To say I was excited for The Heir Affair would be a massive understatement - I absolutely adored The Royal We back when it came out and I’m glad I re-read it right before this so the characters and story were fresh in my mind. It was so fun to be back with them all, though the world is so different than it was in 2015, right? Especially when it comes to royals marrying Americans!

This book is drama drama drama and very emotional - I’m glad my friend gave me a heads up on the trigger warnings because it was emotional and hard to read in parts. I don’t want to spoil anything but I thought it was handled with sensitivity that you don’t always see in books with those situations.

Getting a sequel to a beloved book is always wonderful, but even better when the sequel is this good! I adore Nick and Bex, and all the side characters - Eleanor in this book! Love!

It was a joy to read this, perfect escapism, so much fun. If you loved The Royal We, you’ve got to read this one.

I loved The Royal We so much and was thrilled to read the sequel. It was like visiting old friends, being thrust back into this world and really enjoyed seeing where my favorite royals ended up. This one makes you feel so much - I laughed at Gaz's attempts to get on a reality baking competition, the competition between Nick and Freddie to outdo each other for the Royal Usefulness Pageant, Eleanor and Bex's friendship including Elearnor learning the rules to baseball! And I felt so much sadness for the characters for what they experienced during the years this book spans. ⁣
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The original followed Will and Kate closely-ish but this one deviated significantly from the similarities. This book felt like a British soap opera and I can't wait to see this world adapted (The Royal We was optioned a few years ago by CBS Films from Lauren Graham and Mae Williams, my favorite Parenthood pair! After further digging, it doesn't appear that Lauren Graham is still involved in the project - but I'm thrilled that this world will hopefully come to the big screen soon). ⁣
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The sequel to The Royal We is here! The book picks up right where book one left off with Bex and Nick getting married despite all of the drama that was thrown their way.⁣ Family secrets, drama, and love triangles continue to play a major role in the sequel with lots of close parallels to the real Royal family. I can’t say much more about this one without giving it away, but if you read The Royal We, definitely read this one next!⁣
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I read The Royal We three years ago on a beach in Hawaii and completely forgot everything that happened since. I chose not to re-read it only because I am not a big re-reader, but I do remember loving the book and the character development!⁣ It took me roughly 150 pages to get acclimated to Nick and Bex’s story, and another 50 or so for me to really get into it, but once I was into it, I was HOOKED. Those last 200 pages really make the book spectacular. I am, dare I say, tempted to re-read The Royal We just to hang on to these characters for a bit longer.⁣

The Heir Affair is an addicting sequel to The Royal We. Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan gave me everything I want in a royal romance.

In this book, Bex and Nick are married. It should be a happy time for them but because of their actions, they have tried to escape the palace. They pretend to have a normal life in a small town, but the Queen's health brings them back home.

As they are back in the palace, they already know that their blissful bubble is over. They have to deal with the public's opinion, scandal, and personal issues all while trying to be the perfect royal family.

I loved this book so much. The authors really focused on the ups and downs of Bex and Nick's marriage. It was refreshing to see them face real issues in a marriage instead of it being a 'honeymoon phase' the whole way through. They had to work for their happily ever after.

I do love the drama too. Freddie's presence added tension to Bex and Nick's marriage. It was tough because I could understand Nick's jealousy and also understood that Bex didn't want to give up her friendship with Freddie. Overall, I like how the story played out.
I give The Heir Affair 5 stars. If you loved the first book in the series, then you will devour this book. All the drama and scandal made the ending so worth it. Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan didn't forget about the supporting characters and they helped take the book to the next level.

Sequels can be hard, especially when a follow-up book is being published 5 years after the original, but this one nailed it! I was lucky enough to read The Royal We and The Heir Affair back-to-back so it took me a little bit to get into it because the first book left off in such a precarious way, while the second had to ease back into the drama. I loved how the authors nailed it by bringing us a new dimension to Nick and Bex’s relationship, while also showing how their lives have changed. The standout for me in this book is the development of the relationship between Bex and Queen Eleanor. As a baseball fan, there were many scenes that warmed my heart (especially with how much I am missing baseball this season!) Overall, I loved this book. The characters were all so well-developed, and I could really connect with and root for them, especially as I followed how they grew and changed over the years. I do think that it could have been a bit more condensed, but it was still charming and funny, and I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a lighter read that still has some depth!

There’s no shortage of tabloid fodder when it comes to Queen Elizabeth and her brood. I, myself, am guilty of occasionally reading royal gossip as if it’s nothing more than a daytime soap opera. The Heir Affair, Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan’s follow-up to their 2015 hit The Royal We, sets out to remind royal fans that these are actual human beings with complex relationships and emotions. How ironic that they had to be fictionalized to become real to us.

The sequel picks up with our Will & Kate proxies, Nick and Bex, hiding out in Scotland after their less than fairy tale wedding. The book is broken into four sections and each one introduces its own heir affairs through which our royal couple must navigate. The first is the fall-out from Prince Freddy’s declaration of love for Bex getting leaked to the press. This brotherly betrayal sends Nick into a depression spiral and leads to him making some questionable choices with an old female friend. The next affair begins with the introduction of Crown Princess Daphne, heir to the Dutch throne and her budding relationship with a certain party prince. The third section explores Bex’s perceived responsibility to provide the monarchy with its future ruler and how Nick and Bex support each other as they struggle with infertility. The fourth and final heir affair is the most explosive yet and completely blindsides the characters and readers alike. Without giving too much away, Nick and Bex uncover a secret that could destroy the monarchy itself and free them to the ordinary life they dream of.

If that sounds dramatic, it’s because it is. However, Cocks and Morgan manage to build the reveal up so that the reveal feels earned. As with its predecessor, Heir can feel meandering until the real plot is introduced in the final quarter. Not that that’s a bad thing. The characters are so likable it feels like you’re just hanging out with your best pals; standing by them throughout their ups and downs and hideous portraits. I hope to see more of my Oxford friends in a future volume.

This sequel was pretty unnecessary and not as fun as the first book, but it's a fine bit of light summer reading. The Queen is the best character and has some fun moments.

I absolutely adored the development of some of the characters (ie. Eleanor mostly). Some characters seemed to change and get off track from where they once were, however seemed to grow into more mature individuals understandably.
I felt like the relationship between Freddie and Bex was made to seem bigger (romantically) than it really was, but maybe I was just so obsessed with Nick that I ignored it in the first book. Nick is still an angel but starts taking his role a lot more seriously and our girl, Bex really finds her stride, then falters, then finds it again. Eleanor and Marta became some of my favorite characters in this book. Also- the introduction of Georgina as a character but, from the past was a really nice addition. Georgina’s story brought a lot of drama and meat to this story. Eleanor and Bex together, oh my heart- just wait ya’ll! Big plot twist thrown at us! Not going to spoil anything.
At times, this story was a bit slow, the characters seemed off from who they once were and the drama seemed endless.

I enjoyed that the authors show that marriage isn’t all rainbows and butterflies and that it’s something you have to work at! And, that sometimes families aren’t what they appear to be.
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If you’re a fan of the Royal We, love a good Megan Markelle vibe, and are obsessed with the Royals and UK like I am, I’d definitely pick up this series.


TW ⚠️ Mental Health, miscarriage, infertility

4.5 stars

Since I was late to the game reading The Royal We, I was able to start The Heir Affair with all the happenings and characters fresh in my mind. After spending over a week with Bex, Nick, Freddie, and the gang, they became very real to me, with their saga feeling as if it played out like a movie in my head. Now I miss these characters and their world!

Part of why The Royal We was so fun was because it was familiar in a way. I didn’t follow Will and Kate’s relationship in the early days, but I became obsessed with the couple when they announced their engagement, so getting to read a fictionalized version of a story with many similarities to their relationship was entertaining and amusing. The Heir Affair was completely different, though; it was still a lot of fun and I was still entertained and amused, but it all felt fresh and new and much less like Will and Kate fanficiton.

We so rarely get to see what happens after the ‘and they lived happily ever after’. Most romances feature couples falling in love and, while they struggle and overcome obstacles, you know a happily ever after (or happy for now) is guaranteed. But what happens when the shine of a new relationship wears off and the honeymoon is over? What happens when the obstacles in a marriage seem insurmountable? That’s what we got in The Heir Affair. We still got the ‘behind the scenes’ of royal life/life in the public eye and how that affected every aspect of Bex and Nick’s life, but their relationship had more depth because more was at stake. While most people can’t relate to dodging paparazzi and having every aspect of their life scrutinized under a microscope, the authors managed to make it relatable. It helped that real-life issues like infertility, infidelity, secrets and lies, and mental health were woven through the plot.

While The Royal We felt mostly like fun escapism, The Heir Affair dealt with much heavier subject matter. It was still hilarious and definitely had plenty of fun, light-hearted moments, but it also made me tear up and outright cry on several occasions because Bex’s pain was so authentic. Also, as someone who has had mental health struggles for years, I appreciated the way mental health was dealt with in an honest and open way, with references to therapy and coping mechanisms. I also continued to enjoy Bex's relationship with her college friends (I want a friend like Gaz in my life - in fact, I think we all need a Gaz), the different (and healthier) dynamics between her and her sister Lacey, and Bex's relationship with various royals. There are several scenes with the Queen that had me grinning and laughing throughout. With all the heavy subject matter, this book easily could have turned depressing, but the authors struck a good balance between the parts that felt like an emotional gut-punch and the parts that were truly hilarious.

If you haven’t read The Royal We, I highly recommend picking up a copy, along with The Heir Affair. This royal saga will make you laugh, cry, rage, and fall in love. Full of surprises and lots of heart, The Heir Affair is one of the best sequels I’ve ever read, and I'm grateful to the authors for giving us the opportunity to return to this world. I know Bex, Nick, and the others will stick with me for a long time.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Grand Central Publishing for gifting me a copy of THE HEIR AFFAIR by Heather Hocks and Jessica Morgan. 

So, before I got started, I want to tell you that if you have not yet read The Royal We then I ask you to please, not read THE HEIR AFFAIR yet. You will miss out on so much build-up to everything that happens in the sequel. 


Now, I loved The Royal We, it was everything that my recently obsessed with the Royal Family heart could handle but y’all, this sequel, takes the cake. I loved everything about THE HEIR AFFAIR. For all of you that waited five long years for this sequel, it will be worth it and you will love every salacious, gossipy, heartfelt moment in this book. Based on the synopsis, I wasn’t entirely sure how I would feel going into reading this one but it was perfection.


I had so many laugh out loud moments (mainly at Gaz’s expense) and then I shed countless tears. There were some very real moments nestled within the pages of this book — I would like to give a trigger warning for pregnancy loss, if you have any concerns about reading the sequel, please message me so we can chat. I truly felt such real emotions while reading this story and I did not expect to have any of them. In the 464 pages of this novel, I became so incredibly attached to the characters (including The Queen) that I genuinely did not want this book to end. 


I’m looking at you Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan and saying that I think there needs to be a third book. I just don’t think that my heart could handle not having more from Bex, Nick, Freddie, The Queen, Calla, Gaz, and Lacey.. oh and we can’t forget the always lovable Bea. 


THE HEIR AFFAIR was published on July 7, 2020, and is available to purchase at your local book store!

Trigger Warning: miscarriage

Please excuse me while I go cry in a corner because this book is over.

Let me share some history with you all. In 2015, little Cheyenne was browsing her library’s eBranch for the first time, looking for an escape from the stresses that was high school. What I came upon was The Royal We. I downloaded it and devoured it. I had no idea royal romance was a sub-genre, let along royal romance that felt as in depth and realistic as TRW. After reading this I spent the next four years hunting for information about the sequel, if there was even going to be a sequel, until I saw it on Goodreads in December of 2019. The Heir Affair. I saw that it was from Grand Central Publishing and immediately went on NetGalley to request an ARC and I got approved! Then, in a stroke of luck, I got a review copy from Grand Central Publishing, who I worked with before! I felt so so so lucky to be able to get a copy of this, let alone read it early AND host a giveaway for two additional copies!

Okay okay. I’ll get to the review now.

Processed with MOLDIVOn the surface this looks like just a general royal romance and you’d think it wouldn’t be as fun because the magic of falling in love (highlighted in the first) is over. Well, you’d be dead wrong. This isn’t just a romance but also a contemporary fiction piece with a little mystery, a little political intrigue, and a lot of laughs! I was giggling the whole way through the book, well, expect for those heart wrenching moments where I was crying.

One of the things I love the most about this and it’s predecessor is that it’s so in depth in terms of lineage, family history, settings and current events and just everything. It seems so realistic it’s almost like you’re reading a diary entry from Kate Middleton. It’s just so damn good and realistic. All the characters take on a life of their own; no character is like the other and each feels really fleshed out. When you meet them in the first book they’re in college and having fun and getting to see their arcs continue throughout THA is so great and only helps play into this idea that all these events are real.

It starts out shortly after Bex and Nick’s wedding and we get to see them have their rocky start after the disaster that was the end of TRW. What follows is their struggle to maintain their relationship and their responsibilities within the monarchy, keep their friends close, maintain their own personal values, start a family, and solve a decades old royal mystery. After moving into the Queen’s sister’s old apartment, Bex starts to slowly unravel the life of the party princess that was so like Freddie. After learning more and more dark secrets she starts to worry that history really does repeat itself.

This is on the longer side for a contemporary romance, weighing in at well over 400 pages, but this baby moves quick. It’s so engrossing that it’s impossible to put down and you really just fly through it. It’s simultaneously down-to-earth and layered with riches and privilege, with a narrator that you can’t help but connect with. It’s addictive.

Bex is such a great main character for a few reasons. She has some serious flaws; flaws that aren’t just solved by a handsome man and a tiara upon her head. She has those American values/thoughts that we can relate to and she keeps those all through the book, even after being a newly minted Duchess. Nick isn’t the typical hero I read about in romances; he’s not an alpha male despite having some pretty big power, he’s sweet and doting, he makes corny jokes and wants to learn to knit, he’s a bit of a goofball but damn, I loved it. Freddie for sure has his charms, and getting to see him grow up a bit from the smirking playboy of the first book is probably one of my favorite parts of this sequel.

Overall this was just so so so good. It lived up to everything I hoped it would be and more. It was so deliciously fun and over the top and everything TRW was and then some.

I honestly can’t recommend this one enough and it’ll for sure be a top read of 2020. I hope there are a thousand more books in this series (which I DM’d the authors on Instagram lol) and thanks again to my friends at Grand Central Publishing for both the eARC and the finished copy!

I will always love reading about Bex, Nick, and Fred! This was the perfect progression of their stories. The characters continued to develop and the story was semi-natural.

The Heir Affair was a sweet and solid follow-up to the first book in this series, The Royal We. Before picking up these books, I’d been in a serious romantic comedy rut, but I’ve been swooning over Nick from the moment he brought Twinkies and Chiken in a Bisket to Bex to combat her homesickness in chapter four of The Royal We. Maybe it was the Peach Bellinis I had while reading, but I had an ear-to-ear grin plastered across my face for a good portion of this story. It was laugh out loud funny, super cute, and had relatable, likable characters. I also appreciated all the witty dialogue as I’m a big fan of good banter. Despite my initial shock that the audiobook was nearly 18 hours, the narration was also so dang good. Christine Lakin deserves a shoutout as the narrator!

Though this book did run a tad on the long side for me and its plot verges on unbelievable, I thoroughly enjoyed it overall. If you are a fan of romantic comedies, snag yourself copies of The Royal We and The Heir Affair! You’ll love this series.

If you liked this review, find more of my reviews on Instagram @fullybookedforever!

The Royal We has been one of my favorite books for several years, so the thought of a sequel was super exciting. It picks up almost immediately where the first book left off, which was a little off-putting to me since it’s been 5 years of real time between them. Had I made the time to reread first though, this might not have been so jarring.

But.

For at least the first half, I kept thinking about the idea that people don’t actually want sequels, what they want it to read the original for the first time again. And of course that isn’t going to be true for everyone or every book, but it felt true for this one until about 3/4 of the way through, when things really picked up. It’s a long way to read before things get exciting, though, and unlike the first book, I could see where the majority of this was going the whole time.

I’m definitely in the minority here though, so if you liked the first book, give this one a try. I’m going to see if I like it better on audio.

“Eleanor doesn’t argue…she simply says things, and lets you decide whether you want to be wrong or not.”

“Heat is wonderful, until it burn you.”

You know that gif of Marie Kondo where she is clapping her hands and saying “I love mess”? Well, that’s me and also, that’s this book. It’s not perfect, Act One could have been like fifty pages shorter, for example. But it was an addictive read and I read it in a day.

I think, if you’ve read The Royal We, you’re likely prepared for all the twists and turns the authors like to take you on. So there’s more drama, more Nick and Bex not talking to one another like incompetent adults, and so many antics. I loved Queen Eleanor and all the ways we got to know this cast of characters better.

Some parts of this book are hilarious and some require content warnings. For example, this book deals with miscarriage and infertility.

All in all, I’m grateful we got a chance to have this sequel and I know that I, for one, really, really enjoyed it!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book early!

Bex and Nick are newly wed and the wedding was about as dramatic as we expected. Clive, holding true to his word, completely sold out on his long friendship with the royal family. Feeling utterly overwhelmed and in a state that could be called anything but wedded bliss, Bex and Nick decide to flee.

Meet Steve and Margot. No cares in the world. No commitments. Certainly not followed by the paparazzi. Nick and Bex embrace their alter egos full swing and for a full several months. That is until the Queen has a health scare and they race back to be by her side.

With Queen Eleanor’s health in jeopardy, the eyes are on the throne more than ever. Compromising their relationship with the country and with their family by running from their problems, Bex and Nick must make amends.

But the country isn’t ready to forgive or to forget, especially with Clive spearheading a campaign against not only the royal couple, but specifically against Bex’s womb. After a miscarriage, the royal couple struggles to conceive and though they may be in line to inherit the throne, they aren’t immune to the struggles that come to many families.

Full of drama, love affairs, and family secrets, this was a sequel that hit every box. Though it was overly long like the first, ultimately I laughed, I cried, and I felt fulfilled at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I adored the first book, The Royal We, with it’s fun fictional twist on Will and Kate’s story and was eager to jump back into the continuing saga to see how the scandal in the first book unfolds after the wedding. While the first of the books is my favorite (firsts are always my favorite!), I appreciated the way the characters had to deal with the time it takes to heal broken relationships that often come in real life and mistakes made. I was especially amused by the relationship between Bex and Queen Eleanor and found myself smiling and laughing out loud at their banter! If you love a fun royal fiction and fell in love with The Royal We like I did, you’ll enjoy this one too!

Unfortunately, I did not finish The Royal We. I only got about 30% before I lost interest so I will not be reading this sequel.

It’s no secret that I am an Anglophile and MILDLY obsessed with all things Royal, so when I found out that @fuggirls were GIVING US A SEQUEL!!!!! for their 2015 novel, The Royal We, I may have passed out from happiness. Did part of me hope it was THE FREDDIE NOVEL? Yep. Was it? Nope. Did I love it any less? Absolutely not. I’m here to tell you, THIS BOOK IS AS GOOD AS THE FIRST MAYBE EVEN BETTER. Yeah, I said it. Go tell your mom.

The Royal We may be straight up Kate and Wills fanfic, but in The Heir Affair our main duo becomes their own thing entirely. Bex (an American twin) met Prince Nicholas “Nick” when they were studying at Oxford. The entire first book follows their relationship ups and downs (breakups and makeups) as they navigate several years getting us to their ending....a wedding at Westminster Abbey. We were introduced to an amazing cast of supporting characters that helped shape Bex and Nick, including Freddie (OMG SWEET FREDDIE TEAM FREDDIE ALL OF THE JUSTICE FOR FREDDERS), who is our Prince Harry fill in.

The Heir Affair starts right where The Royal We left off... Bex and Nick were just married and are dealing with the fallout of a mistake that not only starts their marriage on rocky foundation, but might upend the three-some (FOR LACK OF A BETTER WORD #ifkyk) of Bex, Nick and Freddie. Bex and Nick are hiding out in Scotland and are forced back to London to start their royal lives. Once they are back, their story spans YEARS of their life as they sort through everything being an heir to a major monarchy can throw at them.

I really loved this story and felt like it was essential to Nick and Bex overall, so it doesn’t feel like this book was fluff at all. I could not put it down and had to see what was going to happen next for our characters. And I am NOT PLAYING when I say that there are like 800 major issues that all of our main characters have to work through, but the biggest one is absolutely one you never saw coming. I was SHOOKETH.

Heather and Morgan have said “never say never” when it comes to whether or not we will get more books in their alternate royal universe, and all I have to say to that is GIMME GIMME GIMME!!!!! I need Freddie’s story, especially after how his left off in this installment.

If you are looking for an amazing summer read that is both fun and deep and touching and just all around INCREDIBLE, look no further. You will laugh and cry and your heart will hurt and heal. AND GUESS WHAT? It’s available now!! Happy pub day to @hcocks and Jessica (now please write us that Freddie book?)!

Happy Pub Day to The Heir Affair by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan! Also thank you to the authors, @netgalley and @grandcentralpub for the eARC!

This one is the second installment of the Royal We series and it did not disappoint! Picking up months after where The Royal We left off, we continue to follow Nicholas, Rebecca and Freddie while they navigate the triangle that was featured in book 1. I loved that this one showed more of the Queen and she did rapidly become by favorite character. It was a bit slow IMO in some parts but so was TRW. But it didn’t take away from the enjoyment of this book. This is a must read IMO!

This one touches on some heavy topics: loss of a family member, infertility, infidelity. So please read at your own risk if these topics are hard for you.