Falling Hard for the Royal Guard
Megan Clawson
Publisher: Avon
Publication date: April 27, 2023
Genre: Romance
Rating:
Despite living in an actual castle, happily ever after is evading Margaret ‘Maggie’ Moore.
From her bedroom in the Tower of London, twenty-six-year-old Maggie has always dreamed of her own fairy-tale ending.
Yet this is twenty-first century London, so instead of knights on white horses, she has catfish on Tinder. And with her last relationship ending in spectacular fashion, she swears off men for good.
And then a chance encounter with Royal Guard Freddie forces Maggie to admit that she isn’t ready to give up on love just yet… But how do you catch the attention of someone who is trained to ignore all distractions?
Can she snare that true love’s first kiss… or is she royally screwed?
My thoughts…
Falling Hard for the Royal Guard was one of those books that I was really excited to read. A woman who falls in love with a member of the royal guard? I mean, how cute is that?! Add the fact that she lives in the Tower of London and just lives in this really cool military world was fascinating to me. Then you add Freddie, who is a royal guard that rotates through her area, and I was just ready for a swoon worthy read.
Except, this book just didn’t work for me like I’d hoped. At the first encounter, Freddie is incredibly rude and pompous, and I felt like we were never really given a good reason, other than he was distracted with personal problems. Then he does a 180 and starts flirting with Maggie, and I will be honest, it took me a moment to switch gears and forgive him. He seemed sweet and quiet and after a while I forgave his first impression. However, I was not a fan of his wish-washy behavior towards Maggie. He’d go from almost kissing her, and joking around, to throwing up walls, retreating behind his military mask, and physically retreating from her presence. It was hard to root for the guy when he was just as much of a hot mess as Maggie was.
Speaking of Maggie, I wish she had a bit more character development. She’s just this flighty woman who just does not have her life together. From a relationship that went wrong that she can’t seem to break away from, to the “mean girls” at her work, to the security cameras always watching her every move and spreading gossip about her… it just seemed too much. It was as if the whole world was out to get her. I mean, the girl couldn’t even order a pizza without it being an ordeal, and I just wish that the author had spent more time developing Maggie and the characters, than the life of living in a location like the ToL.
When the conflict arises and things come crashing down, just to get their happily ever after, I just felt disappointed. For all of the back and forth, the obstacles, and just lack-luster romance aspect, I was hoping for something more than just a quick fix and a pretty ribbon tying everything up nicely. A lot of things were left unanswered, and I felt like they were just there to pose chaos for Maggie and Freddie. Things take place that have zero repercussions… and I just felt gypped of an honest outcome. In the end, I felt like I read more of a history novel on the royal guard and beefeaters and what their roles are, than I did of a lighthearted romance.
