I'm starting to warm up more to Royal-related romances and it was really fun that this was more about the bodyguard than the actual Royals. It's clearly a riff on the Harry/Megan situation and I enjoyed that more than I would have it were a copy of Kate/Will. 

The MC, Piper, lives with her mother on a gorgeous island in Canada. They live in what used to be the guest house of a big mansion. When the Royals come to hide out for the summer, they (and their staff/bodyguards) pick the house directly next to Piper's. She's a school teacher by day and romance podcaster by night, dealing with her mom's mental issues and her own troubled past in relationships.

There was honestly a LOT going on here between Piper's job, her ex fiance, her podcast, her mom's issues, the bodyguard and his issues, the romance, the Royals... etc. The list goes on and on Lots of things happening, so it never felt to me like anything to enough page time. Certain elements were THERE but somewhat glossed over until they eventually factored in later on. Her romance podcast was discussed and a big piece later, but still managed to feel like a major afterthought.

The romance between Piper and Harrison was pretty good and enjoyable, with not a lot of issues to overcome. The major conflicts in the end of the book were about some of the side issues, so that was refreshing. The location of a beach/island town in Canada was great and needed more page time. It's the kind of place I love to read about in companion series, where the shops and restaurants are explored more and more with each book in the series. This book, unfortunately, primarily showed the downsides to small towns (gossip, rumors, "outsiders are the worst," and everyone-knows-everyone).

Overall, this was a fun Royal-related romance and I blazed through it in just a couple of sittings. It was breezy despite some heavier subject matter. I wish there was a little less going on so more things could get page time, but it was good overall.

Loved this. Huge fan of this author and this was thoroughly enjoyable. Karina did her best with this story. What a fun book!

This book had me picturing living next door to Prince Harry in Los Angeles or something - and laughing all the way through! The interactions with Harrison made me swoon at times and I really adored Piper. This is a must read for anyone who enjoys reading about the British monarchy!

Such a sweet story, I love the sweet teacher/grump trope and this one nailed it. Harrison Cole is a swoon worthy bodyguard and I loved the element of the royal family!

I devoured THE ROYALS NEXT DOOR! I’m.m a sucker for any kind of royal romances and flipping the trope on its head with the bodyguard was a refreshing change of pace! This book made my heart happy!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I don't have the obsession with the royals that I know many people possess, but this was a really great twist on a Harry and Meghan-esque couple and Piper, the normal citizen who suddenly lives next door to them.

Luckily, it didn't focus too much on the royal couple, but more on the budding interest between Piper and the bodyguard, Harrison. A really fun story, it also explores some darker subjects, such as mental health, bringing a really great balance to the entire book.

The Royals Next Door is a fun take and those real Royals that happened to move to LA. But what I loved about this book, is that the main characters weren't the Royals, but their sexy, broody and overprotective body guard.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the mental health rep, the view of therapy, and the small town dynamics that weren't magically fixed. It felt believable. I loved the communication in this book. I really really did. Yes, we have a broody grumpy man and a sunshine heroine with a lot of tension and will they, won't they. BUT I loved the way that once there's a relationship, our Hero and Heroine lean into it and you don't have a 3rd act argument/break-up.

Thank you to Berkley & Netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Entertaining enough while reading, but not memorable enough to recommend to others. I felt like Piper and Harrison could have been more fully developed if less time/space was spent on Eddie and Monica's storyline.

I loved this so much! This was my first Karina Halle but reviews were typically positive so I was hopeful going in and I was not disappointed.

Piper and Harrison's chemistry hit me right away and the tension between them throughout the book was palpable. Piper herself was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed getting to know her and seeing her grow into herself on the island.

Halle does the fun and sweet and sexy just as well as she does the serious and touching stuff and all of it can be found in this book. A grumpy/sunshine, slow-burn, bodyguard romance with royal side characters and a heroine with a romance book podcast. A+.

The Royals Next Door was a really fun and charming rom-com!

There were so many aspects to this book that I thoroughly enjoyed. First, the characters were all fantastic. I loved Piper so much — she's extremely relatable and I loved that she also had flaws. As a teacher myself, it was fun to relate to her career. I also loved that it focused on the expectations placed on her in her career and the need to hide her hobbies etc., because of that pressure. Harrison was a fantastic love interest — he's so broody and grumpy, but at the same time, is a total teddy bear. I really enjoyed seeing the relationship between Piper and Harrison unfold.

I also really loved the focus on the Royals. It really connects to everything currently happening with Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess. I think it was so enjoyable that the Royals had a similar story to what is happening in the real world. It's also so great that Piper grows her relationship with the Royals — something she thinks is unlikely, and yet it works so well.

I loved that the setting was Canadian — as a Canadian myself, it is so fun to experience a story set in a place I'm familiar with. The Royals Next Door has such a small-town romance feel to it, and it just makes for a great reading experience.

Overall, the story is so fun. It's the perfect combination of rom-com with real-life issues and focuses. I loved the writing and will definitely be checking more of Karina Halle's books out in the future!

Thank you for the early copy!

Royal romance is my JAM, but I also love any romance that is set in a royal world. So, when I got the opportunity to read an advanced copy of The Royals Next Door by Karina Halle, I was all over it.

This story was not quite a royal romance. We do have royalty, but the side characters (modeled after my favorite royals- Megan and Harry). The stars of this show are a teacher/ROMANCE PODCASTER (right?) and the (swoony) bodyguard for those royals. Have I mentioned how much I also LOVE bodyguard romance?

This book was an enjoyable summer read. The author created a story that was fun and steamy. I loved how the author tackled mental health and defended the integrity of the romance genre. I also loved how the main characters were very authentic. There was good banter, low angst, and some funny moments. I would recommend this read for any royal lover, and anyone who loves an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers story.

fun and cute and perfect end of summer read! i love anything royal, especially made up! i think the romance was great and reallly had the reader rooting for them!

I'm not able to articulate why this book was so "meh" for me. It felt contrived and formulaic, lacked a feeling of being genuine, and predictably wrapped up far too nicely with a bow and ribbons on top.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC.

This was a cute royal romance novel. I loved that Piper and her mother both dealt with mental health issues in this story. There were mentions of therapy and how it doesn’t cure you and how you have to work at it all the time. This is so true. I do hope that we get more books like this as someone who has an anxiety disorder as well. Harrison was guarded and I loved the peeling of layers and getting to know the real man behind the tough exterior. Piper and Harrison to me are an odd paring, but they make it work. This story was fun, flirty, heartfelt and endearing. Just what I needed to snap my book slump.

Overall I enjoyed the book. The problems between the main characters were "adult" conflict level and I appreciated that. I liked that this book did not fall victim to cliche basic miscommunication. My only question is, why would anyone throw their driver's license away because a kid threw up on it? That seemed so extreme and it made me giggle. I hate MVD (DMV depending on your state) more than cleaning it. Anyways, the story was sweet, witty and fun to read.

this was a cute, bubbly read. I enjoyed the royal family and the setting, but felt the main hero and heroine were kind of, lackluster? It seemed very instalove or forced chemistry to me, so I didn't care too much whether they ended up together or not. I felt no angst yearning from them.

Synopsis: Piper Evans: an elementary school teacher by day—avid romance reader and anonymous podcaster by night. She lives a quiet, reclusive life, taking care of her mother, who struggles with mental illness, avoiding her regrettable ex, and trying to make inroads in a tight-knit island community that still sees her, five years in, as an outsider. And she’s happy with how things are—until British royals rent the property next to hers and their brooding bodyguard decides she’s a security threat.

I absolutely ADORED this book! Piper was an amazing main character, her love of romance books is something I related to a lot; as well as having to deal with mental illness. That’s a big point that I really appreciated in this book, it addresses mental illness and therapy in a way that normalized it (the way it should be) and showed us that it’s something anyone can be struggling and dealing with.

Then we have the slow burn romance between her and the brooding hard ass security man, Harrison Cole. He is a whole mood all on his own, very closed off and never revealing too much of himself. Their interactions had me grinning and smiling because the chemistry was beautiful and believable! I loved that their relationship develops over the entire book and isn’t something that just happens instantly and without work. Plus there are very descriptive sexy scenes, so if you love spice in your books you will enjoy the scenes in this one!

In the end, even though I loved this book, I gave it 4/5 stars because of the scenes with the royals. I’m not a fan of Meghan Markle and this book definitely felt like the royal woman was written to praise Meghan in real life; or in honor of her. It just felt like it was trying hard to make me like her and to paint her as the victim of the media and other royals; I wasn’t a fan of that!

This is a very light and low steam romance from Karina Halle. It is enjoyable, but it lacked that punch I’ve come to expect with her books.

What I loved:
1. The Royals. They were fun. I loved the scenes with them.
2. The discussion of teachers being able to read and discuss romance in a public forum.
3. Pushing the “stop shaming romance readers for what they read” message.
4. The discussion of mental health.

What I didn’t like:
1. I didn’t dislike the hero or heroine but they did t feel memorable to me.
2. There was steam. Probably normal for a romance novel, but Karina’s books normal have high steam or in sands chemistry. This was just okay for me.

There wasn’t truly anything I disliked about the book, it just didn’t have that oomph I need and expect from her. I was thinking this would be more like her other Royal romances but it wasn’t.

AUDIBLE REVIEW - I did enjoy the narrators. Good pacing, alternate voices and accents.

A heartwarming romance inspired by Prince Harry & Meghan Markle. Piper is living a quiet life as an elementary school teacher on a small island off the coast of British Columbia, when rumors start to circulate that the royal couple may be coming to stay. (They're not named Harry and Meghan here, of course.) She thinks nothing of it, but when she finds her shared driveway blocked by a massive security guard, she learns that the couple may in fact be moving in next door. And she keeps bumping into the handsome Harrison, head of security, even though he's so annoying.

The cover and marketing for this book made it seem like a frothy rom-com. However, the tone is fairly serious. Piper lives with and cares for her mother, whose borderline and dependent personality disorders mean she needs order and stability--not a paparazzi frenzy outside her front door. Harrison has some past trauma, too. And even the royal couple have their own challenges. But they just might be able to help each other grow and change.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.