This book was not what I was expecting. I thought the balance between romance and mystery would be equal but this was more mystery. In fact I felt like the romance was almost non existent.

Thank you NetGalley abs plusher for this audio ARC!

First off the narrator did great!!!
This had it all! Romance, mystery and its dual timelines! This book is great! I enjoyed it! It was hard to stop listening to it. The storyline and plot are great and so are the characters.

Book Review: The Royal Game
Stars: 3X5
Author: Linda Keir
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing Inc.
Thank you @netgalley for this Arc

While performing ar a concert, American Jennie Jensen has a chance meeting with a guy but she has no idea that he is Prince Hugh, the future King of England. Soon they become an item and. Cut a secret romance starts, a public engagement and the terror begins. Someone is trying to stop the marriage. Could it be connected to the death of his beloved mother, Princess Penelope? Strange, scary and life threatening things happen Jennie starts to question things but only finds there are still more questions than answers.
Will she find out what really happened to Penelope and will it cost her life. Like real life royalty the is so much deception . This what a sweet love story with mystery and a wonderful ending.

For me I just didn’t really care for this book as it was just too close to the happenings with the real English Royal Family. If you like royal fanfare then this book is for you.

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3.5/5 rounded up.

First off, do not go into this story thinking it is a romance. It has romantic elements, but that is a very mibnor part of the story. This is first and formost a contemporary mystery. And as a mystery it is pretty solid. I adore the Princess Diana vibes and the parallel that Princess Penelope's killer has come back to repeat history. There are so many instances where this trope is underutilized and it made for such an interesting story.

I was able to deduct odd behavior of characters early on and had my suspicions of the main culprit around the 50% mark and was glad that I was correct.

From the point of narration, I am glad I am reviewing the audiobook over the print because I think I would have struggled with time skips. The accents given to characters aided me in realizing when we were experiencing Penelope's POV vs. Jenny's. Even with the dates I was normally lost or had to go back.

I admire the paralells made between the characters and the fact that there is a concrete resoluton. I did believe it started off considerably slow, not really gaining momentumn for the mystery until about the 30% mark. Once you hit that section it is 100% worth the read!

Thank you Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing-Audiobooks for the free ARC Audio in exchange for this review!

I enjoyed this book - I wondered at times if it was being ghost written by a Royal because there were quite a few instances where the book drew on the experiences of Princess Diana (Princess Penelope) and Meghan Markle’s (Princess Jenny) Royal life. It wasn’t so much of a romance book as a mystery book with Jenny uncovering bits and pieces of Penelope’s life through her journal and trying to piece together if the threats Jenny was receiving were from the same source as the threats Princess Penelope had received. I enjoyed the mystery element of the story and I definitely thought that the threats were being left by someone other than who they turned out to be from - which kept me intrigued in the development of the story.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading about royals/royal life and is interested in a mystery that spans decades!

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Romance. Mystery. Dual timeline. Yes please! These are a few of my favorite things.

I while many parts are very clearly inspired by the royal family—enough is changed to give a great story full of love and a wonderful mystery that keeps you flipping the pages to find out what the truth is.

Narration was excellent and seemed to be the perfect voices to connect with the characters.

Are you an American who loves the Monarchy? Or do you love the royals in general?

Jennie is a pop star who meets Prince Hugh and they fall madly in love. The British people are split on how they feel about their prince marrying an American.

Strange things begin to happen and go missing in Jennie’s room. While Jennie is dealing with wondering if it’s worth it to marry Hugh, she must also grapple with the rumors that Hugh’s mothers death may not have been an accident after all.

This book takes some stories from real life modern day royalty and the tragedies that have befallen their family throughout the years.

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

At first The Royal Game sounds like it will be a romance, but it’s more of a mystery. We have a story about an American musician (Jennie) marrying a British prince (Hugh). We also have flashbacks to hear from another woman who married into the royal family. Clearly the author got a lot of inspiration from Princess Diana and Megan Markle. It felt almost as if the author dislikes the actual royal family (aside from these two women) and decided to write a book and make her version of them out to be just awful people. I felt like we didn’t have nearly enough development of the relationship between Jennie & Hugh. I’ve seen reviews say that you’ll like this if you’re a fan of the royal family, however to me it feels to be the exact opposite.

The author did a good job maintaining the suspense and didn’t give away who the “bad guy” was to early. I also thought the narrators did a great job.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing-Audiobooks for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Another weird fan fiction read. This one was like a strange retelling of Harry & Meghan except Meghan is an indie musician. Deceased Princess mom, aloof father. Sound familiar?

The Royal Game
By: Linda Keir
Narrated By: Barrie Kreinik & Shiromi Arserio
Review Score: 4 Stars

Boogie’s Bulletpoints
•I absolutely love how Jennie and Hugh meet.

•The mix of the story with real Royal history is so well done.

•There is a decent amount of suspense in this book; I kept wondering who the bad guy was!

•This book has a little bit of everything; romance, fantasy, mystery, and suspense.

——————————————
The Royal Game was kindly provided as an ARC by Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing Audiobooks. Thank you for allowing me to enjoy this wonderful book!

Release Date: Out Now!

The Royal Game is a twist on the modern English Royal Family. You have an American who becomes a princess (Meghan Markle vibes) to a future king who lost his mother (Princess Diana). Obviously, the stories are not identical, but you can definitely pick up on the inspiration.

On top of all of that, though, is a mystery. Someone is threatening to kill Jennie, and she has no idea who. She has to go back in time to the life of Hugh’s Mom, Princess Penelope, to solve this riddle.

I loved this book. It was both fun and entertaining, while also being suspenseful. The flow of the story was so well done, and I really enjoyed it. I loved the narrators as well. The story jumps back and forth between Jennie and Penelope, and the different voices made that really easy to follow.


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This book is a combination of the Royal family members past and present. It was a very interesting take of several stories. I throughly enjoyed the mystery aspect of the story. Highly recommend to any Anglophile who enjoy the life of the Royals.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this early copy for an honest review.

This is purely about Meghan Markle and Princess Diana. Like it's very very obvious even from the description. So if you are interested in reading a story about these two then this is for you. If you are not interested in them or are tired of hearing about them or you just really hate Meghan Markle then this is not a book you are going to want to pick up because the MM inspired main character is lovely, and if you don't want to think MM is a good person then this might rub you the wrong way.

Tiny little pop star Jennie with her 15,000 followers plays a small show and afterwards is introduced to Prince Hugh, who happened to be in the audience and request his favorite song from her.

They hit it off and pretty soon, they are engaged.

Years prior, Hugh's mother was killed in a mysterious plane crash.

This book goes back and forth between Jennie's timeline of falling in love, planning a wedding, accidentally breaking royal protocol, and having the tabloids demonize her then love her, and then it cuts to Princess Penelope's timeline and we watch her happily get married, then the ruination of her marriage and affairs all the way through to her death.

When Jennie starts getting threatening messages that parallel what Penelope wrote in her diary decades prior, there's a murder mystery to solve!

This was entertaining. It was also all closed door/off page spice.

Maybe a 3.5 star read but I'm rounding it up.

The narrators also did a great job, with a dual narration for Jennie and Penelope.

I was expecting a romance but that part of the novel is quick – it goes from the meeting to the proposal and then right into living in the palace. Then the mystery and intrigue start and the story gets interesting. I was disappointed in how quickly she seemed to have given up her own career to plan her wedding. In fact, I didn’t even feel like I knew anything about Jennie or Hugh other than brief tidbits that we’re told. This was all mystery and no character development. The mystery itself was rushed and I couldn’t get into the story on the whole. I would have liked a little more of the romance between Jennie and Hugh and more mystery development.

kept me super enthralled but left me disappointed at the end- it felt too neatly summed up, I wanted more twists and turns and webs of lies

The Royal Game is the perfect book for any followers of the British Royal Family or fans of The Crown. It's a lot of fun-a bit murder mystery, a lot of storylines that will be familiar to anyone who's followed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's romance, and a sweet romance at the center of it. It's told in alternating perspectives and time periods. The current timeline is about musician Jenny Jensen and Prince Hugh, but there are chapters from the past that highlight Hugh's mom Princess Penelope's sudden and suspicious death. It is SO similar to the major plotlines from Princess Diana's life, but it's still a fun read.

Many thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for advanced reader access to this title in exchange for my review.

The Royal Game is heavily inspired by Harry, Meghan, and Princess Diana’s stories. American singer, Jennie Jensen, and England’s future king, Hugh, are engaged. The story follows Jennie and her adjustments to Royal life and her impending wedding to Prince Hugh while at the same time exploring the mystery of behind Prince Hugh’s mother’s death in a plane crash years earlier. Jennie finds letters from the late Princess Penelope and does a little investigating on her own when she too starts to feel threatened.

The Royal Game’s attention to actual details from both William and Kate and Harry and Meghan was a little much in a parts for me. I like inspired by but it could have separated itself from its inspirations a little bit more. I think as the story went on, the more it deviated from real life. I did like the story and I thought the “murder mystery” storyline was a nice addition to the plot and it all wrapped up together nicely. I listened to the audiobook of this ARC from netgalley. My first audiobook arc. I liked the narrator and how the Princess Penelope had a different narrator to help separate itself. I think Royal enthusiasts will enjoy this book!

If you were wondering if I loved every second of this; American meets a Royal (who is the next in line to be King), they fall in love, get engaged, AND a plethora of delicious hi-jinx ensue kind of book…WONDER NO MORE. I loved it!

I especially loved listening via audiobook because 1.) The narrators were perfect and 2.) Reading in a discernible British accent (in my head)…is not a part of my (very large, might I add😉) skill set 😂

5.0⭐️

Special thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing-Audiobooks for the review ALC in exchange for my honest opinion!

⭐️The Royal Game, IS OUT NOW!⭐️

#theroyalgame #lindakeir #lindajhull #keirgraff #blackstonepublishing #blackstonepublishingaudiobooks

This book was so fun! A mix of a royal romance and murder mystery. It is obviously very heavily based on/influenced by the whole Princess Diana/Meghan Markle/British monarchy happenings. We follow Jenny, an American singer/songwriter who falls in love with the English Prince, and once they get engaged, has to start dealing with the Press and Royal duties. She also has to figure out if the death of the previous princess was truly an accident, or if something more sinister was involved. I honestly didn't expect to love this book so much, but I had a really fun time reading it! It is definitely leans more into the mystery element than the romance, though. I would have loved to have seen more of the development of the relationship between Jenny and Hugh, and although they were a good couple, the story was definitely more focused on Jenny and her journey in the palace. I also really loved the perspective we got from Penelope, through her diaries and letters. The dual timeline definitely brought more to the story. All in all, this book was a fun, easy read. I highly recommend the audio as well, the two narrators were excellent!

Note: This book is a domestic thriller, not a romance.

American popstar Jennie is engaged to marry England’s Prince Hugh—but her fairytale dreams run into danger from a hidden adversary. Facing attacks reminiscent of the scrutiny and threats that tragically ended the life of Hugh’s own mother, Princess Penelope, Jennie races to uncover the truth of Penelope’s mysterious death before her own future as princess unravels.

This book is not a romance, or even a romantic suspense, since it skips from the meet-cute to the engagement. There’s little emotion or bonding between Jennie and Hugh. It’s a domestic thriller, rather than a mystery, since it’s not clear for most of the book whether a crime has been committed.

The story is well-written and the plot is solid. There’s no real character development, but Jennie is likable and smart. The inspiration from the lives of the Duchess of Sussex and the late Princess of Wales is clear. I enjoyed the audiobook narration.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received.

This was such a fun and interesting listen! With obvious nods to the *real* Royals, Keir manages to craft a story that is dishy and intriguing, with definite parallels to actual events but enough novelty to feel original. The characters are easy to fall in love with - even the "villains" - and figuring out the secrets behind Princess Penelope's tragedy and Jenny's dangers leads readers/listeners on a merry chase. I am not always a fan of dual narration, but it really worked here. I will definitely be looking for more audio stories from Keir!