girl--cocky and humorous but at times very uncandid. Only later does she finally sprout a backbone and become outspoken. Through the book though you can tell she's growing into her own person and finally is wanting to make some of her own decisions. Dealing with her step mother who just wants to make there patched up family whole and her father who doesn't pay attention to her or her brother, it's hard for her to really explain to them that she doesn't want to go to some stuffy cathedral, she wants to go on a motorbike with Nikolai!

 

 

It's quite noticeable that she lacks self-confidence and she is a bit cynical. Just like many teenage girls. Thank you Angie for Realism!

 

Now for Nikolai! Nikolai is SUCH a charmer! He has family problems (the reason for the journey in the first place) and has his life and future in the hands of someone else. He is tall, blonde, European and totally a sweet-natured character who deserves a lot of credit. Nikolai is very real to me now as he was through the story. I can just imagine walking through Vienna or Prague and having his smiling face and easy nature greet me. That's what readers like authors! Realistic characters!

 

Royally Lost gets a 5/5 for Characters. 

 

{How Logical Scenes and Settings Are}

 

 Now I've never been on a river cruise but I have been to Europe and based on that fact I can honestly say that the settings described are spot on. The scenery and layout is perfectly captured by Angie. Everything was correct from the cobblestone paths to the outdoor cafes. Reading Royally lost just sent me back to visiting Europe, touring the ancient castles, seeing huge clock towers and lumbering cathedrals I found absolutely boring. So Angie had her vision straight as she wrote this. The setting was beautiful. It was nice to get a taste of several places in Europe even if it being only through a book.

 

Royally Lost gets a 5/5 for how logical its scenes and settings were.

 

*Just to explain the need for this category of review, some books in past have had some very unbelievable and unethical settings. Either the genre just didn't add up or common sense just kicked in. So this is just an explanation for why I added this category.

 

{Pace}

For me pace was just a little too fast. But hey maybe some of you would run off with a random stranger just after meeting him. Who knows he may be a prince. This just seemed like a typical I don't need to know your last name sort of deal to me.

I give Royally Lost a 3/5 for Pace.