This read was a total delight! What a fabulous debut for Megan Clawson. With history weaved throughout about the Tower of London, we follow Maggie and Freddie's love story. Maggie is a ticket person at the Tower of London and her encounter with Freddie changes everything. A heart-warming romance, this was a cute, memorable read. Highly recommend!


I would like to thank Netgalley and Avon for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I love the premise — and I learned so much about the Tower of London, even in the first few chapters! — but overall this was a miss for me. It was hard to connect with Maggie as a character, especially when she came off as overly immature. Unfortunately, this one ended up on my DNF list.

I learned about Megan Clawson's debut novel on her TikTok Channel - and was really excited to read it since I'v also been to the Tower of London! Main character Maggie may live in a castle, but her life is no fairy tale. She recently broke up with her boyfriend of seven years, after realizing the emotional abuse she was suffering at his hands was not normal. Her dad, a veteran, is now a Beefeater at the Tower of London. He brings her to live with him on the property grounds (the Tower of London), and helps her get a job at the ticketing office. Said job is minimum wage and rife with extremely mean co-workers, Maggie despises it. Nothing is going her way, until she meets Guardsman Freddie. He makes Maggie feel seen and heard, but she knows nothing about him outside of his guard duties. Why is he so mysterious?

I wanted to love this book so much since I am slightly obsessed with British culture; but the book fell short; and while it was adorable it left me wanting more. I felt for Maggie, she had not had an easy life. But her character was not very likable, she came off as extremely immature and that alone was off putting in a MC. Why was she never on time to work? I mean she lived on the grounds. I also wish that there had been more Freddie. I understand the intrigue of him was that he was mysterious, but the fact that they fell for each other with so little interactions did not seem believable to me. There were times I put the book down to focus on others but did finish even though I considered DNFing it at least twice. I think if she'd written the book in a dual POV it may have been a bit more enjoyable. I will say that the staff at the Tower of London, besides Maggie's co-workers at the ticket office, carried the book. The other guardsmen were so fun loving, I loved reading any scenes that they were in. And her dad's co-workers, the other Beefeaters, were funny while giving off loving dad vibes (and PS beefeaters are really humorous - we loved the gentleman that providing us with a tour and insight when visiting

Thank you to Harper 360, Avon & NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book

First, thank you to NetGalley and Harper 360/Avon for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

The premise of this book is super fun. I realized upon starting it that I had actually seen Megan Clawson on TikTok, so it was fun to see the fruits of her labors and compare them to what she shares of her actual life living in the Tower of London.

The Tower of London is such an interesting historical "character", that gives endless possibilities for a novel, and I did enjoy that aspect of the novel. The story is cute and fluff-filled, and ticked boxes for a pretty stereotypical rom-com, but it wasn't entirely fulfilling. It definitely hit more as a beach read (which given the May publication date, may be a good thing!) than anything with a ton of depth to it. Again, a beach read isn't a bad thing!

My main issues came from Maggie as a main character. She's clumsy and "not like other girls", which, to be honest, I've seen before and I've gotten bored of. She literally cannot walk through a room without hurting herself, and her actions more often hurt others be it involuntarily or not. She also has, as other reviewers have mentioned, some serious body dysmorphia - as a 5'9 woman myself I'd kill to be 160, which is far from plus sized. Her flippant attitude toward work (sure, her coworkers were monsters) was also mildly infuriating. You may not love your coworkers, but you're still working and being paid to be there!

Maggie also spent almost the entire book either dealing with her ex or dating other people, but we're supposed to believe she's head over heels enough for Freddie (and him her) for him to go against his family? That was probably one of the biggest irks I had with it all. I didn't buy into their relationship because we didn't see enough of it.

Like I mentioned, I had seen Megan Clawson on TikTok, and did a bit of a deeper dive into her life at the Tower, and it does seem like this story is more of a self-insert. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but could have been handled better.

I greatly enjoyed Falling Hard for the Royal Guard by Megan Clawson. This book features a lot of falling (literally) and emotional growing. Reflecting on duty and development.

I loved this book! It was a sweet and steamy romance between a girl and her bodyguard. The characters were well-developed and had great chemistry. The plot was fast-paced and full of twists and turns. The writing was engaging and descriptive. I couldn't put it down until I finished it. If you're looking for a fun and flirty read, this is the book for you!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers of this book for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
This book was cute and fluffy enough, but it didn’t really give me what I wanted from a rom-com, especially one with a premise as promising as this. If you like clean rom coms that you can just enjoy reading and don’t have to think too deeply about, this is your book. It’s a great beach read, but it’s not perfect.
Maggie was not my favorite MC. Between her “not like other girls” persona, her inability to do literally anything without hurting herself or someone else, and her serious body dysmorphia (since when does 5’9” and 160-some pounds count as plus size?) I couldn’t take her seriously.
Speaking of characters, the more I learn about the author and the way her real life mirrors the plot from the book, the more this feels like a self-insert story, which leaves a weird taste in my mouth.
As for the plot, it was a little disjointed. Like I said, the premise was really cute, so I was a little disappointed that we barely got to know Freddie and spent most of the book seeing Maggie date other people. This book has serious potential, but to be honest it feels more like a draft than a finished product.
With all that said, I decided on three stars because I did enjoy reading it. The side characters were charming, the setting was interesting, and of course the premise of the book is cute enough on its own that it helps boost the book. I don’t think it will make my list of favorites, but I didn’t dislike it either.

The Tower of London is one of my favorite historical things to research, so I was thrilled to find this book. Falling Hard for the Royal Guard delivers on all its promises. It was everything I hoped it would be: cute, sweet, sexy, and lots of fun. And it gave a wonderful peek into the lives of the people living at the Tower of London.

The hero, Freddie, was consistently excellent. He's by no means perfect and he screws up plenty, but the entire time I stayed with him because I trusted him. And the heroine, Maggie, is smart and funny and...I was really frustrated by her continuous attempts to trust her ex, who'd proved himself unworthy a billion times over. But overall I loved her too, because she really deserved a happy ending. And I was so happy that's what she got.

The various side characters are all well done. They're dynamic, full characters who aren't just filler. I don't really like a book with a plethora of quirky characters in the cast, but sometimes a book surprises me by being good at that sort of thing instead of riddled with cliches and tiresome, cardboard ploys. In this book, it works.

I read the book in two days and I loved it.

Thank you for the ARC copy of this book. I absolutely loved this romcom. Maggie is such a relatable character. I enjoyed all of her clumsy moments and loved Freddie. Such a feel good heartwarming book. I enjoyed getting to know a bit of the Towers history. It had so many funny moments. I laughed quite a bit. I was mad at Bran quite a lot and I swooned over Freddie more times than I can count. Such a lighthearted easy read. It only took me so long to finish it because my brother is in the ICU and I spent a lot of time at the hospital with him. If anyone is looking for a cute romcom easy read this book is for you. Happy Reading!!!

Megan Clawson did a lovely job with this book. I love that she lives in the Tower of London and the fact that the book also takes place there. While it was a fun read with a cute storyline, I’m not sure I really connected with the characters.

Thank you Netgalley for an arc copy of Falling Hard for the Royal Guard.

what caught my eye about this book was the cute cover art and the title of the book. this book was really cute! although i feel like it fell a little flat and missed something, im not sure what that something is, but it was missing it lol. this was a cute quick read!

Overall this was a cute story.
A girl who moves back with her dad after her mom passes, tries to get her dream job but is constantly passed up and is now working at a job she hates with people she hates. Add in a cute guard and a creepy narcissistic ex and you have the perfect rom com.

Overall the only thing I didn't like about this book was how quickly it ended. I was left with feeling that the story wasn't fully done so I am hoping there is a sequel

🇬🇧eARC Book Review🇬🇧

“The last little bit of tension leaves my body, and, for the first time all night, I truly feel like myself”

Falling Hard for the Royal Guard by Megan Clawson
Pub Date: May 2nd, 2023
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 💫(4.5/5)
Spice: 🌶 (1/5)

Review:

Maggie recently left her cheating and emotionally manipulative ex and has moved back in with her dad (a beefeater) in the Tower of London. She works a survival job at the ticket booth where she has insufferable coworkers. On top of everything, Maggie is also massively clumsy, bumping into centuries old safes and sometimes lamp post like royal guardsmen. We follow Maggie on her journey to rediscover love and friendship.

This book literally had me crying at the end. This story kept me on my toes. Im obsessed with all the characters we meet. I want more stories about the beefeaters, about Katie and Mhairi, about Mo, Riley, Walker. So many opportunities to expand the universe.

I thoroughly enjoyed this rom com. It was an east read and does not feel like a debut novel. The pacing of this book is *chefs kiss*. There was never a dull moment on Maggies journey. I loved the side quests Maggie goes on to find herself from tinder dates to bartending to befriending other guardsmen. Megan mentions a Harry Styles fan fic in her acknowledgements and would love to see that myself :P

If you like:
- Rom-Com
- Slow Burn
- Realistic characters
- London History


Thank you to Net Galley and Avon/Harper Collins for proving me with an eARC of this novel.


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The cover and the premise of this book pulled me in. I love a royal romance and the setting of the Tower of London gave a unique spin on this for me, The setting of this book is a love letter to the tower and those who live and work inside it, but the romance really fell apart for me. The main character, Maggie, felt like the rote clumsy girl who doesn't know her worth until she finds a man.

Synopsis:
From her bedroom in the Tower of London, twenty-six-year-old Maggie has always dreamed of her own fairy-tale ending.
Yet this is twenty-first century London, so instead of knights on white horses, she has catfish on Tinder. And with her last relationship ending in spectacular fashion, she swears off men for good.
And then a chance encounter with Royal Guard Freddie forces Maggie to admit that she isn’t ready to give up on love just yet… But how do you catch the attention of someone who is trained to ignore all distractions?
Can she snare that true love’s first kiss… or is she royally screwed?

Thank you to the author Megan Clawson, the publisher Avon Books, and Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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I don't often read a lot of rom-com's, generally preferring to either go full-on romance, or full-on women's fiction, so this was a little outside my usual selection, but it was cute!

Things I loved:
1. The bits of London and English history sprinkled throughout and the time-honored traditions that we got to view as readers.
2. The Tinder swiping! How funny!
3. The Tinder dates. Cringy in the best way possible!
4. Our protagonist, Maggie, is described as curvy and has unruly hair and orders delivery/take away too often (can relate, Maggie!)
5. Although Maggie's mom has passed away before the story starts, she's still an influential force in a very well-done and sensitive way.
6. The Ravenmaster! What a freakin' great character. Oh my gosh.
7. Maggie suffers from anxiety, in a very real way. Her confidence isn't high (How could a Royal Guard, so disciplined and poised, ever look at her?), and at one point, she spirals into what is almost a panic attack. I've been there, girl.

Things I didn't love:
1. Maggie ends up in the middle of London in a vulnerable position, described in these spoiler tags. (view spoiler) But maybe this is just part of the rom-com trope and I'm not familiar with it. Maggie does get into some real silly hijinks, to the point my suspension of disbelief was broken a couple times.
2. I'm not putting this into a spoiler tag because it should be a content warning for some readers: Maggie sometimes has body image issues. I understand she's a flawed character and not a Mary Sue, but I would have preferred she still have anxiety but love her body a little more.
3. There's a fair bit of fluff to this book, it could have been about 100 pages shorter and not suffered for it. That said, the fluff wasn't bad, in fact a lot of it was cute, just unnecessary.

For me, this was a solid 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 stars. I loved the cast of characters, I loved the silly antics, and this was a very welcome light-hearted read after my last book. If you like rom-com's, I'd definitely recommend.

I'm just one of the lads. I've always been just one of the lads.

Not like other girls Maggie Moore is in a rough patch. After she catches her ex cheating on her for the third time, she's dumped him and is back to living with her dad...in the actual Tower of London. She's got a dead-end job. She's mid-twenties and feeling listless and hopeless and surrounded by her mean boss and mean girl coworkers. Until she bumps into a mysterious man...who ends up being one of the guards stationed at the Tower!

The more I learn about men the more I believe that we are not even the same species.

I requested this one because I was in the mood for something light and fluffy, and what I got was...a heated mess.

First off, we have Maggie Moore, called Margot by her ex because he's an inconsiderate asshole and that must be painfully spelled out, and Margaret by The Guard because he's Edward Cullen in non-sparkly British Nobility form. Anywho, just like Isabella Swan, Maggie has very little agency or personality beyond going to work hungover, being clumsy. She also talks to ravens, has a passion for history and is...get this...a ginger. Oh the inhumanity! (view spoiler)

Anywho, her life basically is a revolving door of hanging out with her dad's friends, getting picked on by the mean girls and queer-coded boss (oh yeah, it's real bad) at work, getting verbally harassed by her ex at her place of employment, and basically being treated like she is Bridget Jones in the early 2000s.

I can't claim to be beautiful; I hardly have people falling over me to tell me that I am.

She literally does, though. And I understand why Maggie is so alone, because she is a victim of emotional manipulation and codependency in her previous relationship, combined with a very unhealthy dose of body dysmorphia (she constantly talks about how she's basically a dog at 5'9 and 168 pounds, while literally every man who sees her wants to be with her).

Her life doesn't pick up until she stumbles into Freddie The Guard, who is basically a walking pair of eyeballs attached to muscles, possessing even less personality than Maggie. Despite their inexplicable attraction (?), Freddie takes her into the guardroom and she meets the other members of his squad, and honestly she has more chemistry and conversations with them than she does at any time with Freddie, who literally peaces out any time things seem to require emotion.

The guards challenge Maggie to go on five dates so that she'll find the one (???) and Maggie goes on five dates with Tinder dudes, and it's literally the most clichéd dates imagined.

And then Freddie takes Maggie to this gala thing, and Maggie is like omg Freddie you're rich and famous and I had no idea, and everyone is posh and Maggie is looked down on because people automatically know she is Not One of Them and oh my goodness this book is so Wattpad-esque and filled with Not-Like-Other-Girls vibes (from a main character who calls herself a feminist yet thinks disparaging remarks about literally every single woman in the book and I don't think has a single conversation with another woman that isn't the other woman picking on her, cryptic messages from the grandmotherly ravenmaster person or about a man).

If you're thinking the plot is a mess, it is. There's this whole thing about cameras watching her every move and people gossiping about her for Reasons (??), and then the non-relationship with Freddie that I just did not understand because he literally ghosts on her at every encounter they have except when dealing with actual ghosts, and the five-dates side plot that went nowhere and her friendship with the guards that made me real uncomfortable as a military veteran (because Maggie views herself as One of the Guys and...long sigh of no, honey), and the sham-marriage subplot for Reasons (???) and, well, literally everything about this book.

I feel moderately bad about writing this review, since I feel like I have read a completely different book than everyone else, but these are my thoughts and feelings. The one thing I really appreciated was that the author knows her stuff about the Tower of London because she also lived there and grew up as a military brat, and while the moments the tower's history is talked about shines (along with when Maggie talks about writing), the rest is just bogged down around it and so messy. Again, I know that a lot of the things that happen in this book are based on personal experience, but also...I kinda feel like some of this could have been explored and examined a little better. There's a lot of of internalized misogyny and body shaming here.

I'll leave with one not quite out of context quote that, while somewhat counter-acted by Maggie's thoughts later on, also fuels much of my thoughts of the book. Not that women are not like this, and not that things like this do not happen (they absolutely do happen because people are horrible), but the way it's handled throughout this book just...I just wanted Maggie's problems to be solved with therapy instead of cured by being loved at last by a Deserving Man. Seriously. All her body image issues dissolved in the end because Freddie loves her, as do any lingering effects of a seven-year long emotionally abusive and codependent relationship.

Anywho, the book ends on this note of finding happiness and realizing that what you think will bring happiness (previously unmentioned anywhere in the book) is not necessarily the case, and that happiness is in a room filled with beefeaters at a bar...and also a man who loves you. Because Maggie had the beefeaters in the bar, but did not accept herself until Freddie declared his love for her.

'They all talk—you know that. Just be careful. You don't want to be getting a reputation, like that Lizzy Mackintosh.'
Lizzy Mackintosh was the sergeant's daughter where we lived on base in Germany for a while when I was only about eleven. She was beautiful, the envy of the entire garrison. The wives would watch her from her front door whilst her dad was away, and when soldiers started coming and going all day, always looking very grateful as they left, the rumors began that she was the woman they would go to, to cheat on their wives. They made her life hell, and we weren't allowed near her after that. It wasn't until a few years later, when her whole family had been posted elsewhere, that we all found out that she was doing a sport physiotherapy course at college and had been helping all of the troops who were injured from training and their military exercises. Dad always uses Lizzy as an example. She was doing a good thing, but in army communities gossips spreads like wildfire.'

Like...literally no one asked Lizzie or her dad or one of the soldiers she was treating? And were there no female soldiers on this post she was seeing? Wait...no. Because in this world, female soldiers do not exist unless they are Highlanders like the ravenmaster and long retired and isolated from the military community (I could probably write an entire thesis on women's roles in military communities based upon this book alone).

Trigger Warnings for self harm, negative self-imagery, emotional and verbal abuse from an ex

I saw the author of this book talking about it on her tiktok and thought the premise was so cute! It definitely met my expectations, I love a good royal romance. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review!

Release Date: May 23, 2023

📖📖📖

Maggie Moore has always dreamed of starring in her own fairytale. Since her Father lives in the Tower of London, Maggie thinks it will be the perfect setting for her fairytale. The trouble is once Maggie gets to London, she seems to be one step from utter disaster in her every day life.Especially in the realms of love and work. After a truly disastrous day, a chance meeting with a mysterious light post/person has Maggie thinking maybe things are finally looking up. As the two get to know more about one another will this lead to yet another disaster or turn out to be Maggie’s happily ever after.

This is a very cute rom-com! It’s a light read but it has such a large cast of characters that it becomes convoluted at times. @meganambxr has such fun Tower of London facts (I hope they’re facts) from the haunted vault cellar to the difficulty of getting a pizza delivered. There are so many unique, tiny plot twists that wouldn’t be possible anywhere else. I would definitely recommend this book for a enjoyable summer read!

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

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This cover pulled me in and this book lived up to the cover hype! I’m a sucker for Royal romance and this was super cute! The atmosphere and the banter were spot on!

I thought the book was okay. One of the stronger bits of it were the historical aspects. The main character is a history buff, specifically military history, and every time she has a chance to talk about it, I found it wonderful. People who are passionate about their interests is so amazing, and it brought out a fresher light for the MC.
I had a bit of a hard time with her at first, but Maggie eventually warmed up to me. She's battling a lot of inner doubts and anxiety, and I found her well written after I started to like her voice.
I wasn't really a fan of the romance. It felt somewhat of a backburner plot in the middle of the book, too, which felt kind of strange. The love interest was the aloof type that I enjoy reading about, but I never really felt any type of chemistry, so it didn't really hook me.
Overall, this was okay.