Paper Princess

Angsty YA Steprother type book

Young Adult with New Adult Themes. Does Not Stand Alone.
The Royals Series by Erin Watt seemed to be on so many favorite lists for 2016 that I picked up the first, Paper Princess when it went on sale to see what all the fuss is about. I actually read a few pages over someone’s shoulder on a plane this fall and it caught my eye. I should preface this review by saying I bought this solely from popularity. I didn’t read the blurb or reviews first. I saw Royals and Princess, and after reading and enjoying two other ‘Royal’ type books this fall, I figured I’d really like Paper Princess.

To be honest, it read like a YA stepbrother book. While I enjoyed it, I found nothing unique about it, and Royal was a last name. It wasn’t about Royalty at all. It seemed to be a mashup of every New Adult book out there

Ella’s mother died. She had been sick for a long time and Ella took care of her, helping to pay the bills by stripping at 15. When her mom died, Ella was almost 18, so she didn’t let anyone know because she had no living relatives and didn’t want to get put into the foster system. Until one day she gets called to the Principal’s office where her new guardian was waiting. Turns out, her father, who she never knew about, was a billionaire who had just found out about her before he died in a tragic plane crash. His best friend and business partner, Callum Royal, stepped in to be her guardian.

She was ripped from everything she knew to move and live with this new family she never heard of. And they were going through their own problems. Callum had 5 very large, intimidating sons who seemed to hate her on sight. They recently lost their mother and didn’t need more change in their lives. The 5 handsome boys went to a private school that they totally ruled, and couldn’t have this low-class stripper smearing their name.

"The Royal boys are not what I expected. They don't look like rich pr**ks in preppy clothes. They look like terrifying thugs who can snap me like a twig."

At first they were so mean, even thinking she might be sleeping with Callum for money.

“You should know whatever game you're playing, you can't win. Not against all of us.If you leave now, you won't be hurt. If you stay, we'll break you so bad that you'll be
crawling away.”

Maybe I’m just getting too old, but all the mean, rich, slutty girls trying to mess with Ella just seemed very cliché to me. But the mean kids and her “brothers” being mean was a lot for her to handle, plus she went from scraping pennies to make ends meet to living like a princess.

“I don’t belong in splendor; I belong in squalor. That’s what I know. It’s what I’m comfortable with, because squalor doesn’t lie to you. It’s not wrapped in a pretty package. It is what it is.”

But she worked her way in, and one son especially, Reed, took a big interest in her. Since she was being raised as part of their family, her sleeping with her “brother” was totally taboo. But the chemistry between them, no matter how much they resisted, was undeniable.

“You may have lost your family, but you’re not alone anymore, Ella. You’re a Royal now.”

The thing is, The Royals are more messed up than you can know at first. But Ella has an awesome backbone. She is tough and spunky and can fight for herself.

Even though he's a jerk, Ella can’t resist Reed. (Insta-lust/teenage hormones played a big part). Reed was the meanest one to her, yet she can’t help but want him, even though every other girl has had him.

“These Royals will ruin you.”
“Maybe I want to be ruined.”

There was so much teenage angst and drama! And these kids were like no high schoolers I’ve ever seen. We live in a wealthy area and I have subbed at the private prep school around here. It just isn’t this bad, the kids are still kids. It was a lot of drama for drama’s sake.

As I said earlier, it seemed like every YA/NA trope there is mashed together. Damaged boy who lost his parent, damaged girl who lost hers, new school with mean kids, rags to riches, stepbrother, hate to love, drugs, date rape, cage fighting, gambling, virgin with manwhore, insta-lust and so much more. And then it was a cliffy! Sorry, but although I found it strangely addictive, I will not be reading more.

“Reed Royal has broken me. I’ve fallen from the sky and I’m not sure I can get up. Not this time.”

Likes:

•Ella was strong and had a backbone for most of the book.
•It was completely addictive.
•Lots of twists and turns to keep you guessing.
•Perfect narrator

Dislikes:

•Used every single YA/NA trope there is!
•It doesn’t stand alone.
•So much draaaaaaama and angst!

The Down & Dirty:

If you like YA/NA books (they are in high school, but there is sex and New Adult themes) filled with tons of angst and drama, you will probably love The Paper Princess. Everyone was just too sad, broken, mean and dramatic for me. I felt like it took every New Adult theme and added them together for one big story. The story was a touch addictive, but I found myself rolling my eyes a bit too. Perhaps late forties isn’t the demographic for this, but there are plenty of other books with characters this age that I absolutely love.

I should tell you, most of my fellow bloggers LOVED Paper Princess, so I am definitely in the minority here. If it stood alone, I would rate it higher probably, but I am sure not willing to invest in 2 more audiobooks to complete a series that I wasn’t in love with from the start.


Rating: 3 stars, 4 Heat, Narration 4.5

45 of 50 people found this review helpful

ADDICTED

This book had me so addicted I listened to it one day and I am about to start the next book in the series!!

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Overall I'd give it 3.5 Stars

I have wanted to read this story for a long time, but waited to take it in on Audiobook!
I knew going in that this was part of a series, and was probably one
I'd want to listen to when the other book/books were released. I'm glad I did!

The beginning had a strong start. The narration was good, although I did feel the voice definitely seemed older than a 17 year old girl. I could easily follow along with the story,
and characters. Angela Goethals did a great job distinguishing the different voices,
male and female. I will be on the lookout for other stories read by her!

The middle of the book dragged a little for me with drama, but was pretty engaging throughout. Y/A isn't normally my go to genre, so I expected more drama than normal.
By the time I got to the end, I had made up my mind to continue with book #2 Broken Prince. I'm anxious to see what happens! That ending was...WOW!

Don't want to go into the plot further and give away spoilers, but...
I will say, personally, I think this story is more of an N/A book perhaps?
It contains many sex scenes, most of which rival some of the Erotic books I read!
I'm not complaining about the sex scenes, they were written well!
Just think it's a little above being a book categorized as Young Adult reading.

Erin Watt is a combination of two different authors,
they did a good job blending their words, and emotions throughout!
I am looking forward to book two, and finding out what happens next!

22 of 25 people found this review helpful

Amazing book!

Erin Watt sucks you in from the word go~ This book... I could not put it down. The characters, the story, the chemistry... All of it. I will recommend this book to everyone I know. A must read!

Narration: At first i was a little hesitant of the narration. It was a little robotic at the beginning but i feel like the narration changed and warmed up as the book continued. It was not long before i was totally immersed into the book so it obviously was not an issue for long. later in the book, i found myself appreciating the narration and voices.

Highly recommend!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

loved the book!

I loved the story, it makes me want ro keep going the ending is not expected! It kept me on my toes.
I liked the narration for the most part some parts were a bit monotoned but the distinction of characters is awesome. loved it!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Woah!

Now that is one messed up story. My first favorite read of the year! Recommend!

8 of 10 people found this review helpful

Garbage

What would have made Paper Princess better?

Honestly I might have been more okay with the book if had anything at all in the description that made me think it was going to be a trashy romance novel. I like reading trashy romance novels, when I know that's what I'm reading. This book seems to not know if it wants to be a YA book or a $1 bin romance novel and it takes away from it completely.

What could Erin Watt have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Actually write trashy romance novels since that seems to be what she wanted to write all along.

What does Angela Goethals bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The voice actress was great. I have no idea how she got through the book without laughing the whole time but she did good.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

... No. I would listen thinking, "Okay, this is as bad as the story writing can possibly get... Oh wait... never mind, I was wrong."

Any additional comments?

Okay here's the thing. I have definitely read worse books than this one and I enjoyed them. The difference was that in those situations I was ready for reading the insanely stupid, trashy romance novels. I tend not to read those as much anymore, because writers like Nalini Singh have shown me just how good a romance novel can actually be, but that's beside the point.

-spoiler line-

This book is about a girl whose mother has recently died but she's working her way through high school (at a strip club but honestly? Go her, more power to you chickie). She finds out her dad was (he's recently dead too she finds out) insanely rich and his best friend wants to swoop in and save her with money and a stable home and school. She doesn't like the idea (I still don't know why, she clearly doesn't have a problem with handouts) but decides to stick around because he'll pay her to do so and she needs the money.

Best friend of father has 4 hot sons who live with him (plus one who's grown and moved out), they're all assholes, not just to her even if the book wants you to think they're really just heart of gold guys. These guys literally abandon her miles from home in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night because they think she wants to bang their dad. This might sound like a weird conclusion to jump to except it's not, everything in this book is about sex. Everything. Even stuff that shouldn't be somehow winds up being about sex. It's forced, often to cringe worthy levels.

How is everything in the book about sex? Well I could go with the main character being paid for a lap dance by the best friend of dad. I could go with the best friend of dad and his girlfriend having sex publicly, in front of and otherwise near his own kids and the main character multiple times. I could go with the main character deciding to don a trashy stripper outfit before getting into a fight with a girl who gave her the outfit. Or maybe the main love interest brother f***ing his dad's girlfriend? Or the fact that they strongly hint that she used to f*** the eldest brother regularly as well. There are so so many things I could go with but I think my favorite is the fact that the main character is verbally, and physically molested by her new 'brothers' repeatedly in the books. Not in a 'oh look at that sexual tension' way either. A few times in the book she actually is scared that they might rape her. But it's okay cause those boys, they have hearts of gold right?

Oh and the book still has those YA aspects of every possible thing that could go wrong going wrong. Except there's nothing balancing it out. It's all just bad.

No. I probably still wouldn't have liked this book even If it had made it clear the type of book it was. But the fact that it popped up as a book I might like while I was looking at YA books and the description making it sound like another YA novel (if a bit on the darker side) lead me to think it was something else. That right there killed any chance this book might have had to get any sort of positive reception from me.

9 of 14 people found this review helpful

Terrible and trashy

Really, don't waste your time or money. I'm all for a bit of YA hilarity, but this was truly terrible. For example first "sex" scene happened when she was drugged up.

8 of 13 people found this review helpful

Read if you like porn and pointless plots.

This book is trash, if you like that kind of stuff then read but the writing is horrible, plot line even more terrible and sex scenes explicit.

7 of 13 people found this review helpful

It Started Off So Good...

Then about 1.5 hours into it, it took a nose dive into Pointlessville. Maybe it gets better. I don't know. All I know is I daydreamed through the 3rd hour of this book 5 times. To be honest...I have no idea what the plot of this story is. In the beginning I was sure it was going to be some secret society story. And maybe it is heading that way. If it is - I will never know, because the intrigue I had at the beginning of this story has died, and I seriously doubt it can be revived. So I'm invoking my 3 hour rule. If I don't care or am not curious about the storyline at the third hour, I move on. Well guess what - I'm moving on.