Review: Paper Princess by Erin Watt

Title: Paper Princess

Author: Erin Watt

Series: Royals #1

Purchase: Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads):

From strip clubs and truck stops to southern coast mansions and prep schools, one girl tries to stay true to herself.

These Royals will ruin you…

Ella Harper is a survivor—a pragmatic optimist. She’s spent her whole life moving from town to town with her flighty mother, struggling to make ends meet and believing that someday she’ll climb out of the gutter. After her mother’s death, Ella is truly alone. 

Until Callum Royal appears, plucking Ella out of poverty and tossing her into his posh mansion among his five sons who all hate her. Each Royal boy is more magnetic than the last, but none as captivating as Reed Royal, the boy who is determined to send her back to the slums she came from.

Reed doesn’t want her. He says she doesn’t belong with the Royals.

He might be right.

Wealth. Excess. Deception. It’s like nothing Ella has ever experienced, and if she’s going to survive her time in the Royal palace, she’ll need to learn to issue her own Royal decrees. 

Review:

So I've been on a quest to read all the authors of ApollyCon 2018 prior to the event. Call me a well-rounded event planner, but I wanna know who I'm working with.

And also, I've seen fans freaking out each one of the authors on our lineup are attending, and I love to freak out and swoon, too.

I've read Elle Kennedy before (I'm absolutely in love with everything of hers I've read), and prior to this I read a book by Jen Frederick and loved it (look for that review later), so I decided to give them a try as a duo, Erin Watt. And holy crap balls rolling down drama mountain ... I'm in love. I binged the entire trilogy in 28 hours. I bought the audio versions so I could listen in the car and while I put my makeup on. I literally breathed this series. But let's start with book 1: PAPER PRINCESS.

Let's start with my girl Ella, who is seriously a champ. This girl has been through hell - she never knew her father, her mom died when she was 15, and terrified of being put into foster care, Ella brilliantly and doggedly holds down 3 jobs (including being a stripper) to support herself. She forges her mom's signature for school documents, determined to get herself through school and college so she can carve out an existence beyond straight up survival.

Enter the Royals: Callum Royal (dad of the Royal clan) comes and pulls Ella from her life of poverty and puts her in a palace where she has money and clothes and a massive bed and the best education money can buy ... Seems too good to be true, right?

Right.

So Ella, knowing nothing in the world is free, is (rightfully) skeptical. She doesn't enter the Royal world willingly. She's quite literally dragged and thrust into it, much to the fury of Callum Royal's 5 (yes, FIVE, totally hot, swoony, assholey) sons. Reed, second oldest, is the ring leader and makes it his mission to make Ella's life hell until she packs her bags and runs.

Cue the most passionate, volatile, combustible love/hate relationship ever.

There are parts I must admit were hard to swallow, even after later learning the guys' motives. They crossed lines in their quest to bully and humiliate Ella that made me cringe. These boys had to work for Ella's (and my) favor.

This book is drama. It's technically pitched as YA, but it's definitely upper YA/NA. Especially in the romance dept. It's seriously angsty and is, often, over the top. But the magic of Erin Watt cannot be denied. This series is as golden as that freaking gorgeous crown on the cover. I can't wait to get to my thoughts in the next week or so about the other books in the series.

Do not miss this one!