Overall, I think this was okay. Part of the issue is probably that I went into it with way too high of expectations. Also, I think this would've done better as a full length rather than a novella. There was a lot of untapped potential within this story.

💜 Royal Valentine 💜

2/5 stars

Molly meets Albert while they both unintentionally seek refuge in her office at the Museum of Literature during the gala celebrating the opening of the new Austen exhibit. Albert wants to explore the city and Molly is up for the task. Their friendship blossoms into romance and Molly finally feels as though she can open her heart and trust a man again. But with Albert keeping secrets from her (like the teeny tiny fact that he’s royalty!) it’s only a matter of time before Molly finds out and has to decide if she can handle another man lying to her.

The book was too short to allow the plot and characters to develop properly. The characters were flat and some were irritating at best, particularly Molly. She is closed minded and hypocritical, constantly denouncing men for lying and keeping secrets but believes it’s ok for her to do those very things. If I had a dollar for every time I rolled my eyes while reading this book, I’d be a very rich woman.

Despite this and the extreme cheesiness of the story, the skeleton of the plot had potential to be really cute. I bumped the rating from 1 star to two stars because if I was scrolling through Netflix and came across the movie adaptation, I would watch it in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, this one didn’t satisfy my royal romance book craving.

I received this audiobook as an advanced reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This was a cute and lighthearted romance with good narration and an easy listening style. Perfect escapist fiction to listen to while driving. Highly recommend it for the month of February.

Why did I listen to Royal Valentine?
Royal Valentine was available for request on Netgalley. I thought this would be the perfect story to listen to around Valentine's Day. I loved the fact that there was a sense of secret romance between the main characters. It reminded me of some of the Hallmark movies that I have most enjoyed where the main love interest may not be exactly who they say they are. In fact, more times than not they're some form of royalty! So when I read the synopsis of Royal Valentine I was quick to click request and crossed my fingers that I would soon be enjoying a royal world.

What's the story here?
Royal Valentine is a novella filled with romance, friendship, and books. Molly Graham and Briana Cho are both employees of the Museum of Literature. This year for Valentine's Day, they are expected to dress in a regency period costume and attend a fundraiser for the newly opened Jane Austin exhibit. Both women are single and Briana is determined that they will aim higher when meeting men. The fundraiser seems to like the perfect location to do this.

Briana almost immediately finds an attractive man and begins to be swept off her feet. Meanwhile, Molly just wants to go home, eat pizza, and read a book. When trying to sneak out she stumbles upon a handsome man named Albert George. She finds herself agreeing to be his tour guide in NYC. The more time they spend together, Molly starts wondering, does love at first sight and happily ever after actually exist?

How did I like Royal Valentine?
Royal Valentine is such a cute novella. There are plenty of sweet moments between Molly and Albert George. I loved hearing about their tours of NYC and how they were falling for each other. Albert George is such a sweetheart. Molly took a bit to fully like due to her lack of flexibility. I understood that she had been hurt before but I felt she had too low of an opinion of herself. I wanted to give her a hug but also wanted her to get a whole of herself. She was also someone who claimed that other people's opinions of her sis not matter when they obviously did - thus the low opinion. Thankfully Briana was there to help set her straight. I enjoyed their friendship and how they supported each other. It was nice to see.

How did I like the narration?
Royal Valentine is narrated by Sara Young and is three hours and thirteen minutes long. I enjoyed the way everything was narrated and how she attempted to use different voices for each of the characters. In particular, I enjoyed the British accents for Albert George and Tristan (Briana's love interest). I listened to Royal Valentine in one day stopping only once when I was falling asleep. It wasn't because of the narration though - it was because I had worked all night. Overall, the story is sweet - maybe a little bit of cliche - but all of it seemed to go together. I could totally picture this as an actual Hallmark movie!

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced audio copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Royal Valentine is a super cute novella about Molly and Albert. Molly is a registrar at a museum and loves nothing more than books and quietly introverting. Albert is a British grad student who is kind and polite but doesn't love parties. On the biggest fundraising night of the year at Molly's museum, she sneaks off to her office to change clothes and leave early for a date with pizza and a good book. Unbeknownst to her, Albert is hiding in her office for the party to end. Thus ensues an adorable romp between our two unlikely characters. There's only one problem-- the one thing Molly can't abide is lying.... and Albert has a BIG secret.

Overall this was super cute and just plain fun. I wish there had been a little more backstory for each character to make them more believable and their motivations more understandable. This IS a novella, so I get that there's not really a ton of time for that, but I think just a smidge more info for each character would have made this a 4.5/5 for me.

The narrator was great-- even with her British accents. I would definitely pick up more books read by this narrator.

i thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook! it was so scute and sweet and precious and funny! it was just such a blast to get to read this one early and i can't thank netgalley enough!!

Molly Graham, a museum curator, is at an event and meets what she thinks is a British doctoral student. She has been burned in the past with dating guys who she considers are out of her league, but she is very interested in this doctoral student, Albert (Al). They leave the gala early together and start to explore the city with Molly as Al’s tour guide over the next month. One day, Albert is gone. He wont respond, doesn’t show up to their date, and Molly can find no trace of him, even at the University where he claimed to be a student. Her job requires her to go to England to help return the exhibition materials that her museum had borrowed. She travels with her best friends and when they get there, they meet Earl Whitmore and his grandson, who just so happens to be Al. Over her time in England, Al tries to win Molly back, but will she go back to him after his lie?

*3.5 Stars On My Instagram Account*

Royal Valentine by Jenn McKinlay is a love letter to Jane Austen fans. Molly is the Registrar for the Museum of Literature in NYC. At the museum's Valentine's Day Gala for the opening of their Jane Austen exhibit she finds British Professor Albert George in her office. Soon they are having a whirlwind romance and a month later he disappears.

When Molly travels to England to return the Austen exhibit items to the Earl who loaned them out she is stunned to meet his grandson Albert!

Narrator Sara Young was spot on in her interpretations of Molly's emotions and Albert's English accent was perfectly swoon worthy. Albert needs to channel his inner Darcy to win Molly back!

This was a sweet novella but I would have liked more from Albert's point of view.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from Dreamscape Media via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Royal Valentine is a quick, easy listen (or read) with funny, upbeat characters and lively banter between the love interests, Molly and Al/Jamie. The narrator is fabulous and adds to the depth of the story.

Excellent Valentine's Day novella, with fantastic narration! Sweet, funny, and fluffy with excellent plot execution!

Sara Young narrates Royal Valentine by Jenn McKinlay about Molly Graham, registrar for New York’s Museum of Literature, who refuses to believe in fairy tales or love at first sight after being burned by relationships for the last time. Her best friend challenges her to aim high for men out of her league. She’d rather not bother at all and for Valentine’s Day to be over and done with. She escapes the Museum’s Valentine’s Gala for the Austen exhibit’s opening to find a stranger, Albert George, hiding out in her office. Believing he’s a doctoral candidate from England who hasn’t seen much of the city so far, she leaves with him to grab dinner, and they spend the rest of the night exploring the city. He convinces Molly to be his tour guide during his stay, which unexpectedly grows into a month-long love affair. Just when Molly starts believing in happily-ever-after, Albert doesn’t show for a date. He vanishes without a trace, leaving her brokenhearted. After being sent to England to return the Jane Austen exhibition materials on loan from the Whitmore Estate in Bath, Molly discovers that Earl Whitmore’s grandson Lord Insley is none other than Albert—a viscount in line to be an earl. Can James Albert George Insley Whitmore, who had to leave her unexpectedly but never forgot or stopped longing for her, earn her forgiveness and win her heart?

Young’s animated narration draws you into the story. She varies her narration to differentiate between the characters. Her narration and voices for the primary and secondary characters are just right, helping you easily form pictures of them in your mind. Her accents for the British characters—Albert/Jamie, Jamie’s uncle, and Tristan (her best friend’s new Valentine’s beau) are nicely done. However, they don’t sound like upper-crust accents. A Royal Valentine has nice pacing. The novel is told from Molly’s POV, so the flow between the chapters is easy to keep up with. Aside from a bit of angst, the novel is mostly lighthearted, so Young’s cheery voice and animated narration perfectly suit McKinlay’s novella.

The audiobook is pretty short, which doesn’t leave much time to develop the romance between Molly and Albert. Although the characters engage in a month-long love affair, only the first night they have dinner and explore the city is on the page/audio for readers/listeners. Their interactions that night are humorous and sweet and show romantic attraction and potential for a relationship. A Royal Valentine is a sweet, funny, and cute holiday romance for royal and holiday romances fans who are in the mood for a quick audiobook listen and don’t mind just a bit of angst.

This book was not for me. The whole thing felt forced and rushed, not to mention extremely cliche, although it being cliche was the least of what was wrong with this.

Royal Valentine was a delight from beginning to end. At 3 hours and 13 minutes (112 pages and 10 chapters, for reference) it was a quick and easy listen with a dynamic and expressive narrator. While her British accent needed work, I absolutely loved the narrator and that complaint did not ruin or take away from the experience in the slightest. Each character was given their own individual voice in a way that few audiobooks manage, and I was hooked from the start.
I would describe Royal Valentine as a valentine’s day hallmark film meeting regency charm. With a Jane Austen fan protagonist and a plot largely centred around England and Jamie’s status as nobility, there were many regency, Bridgerton, and Austen references strewn about that I greatly appreciated.

Given that it is a novella, the romance moves purposefully fast (bordering on insta love) and that may put people off, but it’s important to remember that the plot is not their love story— it’s Jamie winning her back. Building the foundation was necessary in order to get to Jamie’s (delightful) grovelling. Because of this, I was not at all put off by the quick pace of the romance. I throughly enjoyed the chemistry of the main leads and their banter, and the angst of their longing had me unable to press pause.
Beyond the romance, something that stood out to me was the incredible friendship between Molly and Brianna. I was just as invested in Molly’s scenes alongside Brianna as I was in her scenes with the male lead, and never did I find that the focus was placed on one more than the other in a way that took away from the plot or either relationship. I loved the addition of Brianna and her own side romance, they were so so cute.
That being said, this story definitely had the potential to be longer, or even a full length novel! While the time it had was utilized well, I’d have loved to see more from the plot and characters.

Overall, I’d give this short and sweet novella a 4.5/5 ⭐️, and I’d love to read it again sometime!

I know this is supposed to be a short novella but it really did feel so rushed. I didn't buy into the romance because I didn't get to actually see the romance. The ending just felt like it came out of left field. The protagonist just decided to change her mind so quickly which is fine but I just didn't feel like there was a good reason for it.

This audio novella didn't really work out for me.

I really liked the story's set up and the meet cute was absolutely wonderful. But after the beginning of this book things kind of fell apart for me.

There weren't any surprises in the story and the second half of the book felt rushed and a bit shallow.

The narrator was good and I enjoyed her voice and listening to her reading.

<b>BOOK RATING:</b>⭐️⭐️
<b>AUDIO RATING:</b>⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This was a sweet, clean valentines romance novella. It reminded me of a hallmark movie and was paced like one. They meet, fall in love over a montage, have closed door sex, and then he disappears. Molly is left alone and heartbroken, but a request that she travel to the UK to return the Items her Museum borrowed will change everything.

MCKinlay’s writing is easy and cozy, and her Characters are interesting if a bit surface. There wasn’t much tension in this one, and no steam. But it was cute and all the book and Jane Austen references were fun!

This sweet novella was just what I needed to get me in the Valentine's mood.

Molly Graham works at the Museum of Literature, and it’s safe to say that books are her whole world. Off the page though, she hasn’t had much luck in love—until she finds Albert, a handsome Brit, in her office during a fundraiser event. Molly believes he’s in town for only a few months, and is a broke professor. She agrees to show him around New York so he can get the full Big Apple experience. Their friendship quickly turns into more, and Molly is finally thinking that this whole love business isn’t so bad, when he vanishes. Just completely ghosts her.

Molly is asked to personally return a borrowed collection of books to the UK after their Austen exhibition, when who does she run into, but Albert! Turns out he’s not a poor professor after all, but a British Lord. He tries to convince Molly to give him another shot, but can she get past all the lying?

This was a lovely, sweet little escape and perfect for the month of February. Was it a little predictable, sure. But did I enjoy it all the same? Yes, yes I did.

The audiobook was performed by Sara Young, and I really enjoyed listening to her. It is only a little over three hours long, so you’ll tear through it in no time.

I have enjoyed Jenn McKinlay's books in the past and this book is no exception. I listened to this as an audiobook and this novella was a quick listen. I love all things royalty in romance novels, so this was such a treat. And picking it up just in time for Valentine's Day was perfect timing! I did feel like there were some plot holes and that it moved a little too quick. It would have been an amazing full length novel. All that being said, I enjoyed this one a lot!

The best part of this novella is that it is a sweet fairy tale of a valentine for adults with all the required characters. There is the sweet heroine who has a a failed romance in her past, the dashing hero, the helpful best friend , the wise older person who gives advice and the necessary happy ending. I loved it!

Book Review 🎧
Royal Valentine
By: Jenn McKinlay
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ /5
🌶/5

If you’re in the mood for a quick Valentine’s Day pick me up, Royal Valentine is the book for you. If I had one complaint, it would be that I wanted this to be longer, maybe a little more expanded. The end felt a little rushed, and I really wanted more. 💖

Thank you to the author, netgalley and dreamscape for the advanced copy of this audiobook!