Royal Captives by Michael Pierce

As we know, I was a little hesitant about this series after Royal Replicas, review here.  But I’m happy to say I feel like book 2 saved it a little?  So we know one of the big reasons I hated book 1 was because Prince Byron was kind of a douche at the end.  Royal Captives definitely provides more context around it (sort of), but more than that it helps him show how sorry he is for the choice he made and that he’s willing to go through a lot to make it up to Victoria.

So, Royal Captives follows Victoria as she works to save her sisters from Queen Dorothea while also trying to figure out who the hell she loves most (we know I love the love subplots).  We also get more insight into Prince Byron because chapters are written from his point of view.  We follow along as he does everything in his power to prove he’s worthy of Victoria’s love again both to her and himself.  He even teams up with his nemesis, Kale, to try and right his wrongs.  Overall, I felt better about the series after this book, that being said, we know I love to hate, so a few things that could’ve been better (in my definitely humble opinion)…

• Byron is sorry.  We get it.  It almost becomes a comedy of errors with all the various ways he tries to make up for stuff.  He even seems to recognize he’s no longer making good choice, but then still continues to try to “fix” things.  At some point you’d think the kid would learn.  I get it: men are stupid (*wink*), but even they learn at some point, right?
• Victoria’s end deal with the Queen.  There’s this huge build up to get a specific outcome, and then there’s like a paragraph convo about it and everyone’s happy.  We’ve literally read two full books of reasons neither side should trust the other and they hug it out without too many qualms?  I feel like not…

Onto the loves, because they’re actually my favorite part…

• Love fight.  I get it, I have an addiction.  I haven’t hit rock bottom, and I don’t think I ever will.  Apologies to everyone who has to live through all of my sappy book posts.  There’s not a physical fight, but the tension of love him/love him not really tugs at my gut in the best way.  They say the way to man’s heart is through his stomach, well, the way to a Michelle’s heart is through an epic love triangle (are we shocked I was binge watching Vampire Diaries despite it being super weird by the later seasons?).
• Holy twist ending.  Much like Until Midnight where I was shocked by a twist at the end, Royal Captives did not disappoint.  My favorite is once the big reveal happens, you can think back and see how there were kind of hints at it earlier in the book.  Adding a layer after the fact gives me more time to live in the book world even after it’s finished.  I love basking in my book hangovers.

R A I N, since we discussed this in the comments of my post on book one of this series, and knowing you didn’t share the general love for The Selection Series, I think this is different enough that you might like it.  Much less fighting over a boy and a girl working to solve problems with a little love thrown in.

Long post short: I actually vote for reading this series now that book 2 redeemed the story.

If anyone else has read either of the books, let me know what you think of them.  I’m dying for someone to chat with about their thoughts.  I desperately want to talk spoilers!