This is book two of the Royally Wrong series and the main characters are the Duke of New Arcadia, Benedict, and Frankie (Francis) Beaumonde and they make for a fun, laugh out loud read. Frankie has made herself a name for pet sitting from an early age and is currently engaged to look after a grey parrot called Elvis, whilst his owner Lady Drey has gone away for a ‘grand tour’ for a year. Frankie gets to stay in her huge mansion, with nothing to do other than care for her parrot, whilst other staff look after the house and cleaning. After an unfortunate event in her life, she has run away from her home town and the issue that caused her to leave. She has no real friends, apart from a woman she talks to online, called Mina, mainly locking herself away in the homes where she is pet sitting and talking to the pets! When Elvis gets loose and out of an open door, she only realises he wasn’t where he should have been once already in a relaxing bath. She grabs her bathrobe and runs out after him, only for Elvis to head towards the large neighbouring house. She takes off her robe to throw over him, but just as she does, Benedict comes out of his patio doors surprising Elvis and leaving her naked and running after the parrot!
Benedict has a slight PR issue, after a certain woman turned up naked and high on drugs, outside his hotel door, just in time for some paparazzi to get a photo of the two. Since the current queen is pregnant in a high risk pregnancy at the age of forty five, she wants to ensure her successor is formally announced, in case anything goes wrong. Benedict is the oldest son of the Queen’s sister, who dies when he was about twelve and too young to be named the Queen’s heir. He has a huge secret, that if it comes out, would completely stop him being able to be named as her heir, but very few know of it. Benedict has a younger brother who could be the heir, but he is a spoilt and irresponsible young man and totally unsuited for the role. Benedict has been groomed from an early age to take this role and possibly become King in the future. He has a somewhat boring job in the Finance Department and is not given to any sort of fun or light heartedness that is until Frankie crashes into his home! When his PR assistant Daniel sees her, he believes she could be the perfect person to pretend t be the other woman he was seen with and they could pretend to be engaged, to make the story go away. Daniel vets her and finds her suitable, but she also has a secret from her past, that made her leave her home town and never return. It was more a mistake of youth and it was the young man and his family that left her with a feeling of never belonging and not being worthy of love from the man she thought she was in love with!
Frankie gets a royal makeover and trained in lots of different aspects, for what she needs to be ready for and all the events she will attend on Benedict’s arm. She brings light into his somewhat rigid and stuffy existence, where he has always tried to be the best he can be and never put a foot wrong, whilst taking on all the duties he is asked to do. They set up some simple rules and rewards for the job, but their fake relationship soon becomes real at times, when he kisses her and they end up dancing at a ball together. She is a commoner and worse an American, pretending to be a Duke’s fiancé and her usual irreverence and clumsiness at times, brings about lots of amusing episodes, some of which seem to have been caused deliberately by others. Secrets will be forced into the open, some by those who want to get something from this revelation and who want to embarrass both Benedict and Frankie. Frankie is lest desolate and reminded of events that forced her away from her parents and Benedict has to make a hard decision to protect his family and the crown. The relationship and feelings between them may have been fake to start with and to serve a purpose, but has changed into something very real and surprising to them both. Loads of emotional upheaval but also loads of funny, quirky and sassy commentary between the characters and a fun romantic story to read, with a HEA ending. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book about.