For those of you who are seriously missing out on a delightful novel, The Royal We follows an American girl next door named Bex who falls in love with the prince of England while studying abroad. While the premise is pure fiction, many of the details in the novel are drawn from Cocks and Morgan’s excellent research into the British royal family, including Prince William and Kate Middleton’s relationship. The book is packed with an absurdly charming cast of supporting characters that range from terribly funny Prince Harry-esque brother to a prickly British socialite to a lovably portrayed dad who makes my heart feel three times bigger. It also does a fantastic job of capturing the pressures of dating a royal, which — prior to reading this book — I honestly assumed would be a pretty sweet gig. I was wrong.
I finished the book during that afternoon in Central Park, and that’s when I realized what I loved most about the book. It’s entertaining, clever, and fun. The subject matter may be pretty frothy and glam, but the authors stir up a whirlwind of emotions: love, heartbreak, grief. And on every page, I learned something new about royalty.
Right there in the park, it hit me that I wanted to write a book like this. Sure, it would be hard, and I didn’t know if I was capable of rising to the challenge. And of course, I didn’t expect this to be a get-rich-quick scheme. The Royal We helped me see that fiction doesn’t need to be overly serious — if it can entertain a reader, that’s enough. So, sitting in the grass, I started jotting down ideas for what my own book could be about.