This book is DELIGHTFUL. Fans of royal romances need to pick this up and squeal over all the delightful drama and romance in this book. Julian Winters always aces these very fun, yet very heartfelt young adult romances and I am so glad to read them. Highly recommend.

This book was an adorable adventure in the world of a Rebel Royal. Jadon and Reiss were the characters we needed and I loved their romance! It also made me really happy to read about a mostly minority group. It made my heart so full to read about Black queer people living life and being true to themselves. It was a very sweet story and I loved it!

After Prince Jadon has the worst night of his life, with tabloids all over the place, his father sends him to America to help him change for the better. There he finds real friends, and learns what being a Prince should be compared to what his parents want him to be.
If you liked Red White and Royal Blue as well as the Princess Diaries, I think you would enjoy this book. It was the perfect blend of royalty and politics and drama, and such a fun time. I feel like there aren’t that many books like this, especially not with main characters of color, so I’m especially happy to know that this book is coming to shelves soon and going to influence so many young people and make them feel seen.
Thank you to Viking Books and NetGalley for an eARC of this book!

Absolutely loved this one! Perfect for fans of Red, White and Royal Blue. A Black Prince is thrust into LA teenager life as a way to learn how to better represent his country after a social media fallout at home. Along the way, he discovers who he truly is and what he stands for as well as falling in love with a boy from Santa Monica. Fun, thought-provoking, engaging and a funny - a perfect summer read! LGBTQ+ themes and characters.

Wow, just wow. This was a really cute story about finding yourself in high school. I don't really see the connection to Red, White, and Royal Blue like the description says. The only similarity (in my opinion) is an LBGTQ+ prince. And even then, Prince Jaden is already out and had a previous boyfriend.

This is truly a finding yourself story when Prince Jaden is sent to America to improve his image. There are ups and downs.

The Prince and the commoner once again meet in Julian Winters fine novel Prince of the Palisades. I enjoyed the storyline and appreciated what the author was trying to accomplish in terms of diversity and equality. The main characters, Prince Jaden and Reiss, are well-developed. Other characters not so much. The King and Queen could have been given more attention and depth. But, all in all, a pleasant and fun tale.
Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I had a fine time reading this book - I was (and still am) in a reading slump so I don’t think I gave this the attention and energy it really deserves. But, despite that, I would say that this is a charming story with a great concept. I really enjoyed being in Jadon’s perspective and was invested in his personal growth throughout the book. The romance was sweet, if a tad bit rushed. My arc, on e-book, clocks in around 280 pages and I almost wished it was a little bit longer just to really give the main relationship, and all surrounding dynamics (Jadon’s friendships, his relationship with his parents and sister) a little more room to breathe. I wish some of the supporting characters were a little more defined - there are a lot of them. And while I think the most important ones stand out, sometimes everyone who wasn’t Reiss or Jadon, felt a little “blurry” to me. I do just want to give a little shout-out to the moments where Jadon and Reiss talked about the importance of consent when it comes to sex - there is a lack of that in a lot of books, especially YA novels, and I really appreciated it.

I’d recommend this book if you’re looking for a romance-centered book where the internal struggles of the main character are the main drive of the story. It has a good balance of angst and sweetness and makes a great quick & light read. This was my first Julian Winters read, and I’m excited to explore all of his current and future work!

Wow, this was such a great book! I didn’t realize how much I needed a story like this until I was fully immersed in it.

Jadon’s parents are the king and queen of Îles de la Rêverie, a small island off the coast of Africa. When a drunken tirade of his goes viral and causes an outrage, Jadon is sent to California—where his mother grew up—to try and rehabilitate his image.

The palace hopes that some carefully crafted public appearances, along with attending a private high school, might show Jadon in a more favorable light. But no matter how hard he tries to be the prince he believes the people of Rêverie want, the more mistakes he makes. If he doesn’t clean up his act, he may be forever banned from returning home.

Things get even more complicated when he falls for Reiss, a pink-haired, movie-loving, aspiring film student. Reiss isn’t necessarily impressed with Jadon’s arrogance, but he can see the vulnerability and hurt in the young prince, and sees how much more comfortable he is when he is being himself and speaking his own mind.

This has glimpses of Red White & Royal Blue, but it goes beyond a sweet romance. This is a powerful story about being your authentic self and speaking out, even if it might not be what people want from you. It’s also a thought-provoking commentary on racial disparity, how young Black people have to act a certain way to be accepted.

I really loved everything about the story, including Jadon’s royal guard, his sister the crown princess, and the palace liaison. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Viking Books for the advance copy; the book will publish 8/20.

As someone who gravitates more towards sapphic fiction, I greatly enjoyed this M/M romance. The characters were likeable, the writing poetic at times and overall a fun early summer read!

This. Is . What. I'm Talking. About. When. I. Say. We. Need. More. Diverse. stories. I ate this up. Give me more more more more more more more.

Prince of the Palisades by Julian Winters

Prince Jadon of the Iles de la Reverie is banished to California until he can get his act together, per order of his father, the king. He goes to American high school, falls for a pinkhaired dude obsessed with filmmaking, and has self realizations about things I won't spoil.

I'm not sure you can tell from my summary. This was fine. This was epically fine. If I read this 15 years ago, I probably would have liked it a lot more. I like a lot of things that it does more than I like the product, if that makes any sense. There's a number of things in here where yes, we need more books that do these things, and for that I applaud this book. Let's normalize having a "let's talk about sex before we have sex" talk - for adults, teenagers, everyone, I don't care who you are, everyone should do this. Let's admit that sometimes adults are wrong and that teenagers are owed apologies, because teens are not less worthy of respect just because they're young.

Like I said, there's a number of things in here that just come down to the fact that this is how we should treat people. So in that sense, I just think this wasn't the book for me. But if you like YA about royalty, teens coming into their own, teens fighting for causes they believe in, this is one heck of a book for that.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I separated them out into pros and cons:

Pros:
The description of the book is “Young Royals meets Red, White and Royal Blue”; I enjoyed both of these, and I liked the aspects that “Prince of the Palisades” had in common with these two. It was nice to see the Prince and his lover overcome their challenges, and the supporting cast was well described.

Cons:
I felt that something was not quite right about the plot; I didn’t really believe it. The Prince seemed a bit too traumatized by his upbringing, and I found his father’s behavior odd, switching from totally disapproving to 100% supportive, which didn’t really make sense.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC version.

This was very sweet, but also very predictable and read on the younger side for YA. Teen readers looking for escapist, fluffy royal romance in a contemporary setting, especially featuring Black and LGBTQIA characters, should enjoy this. Those looking for emotional depth and swoony romance might enjoy it a bit less.

thank u to netgalley and the publisher for my ARC of prince of the palisades in exchange for my honest review :)

this was such a joy to read! i was absolutely sold by the cover alone, but after realizing that the story revolves around a young black royal trying to figure out his place in the world, i knew this would be good one. it's not everyday we get 2 queer characters of color, and i was so, so happy to see that.

the secondary characters were written beautifully, and i loved seeing how they played a role in jadon's life. i need to know more about both annika and ajani PLEASE. the moments of self-reflection that jadon experienced were very relatable to my teen self, and honestly, at times, my adult self as well. the emotion in the writing felt so real that i sometimes felt like reverie was a real place and that jadon + fam were real royals lol. and of course, seeing jadon's struggles with his father hit close to home (as it always does).

this was such a wonderful book with tons of queer and black joy, and i felt honored to read it. more books like this, please.

'Prince of the Palisades' does an effective job showcasing the complexities of being a black teen royal and how all of those issues combine until Jadon reaches his breaking point of self reflection. The diverse cast of characters bodes really well for representation in a lot of areas, but I do wish that there was more development with and resolution of the secondary characters who shape so much of Jadon's time in LA. The overall story is enjoyable, if a bit predictable, but Reiss and Jadon really shine in all of their scenes together. Annika is also a standout in every scene she's in. One of the best parts of the narrative are the conversations revolving consent intersecting with communication. Overall, a light teen read with some serious topics effectively explored.

Thank you so much, PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, and NetGalley, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

Jadon is the prince of Îles de la Rêverie and when someone recorded an outbrust against the Prime Minister, he's "exiled" to America with his sister Annika, in order to clean up his image. But comforming to his parents' idea of "perfect" is hard and Jadon struggles to maintain a careful crafted image of himself, without opening himself up to anyone, in his new high school, with new people to impress.
Except meeating a cute pink haired boy changes everything, pushing him to struggles between a careful image of himself and what his parents expect from him...or being himself and falling in love.

I loved reading Prince of the Palisades. Jadon is a complex MC, struggling to be himself, truly being himself and facing his parents' and nation's expectations of what a prince have to be. Being in a new school, missing his home, fighting against people's expectations and his own desires
are the themes of the whole book and Jadon growing up, embracing himself in all his facets, desires, dreams and wants.
I loved the relationship he has with Annika, Reiss and his parents and how strong is his desire to be home and be himself, while also figuring himself out in what and who he wants to be.
The relationship with Reiss is sweet and funny and I loved how the author dealt with Jadon's and Reiss' desires, dreams and futures.
I would have loved a more long ending, but overall it's a very cute and funny book!

Thank you for the opportunity to read Prince of the Palisades e-arc. I really enjoyed it and finished it within a weekend. Though, the ending made me wanting more. There's open plots like not getting to see Reiss's finished film. That played a large part in the book, so to not get to see it feels like it was just forgotten about. I also wish that Reiss was openly autistic instead of quirky with tiks. His animation when talking about his special interests and stimming could have been great autistic rep.

I requested and received an eARC of Prince of the Palisadesby Julian Winters via NetGalley. My last two reads were pretty emotionally heavy, so it was nice to shift my focus to something lighter. I’ve always liked Winters’ YA novels and it’s worth noting that while all of his books have been very enjoyable they seem to get progressively better with each publication! In his latest novel we meet Prince Jadon of Îles de la Rêverie who has been exiled to America following the leak of a video showing him bashing the prime minister of his country.

Jadon’s mission in America is to fit in and do damage control. With his image in need of rehabilitation, he is in constant anxiety over messing up again. This definitely seems to be what is happening when he encounters a pink-haired boy named Reiss, the first boy to capture his attention since his less than savory break up. Although we don’t get many peeks of this on the page, it’s hinted that Reiss is a bit of a social outcast. The closer Jadon gets to Reiss, however, the more he realizes that he doesn’t have to be the perfect prince that the world wants him to be.

Traditionally, Îles de la Rêverie is known for its neutrality. This becomes thematically important to the story as we witness Jadon struggle with the decision to speak out against injustices or the careless words of his acquaintances. While the romance in the novel is heartwarming, I found this layer of the story to be where Winters really shines. The messaging is important and delivered in a way that is both natural to the story and emotionally impactful. Major props for that! This was a fun and light-hearted read, that treaded serious waters carefully without sacrificing any joy. Julian Winters really knows how to do YA stories and Prince of the Palisades is no exception.

I love Julian Winters and am happy to report that I love this book! The representation was amazing, the characters were realistic and funny while also being flawed. The “consent and communication is sexy” was on point and something I love to see, especially in YA novels. Overall a really fun and powerful story about finding and being yourself.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.