On my reading list forever and moved to the front with the passing of the Queen. I had no idea that there’s a vague subplot around royal funerals.

Mix of audio and reading - listened to a huge Chuck during a 3 hour solo long run and it was perfect for that.

I could barely remember the original book and was expecting this to be a stand alone about Freddie/Harry but it was really a continuation of Bex and Nick and the early years of their married life. There’s much more plot and intrigue here than expected and o think it’s better for it not being just another romance. I am also a longtime fan of The Fug Girls so I enjoyed seeing them shine through in some of the details like the fake Max & Wax, all the attention to baseball, the bake off, and the occasional mention of blue suits and lame shoes.

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Gossip-y, dramatic, and fun. ( )

These are just so well done for soapy royal goodness ( )

This follow up to The Royal We is about What Comes After. When the book opens, Bex and Nick are on the run, hiding from the fallout of the scandal that broke on their wedding day, and threatens to break the family. I couldn't help comparing what happens in these books with the real story of William and Kate, and in this case, it feels like the authors are also inspired by Harry and Meghan. The similarity stops when the runaway couple are summoned back to the fold because of a health crisis, and then their relationship begins to be truly tested. As in the first book, this is where this book becomes a Romance. The up and down, the will-they-or-won't-they, with the constant threat of exposure by the press, but with an undercurrent of passion and devotion. They just have to get over themselves to let it all work out. Eventually, a bombshell family secret ends up trumping all the other crap, and the family (and the couple) bond over something that should have torn them apart. I found this a little less crisp and clever than the first book, but that's to be expected in a sequel, especially one in which the romance evolves from youthful discovery to mature family matters. I am a sucker for any fiction that offers a glimpse behind the curtain, and this definitely contains some plot points that make me hope that is how royal families actually are. ( )

I knew almost immediately that I was going to love The Heir Affair – the whole thing opens with Bex and Nick hiding out (after the media storm surrounding their wedding) in the small Scottish town of Wigtown, staying at the B&B above Open Book. While this probably doesn’t inspire delighted squeals of joy from most, other than the fact that it sounds cool, Open Book is run as a companion to Book Shop, owned and operated by Shaun Bythell, author of Diary of a Bookseller and Confessions of a Bookseller, two memoirs that offer remarkable insight into my chosen profession. So as a bookseller, I got really excited about Bex and Nick’s chosen hide out in Scotland.

But that was just the very beginning. With a gap of just more than five years (an eternity in publishing time) between the release of The Royal We and The Heir Affair, Heather and Jessica knew they’d have to give readers a bit of time to play catch up with Nick and Bex and they do a tremendous job easing readers back into their lives and rehashing the events of The Royal We. The bulk of The Heir Affair takes place in the two years immediately following The Royal We, and as both are set in “real time,” it’s kind of fun to be transported back to 2016 in the book, before the dumpster fire of 2020.

Eventually, as they must, Nick and Bex return to the firm (no Meghan & Harry cut and run here), and are reunited with friend and foe alike, from Nick’s brother Freddie and Bex’s twin sister Lacey, the brothers’ taciturn father, to the centenarian queen mum obsessed with Idris Elba, and all their friends (one of whom is obsessed with getting onto a GBBO inspired baking show), it is refreshing to be reunited with so many favorite characters.

After the expected roughish patch between Bex & Nick, and the two of them and the family, the book moves along at a decent clip through time until “the heir affair” takes center stage. With everything Bex and Nick have been through, there was no way this was going to be smooth sailing. But Heather & Jessica present their situation with so much kindness and empathy that I found myself bawling my eyes out at certain parts (I don’t want to spoil anything, but you’ll know pretty quickly which scenes I mean).

While The Royal We delved into the melodramatic soap opera type of story pretty quickly, The Heir Affair is not nearly as over dramatic until the last hundred pages or so where a secret is revealed about now deceased members of the royal family and has a potentially devastating effect on the future heirs. It gets a little trite, especially when, by this point, we really just want to see a happy ending, but Heather and Jessica handle their chosen curveball well. I walked away from The Heir Affair enjoying it more than The Royal We and I think it will become a favorite of anyone who chooses to pick it up as well. ( )