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The Kings of California #3

Crowning His Innocent Assistant

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Step into this royal Cinderella romance by Millie Adams, where the boss is also the most powerful of kings!

“Don’t tempt me, Matteo.”
But their chemistry is royally irresistible!


Countless women would be thrilled to marry King Matteo de la Cruz. Yet his brilliant personal assistant, Livia, flat-out refuses his proposal…and then quits! Matteo is outraged, then intrigued… Can anything make his ideal queen reconsider?

Livia has loved Matteo since he plucked her from the gutter as a teenager. Wearing his crown yet not having his heart would be unbearable. Still, their mind-blowing kiss makes innocent Livia long for his touch. If she surrenders to their desire just once, will she be able to say goodbye for good?

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 17, 2021

54 people are currently reading
68 people want to read

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Millie Adams

33 books32 followers

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5 stars
53 (26%)
4 stars
53 (26%)
3 stars
56 (27%)
2 stars
28 (13%)
1 star
11 (5%)
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
Profile Image for Ivy H.
856 reviews
February 7, 2021
3.5 stars.


I loved the premise, was intrigued by both MC's and was always entertained by the author's memorable dialogue. Despite a few issues and a significant plot hole, I quite liked the entirety of the story.


Unrequited love is the key trope at work here, in this friends to lovers romance with a royal twist.





He'd seen her, starving and homeless, in a cold alley.




She was a scared 17 year old teen.


He saved her.


She fell in love with him.


He was too dumb to notice, because, to him, she was just his most valued/trusted employee.





Then he committed the tackiest act: he told her she was gonna marry him, after his reluctant convenient fiancee fell in love with his brother.


She refused because she finally realized that pride was more important than being his convenient, warm dishrag.







He's shocked, because he never thought she'd refuse him anything. In his entitled eyes...








She quit and left to make a new life for herself, in Paris, because a lifelong marriage of unrequited love wasn't her idea of a fairytale ending.






That's when he began to realize what he's lost...





I applauded her decision, because...





Unrequited love is not a favourite trope of mine, because one MC usually walks around, wearing rose tinted glasses while everyone else sees the other MC for who he/she is. I have little patience with this scenario, because I often feel like shaking some sense into the lovelorn individual.


Thankfully, in this, the sequel to Stealing the Promised Princess, the story begins after the lovelorn heroine has wised up. There are important flashback scenes, though, that are critical to the reader's understanding of the MC's relationship history.


But at the start of the novel, she's finally realized she's an independent woman, who doesn't have to feast on sour grapes 'til it turns her into a bitter old lady, always at the beck and call of a king who just wants a utilitarian queen.





Livia, the heroine, has a very sad backstory. She'd been abandoned at age 10 and left to fend for herself on the streets. It's miraculous that she never became a criminal or resorted to prostitution, since that's the favourite betting odds for a child thrown into this nightmare.


This is the heroine, Livia:

Her delicate features were placid, a round pair of glasses perched on the end of her nose. Her light brown hair was piled atop her head,... She had such fine little features. Very large eyes with pale spiky-tipped lashes hiding behind those glasses. A nose that pointed upward with decisiveness.


This is Livia after the makeover:






This is the H, Matteo:

And this man, who had the face of an angel, all sharp cheekbones and dark eyes, black hair pushed back off his forehead and a smile that could not be described as kind, but not wicked either, looked as if he had been pulled from other dreams entirely.


Matteo, the H, hadn't been in love with his former *fiancee* ( aka his new sister in law and the heroine from Stealing the Promised Princess), Violet. He'd not even been attracted to her, despite her considerable beauty. She was just a token in a business arrangement he'd made with her father.


However, he'd always been aware of Livia and those feelings had unsettled him because she's his PA. What he'd not been aware of, was the fact that Livia was in love with him.





These were a few of the issues I had to weigh carefully:



📍I felt there should've been at least a 3 month separation between the MC's, after she declined his first proposal. He needed to experience life without her by his side; perhaps undergo some emotional turmoil, as a result of her prolonged absence. It's only during their second separation, after she left before their wedding, that he finally got to suffer a bit.


📍Her easy sexual capitulation to him, when he turned up in Paris and the extra strong traitorous body syndrome, somewhat negated all the previous big talk she'd spewed at him.


📍He didn't have to have fight hard to win her over and she changed her mind too easily and decided to marry him, after he kidnapped took her back to his kingdom. But then she did wise up at the last minute and leave, once more, before the wedding, because she knew that it made no sense staying with him as long as he couldn't admit he loved her.



📍Then there's the significant plot hole: she'd been abandoned at the age of 10. He saved her when she was 17. She obviously hadn't been attending school all this time. Then it's said that she became his PA a couple years after. How on earth did she manage to acquire the necessary qualifications for such a demanding job ?





I really had to go back and forth with my rating for this novel.


My brain kept saying 3 stars ( based on the issues listed above ) but I felt it was too harsh since I still managed to enjoy the MC's romantic journey to their HEA - especially the epilogue, that's set 10 years in the future, when they're the parents of 4 kids. It was also nice to see the MC's from Stealing the Promised Princess.


Safety: No OM, no OW and both MC's are celibate during both of their short separations. Note: the heroine had been his PA, before they became romantically involved, so there's mention of the fact that she'd had to send parting gifts to his various mistresses.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Esther .
959 reviews197 followers
August 12, 2022
She was his everything.

He loved her but didn't even know it. But his actions and all that he did shouted love more than anything.

He was lost without her.

She loved him forever and she wanted it all. He needed to realize that his heart was capable and did love.

The hero was wonderful!!!

ABSOLUTELY LOVE MY ESCAPISM READING. Keep them coming please Harlequin, I adore the Royalty, King's and Princess's, and far away countries. This is my go to happy place.
Profile Image for Raffaella.
1,947 reviews298 followers
April 26, 2022
Sadly I didn’t like this one because of its premises.
The hero is a king of a lil country in Europe, his father was a sadist and a tyrant and he was tortured as a child so now he’s cold and controlled and shows no feelings. His pa was a young girl he saved from the streets when she was a teenager and now that he’s been jilted by his fiancée he asks her to marry him.
She refuses and resign from her job, leaves the country and he follows her and basically seduces her.
He doesn’t do love.
She’s in love with him since forever and doesn’t want to settle for less.
He will grovel because he realizes he has always loved her.
Nope.
Between endless conversations and inner monologues I could only focus on the fact that:
- she was his pa for 7 years
- he had many mistresses and she was the one who sent them presents, flowers, messages.
-he was going to marry another woman and only asked her to marry after he was jilted by ow
- the heroine was with nobody else while he had his fun around.
After all the above, I didn’t care anymore what they did or what they talked about.
I couldn’t get past the fact that she was second best.
Profile Image for *CJ*.
5,101 reviews626 followers
March 1, 2021
"Crowning His Innocent Assistant" is the story of Livia and Matteo.

Dowdy heroine is the secretary to scarred, brooding playboy king and has loved him since the day he rescued her from the streets. When his engagement breaks, she knows she is next in line to recieve his very predictable proposal.. and alas he does. She refuses to be his forever "mouse" and convenient wife/ life organizer, and refuses. Leaving the country, she never expects him to chase and kidnap her. But his reasonings have little to do with feelings, and a lot to do with need..

Very wound up hero and a confused heroine. His feelings were locked up until the very end, and I didnt enjoy him manipulating the heroine like that, and feeding her scraps for his own benefit. The only reason this isnt rated lower is the angst and the epilogue, otherwise I did not like the hero.

Unsafe
2.5/5
Profile Image for Vashti.
1,233 reviews29 followers
June 8, 2022
Enjoyed this one...RTC...
Profile Image for Jena .
2,313 reviews2 followers
avoid
August 10, 2022
Self note avoid

- the h pined for the H for 7 years. He didn’t notice her.
- she was his PA who had to send gifts to his numerous mistresses over the years. While she remained a celibate doormat.

- he only proposes to her because his fiancée dumped him.
🙄🙄🙄
Profile Image for SassyLeg.
547 reviews
April 18, 2021
First book I read by this author...... emotional with both characters scarred by a terrible family. No need to say the heroine is the first to heal and teaches the king-hero how to love!!!!
164 reviews26 followers
Read
February 3, 2021
Harlequin Presents has to evolve past this one note Cinderella trope. I don't fault the writers because I realize that the category is very specific (and I also know that it's my fault for reading it knowing what it's all about which is why I am not rating it).

In this society, especially with the pandemic, with the rich people profiting while the poor people struggle and are considered "essential workers" I'm not in the mood for the heart of gold ruling class. These stories really need to get past the very rich man saving the poor helpless girl. Alpha males don't have to be super rich kings or CEOs. Isn't it time for the line to come back down to earth a little?

In this particular story it would have been nice to see her leave for a few years and reunite after she's lived her own life and made her own way and had some experience with other people. There is an unfortunate strain in this line which expects the heroines to either be virgins or very limited experience while the men sleep around. I think it reinforces this double standard which none of us want our daughters to face but the company is continuing to perpetuate it in fiction which isn't helpful.

Every time I read a Presents line story I regret it and not because of the writer or the writing but because it depresses me that this story has not grown past these tropes.
Profile Image for RomLibrary.
5,789 reviews
hq-to-read
March 5, 2021
“Don’t tempt me, Matteo.”

But their chemistry is royally irresistible!

Countless women would be thrilled to marry King Matteo de la Cruz. Yet his brilliant personal assistant, Livia, flat-out refuses his proposal…and then quits! Matteo is outraged, then intrigued… Can anything make his ideal queen reconsider?

Livia has loved Matteo since he plucked her from the gutter as a teenager. Wearing his crown yet not having his heart would be unbearable. Still, their mind-blowing kiss makes innocent Livia long for his touch. If she surrenders to their desire just once, will she be able to say goodbye for good?
486 reviews3 followers
April 3, 2021
Crowning his innocent Assistant

This book was quite sad yet funny as well of two people who had dark pasts, one accepted it better than the other.
466 reviews
April 6, 2021
It takes a minute to get the flow of this book. At times I thought it was too well written for me, vocabulary and grammatically wise. So sometimes I had to re read the same phrase twice.
Profile Image for Daisy Daisy.
706 reviews41 followers
March 1, 2021
I mean it wasn't the worst book in this series so far but it wasn't the best either.

The h caved far too easily and showed zero amount of spine for the majority of the book.

I also didn't like how blase she was about getting stabby with people who tried to attack her when she was on the streets. It just seemed like too much considering her "mouse" demeanor and it just didn't fit her character description.

As for the H he seemed like a pretty decent guy on the whole other than the arrogant kidnap thing. However, he was pretty tame compared to most H's.

Will still keep reading books by this author I'm sure like a fine wine she will only improve with time
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Samantha.
476 reviews17 followers
July 26, 2021
I’m not going to finish it. The dialogue is too off putting and not how people talk - even royalty in imaginary countries.
15 reviews
April 15, 2025
Not bad. Kind of funny.

I don’t think this is meant to be a romantic comedy, but it did make me chuckle here and there. Despite having such a tragic backstory, the king is funny (not intentionally, just in action and sheer audacity). The main characters’ interactions are tinged with humor as are the side characters when reacting to the king’s actions towards the female lead. It makes everything a little lighter and balances out the dark history and angst.

My favorite quote is the unexpected appearance of the man vs. bear question.

This book doesn’t have a lot of twists or turns, and is pretty predictable, but it was still a good read. I found it worth my time.
5 reviews
April 4, 2022
good story

I’ve enjoyed reading this book, it was interesting till the end. I loved happy ending. Enjoyed the characters of book .
85 reviews
August 5, 2024
Matteo & Livia

I generally like the trope of the MMC obviously being in love with the FMC. And I generally liked Livia’s character, although she was somewhat flip-floppy…

There were too many things I didn’t really like, though, to make this a better story for me. The whole circumstances of meeting when she was 17 and vulnerable, and he much older felt adjacent to grooming. Yes, he recognized the power imbalance, her dependence on him, etc. and held a boundary…but his attraction was there nonetheless (and look where things ended up).

Then there’s the fact that he’s supposedly been in love with her for nine years, but every 3 weeks or so, he has a new woman he’s sleeping with, whom Livia has to dispatch with gifts?

Beyond that, I always find it weird when young women with little experience or education are given jobs well beyond their preparation.

Overall, the story was okay. But when the marriage was set to go forward so early in the story, one knew there would be one more big blow up and reconciliation. That part (chapters 12 & 13) felt rushed and insincere. A few weeks apart, and a conversation with his brother, and boom, a breakthrough for a whole childhood & early adulthood of abuse? Followed by a few words from him (plus a knock), and Livia knew he was a changed man?

It was supposed to feel weighty and moving, but it didn’t land.

This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Rose Belle.
851 reviews13 followers
December 22, 2022
This will be extremely quick because I'm very sick right now. However, I actually really loved this one. It took me a moment to get used to this author's writing style, but now that I have, I like her stories. They aren't cutting-edge romance, but I just really loved the story of the girl plucked from the gutters by the violent king. I dunno. I ignored the rest of my reading list for this one, so that must say something.

The Kings of California Series
-Review of The Scandal Behind the Italian's Wedding (The Kings of California #1)
-Review of Stealing the Promised Princess (The Kings of California #2)
-Review of Crowning His Innocent Assistant (The Kings of California #3)
Profile Image for Jenn.
99 reviews
May 8, 2024
There is absolutely nothing special about this book. It is not remarkable, noteworthy, or even memorable. It is just another book. And it should have stayed that way for me.

It's not terrible, mind you -- there was just nothing remotely interesting about this book. At all.

Cliché in every sense of the word, a man who *barely* grovels because of his lack of emotions *cough cough* Love~ because, of course. A virgin PA who's loved him for almost a decade, a basically forced marriage... the pacing was bad. And some writing. And the plot.

No more Harlequin books for me.
Profile Image for anisa fitri zakirah.
362 reviews4 followers
February 9, 2021
rated 3.5. the story is very short, if it's longer i would rate it like 4/5. but anyway the heroine was saved by the hero ten years ago when the hero was a newly king. she was only 17 back then. 10 years later the hero needed to marry someone, and as his bride was stolen by his brother, he asked his assistant instead. She knew this would happed, so she turned him down. i feel like the story is too shot that it seems to rush so 🤷🏽‍♀️
37 reviews1 follower
August 11, 2021
Best part of book was the last few chapters. I hate that he called a mouse and she accepted it. Why would you address a strong woman as mouse as a female author Millie Adams. Why through the whole book you would bring old conversations, it was like you trying fill gap. 🤔
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Anna.
99 reviews4 followers
November 16, 2021
We get it. He’s a king and she was a street urchin, how many times did they have to emphasize it? Dialogue was so off and no romance developed. It had zero chemistry.
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