Royally Endowed (Royally, #3) by Emma Chase

Narrated by Shane East & Andi Arndt

Synopsis (via Goodreads): Logan St. James is a smoldering, sexy beast. Sure, he can be a little broody at times—but Ellie Hammond’s willing to overlook that. Because, have you seen him??

Sexy. As. Hell.

And Ellie’s perky enough for both of them.

For years, she’s had a crush on the intense, gorgeous royal security guard—but she doesn’t think he ever saw her, not really.

To Logan, Ellie was just part of the job—a relative of the royal family he’d sworn to protect. Now, at 22 years old and fresh out of college, she’s determined to put aside her X-rated dreams of pat-downs and pillow talk, and find a real life happily ever after.

The Queen of Wessco encourages Ellie to follow in her sister’s footsteps and settle down with a prince of her own. Or a duke, a marquis…a viscount would also do nicely.

But in the pursuit of a fairy tale ending, Ellie learns that the sweetest crushes can be the hardest to let go. (For the second half of the synopsis, please click the Goodreads link above. Thanks!)

“It’s not my fault keys abandon me. I put them in a specific spot, so I’ll know where they are for later—and I swear to God, they sprout legs and run away. Slippery, little Houdini bastards.”

Royally Endowed was the perfect conclusion for this series! Ellie and Logan made brief appearances in the other two books, and I enjoyed going back in time to see what they were doing while I was somewhere else. There were a few time jumps, and I thought it added to the slow burn of their romance. They've been fond of each other from the beginning, and now we get to see how their friendship and feelings grew over the years.

I loved Ellie! She was vibrant and sweet -- always looking out for others and finding ways to help. Her childhood was marred by the death of her mother and the subsequent absence of her father. Then her sister falls in love with a prince, which leaves her with a lovely security detail. I adored Logan and Tommy. Their banter and fierce protectiveness endeared them to me from the start. I know they would have kept Ellie safe, even if it hadn't been their job.

Logan was a softie, but only towards Ellie. She brought out a lightness in him that was rarely seen by others. Even his thoughts were spectacularly sweet and swoon-worthy. He has also worked really hard to get where he is today, and he doesn't want to do anything to jeopardize his position. However, falling in love with Ellie does just that. “I burn for you, sweet girl. I dream of you, even when I’m awake.”

Behind the scenes, there is an unknown person leaving threatening mail for Olivia and Nicholas (some of it pretty gruesome), and we get to see how that escalates throughout the story. It was interesting to have a mystery on top of all the romance that wasn't related to them specifically, but to people they cared deeply about.

Royally Endowed was different from the previous two books, because Logan and Ellie had a very long history. They've been around each other since her senior year of high school, and I really enjoyed experiencing their journey with them. “Somebody once told me a slow-burning fire is the hottest – and it must be true. Because Logan and I are a fucking inferno.”

If you're looking for a wonderful story with some of the best characters, I highly recommend this series. I've laughed out loud, cried a little, and blushed a lot. Emma Chase knows her stuff! Oh, and I know I've said this before... but the narrators are amazing.

“'Do we still hang people?' Henry asks, philosophically. When he doesn’t get an answer, he adds, 'If not, I’m bringing hanging back.' So that’s what Justin Timberlake would sound like if he were a serial killer.”

Royally Matched (Royally #2) by Emma Chase

Narrated by Andi Arndt & Shane East

Synopsis (via Goodreads): Some men are born responsible, some men have responsibility thrust upon them. Henry Charles Albert Edgar Pembrook, Prince of Wessco, just got the motherlode of all responsibility dumped in his regal lap.

He’s not handling it well.

Hoping to force her grandson to rise to the occasion, Queen Lenora goes on a much-needed safari holiday—and when the Queen’s away, the Prince will play. After a chance meeting with an American television producer, Henry finally makes a decision all on his own:

Welcome to Matched: Royal Edition.

A reality TV dating game show featuring twenty of the world's most beautiful blue bloods gathered in the same castle. Only one will win the diamond tiara, only one will capture the handsome prince’s heart.

While Henry revels in the sexy, raunchy antics of the contestants as they fight, literally, for his affection, it’s the quiet, bespectacled girl in the corner—with the voice of an angel and a body that would tempt a saint—who catches his eye.

The more Henry gets to know Sarah Mirabelle Zinnia Von Titebottum, the more enamored he becomes of her simple beauty, her strength, her kind spirit…and her naughty sense of humor.

But Rome wasn’t built in a day—and irresponsible royals aren’t reformed overnight.

As he endeavors to right his wrongs, old words take on whole new meanings for the dashing Prince. Words like, Duty, Honor and most of all—Love.

Only the villains lock ladies in a tower.
Then you make me want to be a villain.

My heart is swooning right now! I wasn't sure how I would feel about Henry after reading about him in Royally Screwed, but he was everything I wanted from a character. He loves his country and his family, but he's worried about his ability to make a difference. He's not used to the scrutiny his brother grew up with, and he's struggling to find his place now that people are counting on him.

Feeling overwhelmed, Henry makes an impulsive decision that did not provide the entertainment he was looking for. He foolishly thought it would help him feel more like himself, but it ended up having some pretty bad consequences. My heart broke for Henry over and over again. He always had the best intentions (even if they seemed careless at the time), but the world can be cruel and unfair. People are often selfish and only looking out for themselves, which usually means someone undeserving gets hurt.

Sarah is the sweetest person on Earth. She's supportive of her sister, has friends that she loves and enjoys being around, and is happy with her small place in the world. Henry's loud personality shakes her out of her comfort zone, but Sarah isn't a pushover. She'll defend those she loves even if it means she is the one that ends up getting hurt. I really liked who Sarah was with Henry. She was fierce and his equal in every way. She loves literature and treasures words, and she's honest to the core. 

There were some pretty nasty characters in this one (one repeat from the previous book, ugh), and the things they did made me visibly angry. At one point my husband said it looked like I was going to squeeze my phone into tiny pieces (audiobook), and wanted to know what I was listening to. Henry suiting up with ancient weapons to defend the one he loves -- ahhh. That has to be one of my favorite parts!

At the end when I could tell Henry's decisions were going to have unforeseen consequences, I had to keep reminding myself that there was still time left for a happy ending. He was doing what he thought was best, and trying to protect Sarah, but authors like to drag you through the mud first. Emma Chase made my heart constrict and made me wish my ears could listen faster. 

I loved this book! I'm loving this series! I cannot wait to dive in to the next one -- there's bound to be more excitement and adventures. Oh, and let me just say... Emma Chase knows how to write steamy sex scenes. She can also make me burst out laughing at any given moment -- love it!

Additionally, I adored Sarah's sister, Penelope. I really hope she gets her own book in the future! The ending wasn't anything like what I expected, but now I cannot imagine it happening any other way. It was perfect. Everything was perfect!

(Both narrators are amazing -- two of my favorites!)

Royally Screwed (Royally, #1) by Emma Chase 🎧 Andi Arndt & Shane East

Synopsis (via Goodreads): Nicholas Arthur Frederick Edward Pembrook, Crowned Prince of Wessco, aka His Royal Hotness, is wickedly charming, devastatingly handsome, and unabashedly arrogant; hard not to be when people are constantly bowing down to you.

Then, one snowy night in Manhattan, the prince meets a dark haired beauty who doesn't bow down. Instead, she throws a pie in his face.

Nicholas wants to find out if she tastes as good as her pie, and this heir apparent is used to getting what he wants.

Dating a prince isn't what waitress Olivia Hammond ever imagined it would be.

There's a disapproving queen, a wildly inappropriate spare heir, relentless paparazzi, and brutal public scrutiny. While they've traded in horse drawn carriages for Rolls Royces, and haven't chopped anyone's head off lately, the royals are far from accepting of this commoner.

But to Olivia, Nicholas is worth it.

Nicholas grew up with the whole world watching, and now Marriage Watch is in full force. In the end, Nicholas has to decide who he is and, more importantly, who he wants to be: a King... or the man who gets to love Olivia forever.

“She has no idea who I am … Her ignorance is rather…thrilling. There are no expectations, no hidden agendas, no reasons to pretend – what she sees is what she gets. And all she sees is me.”

Royally Screwed was exactly what I needed this week. It was wildly fun and made me laugh constantly! I loved Olivia and her no-nonsense attitude. She would flirt and banter with Nicholas, but she didn’t put up with his nonsense, and I think that made him appreciate her even more in the end.

Nicholas and his brother Henry are genuinely good people who care deeply about their country and its inhabitants. There’s a war being fought in the background (not many details are given), but it impacts Henry in a significant way. There were a few darker threads woven into the story, which I wasn’t expecting, but they added so much depth to the characters. They felt more real because of it. Their pain and struggles—despite being royalty—were raw and honest. At one point, Nicholas mentions that they have to be men worth fighting for. They’re in a position to help people, so they need to do whatever they can to improve the lives of others.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Olivia and Nicholas. I don’t think she fully understood his position in life until she spent time with him in his country. There were no expectations surrounding what he could offer her—Olivia was simply happy with what they had and wanted to enjoy it while it lasted. I also appreciated that she wasn’t a catty girlfriend, even though she had moments of jealousy. I can only imagine the comments and scrutiny she faced just for being in a relationship with a prince.

This might be random, but I also loved Nicholas’s personal security team. They’re the kind of people I’d want to be friends with, and I’m really hoping the next book in the series focuses on one of them—and possibly Olivia’s sister. Fingers crossed!

The romantic scenes were definitely a highlight.

In the end, Royally Screwed kept a smile on my face and was a joy to listen to. The audiobook was absolutely perfect. The voices suited the characters so well and made their stories feel even more believable. Someone I follow was reading this recently, and I just want to say thank you—if I hadn’t seen it on your blog, I probably wouldn’t have started it when I did.

Warning: this book will make you crave pie, so you might want to have some nearby! Halfway through, I started making an apple crumble (not quite the same thing, but close), and I regret nothing.

Deep (Stage Dive, #4) by Kylie Scott

Narrated by Andi Arndt

Synopsis (via Goodreads): Positive. With two little lines on a pregnancy test, everything in Lizzy Rollins' ordinary life is about to change forever. And all because of one big mistake in Vegas with Ben Nicholson, the irresistibly sexy bass player for Stage Dive. So what if Ben's the only man she's ever met who can make her feel completely safe, cherished, and out of control with desire at the same time? Lizzy knows the gorgeous rock star isn't looking for anything more permanent than a good time, no matter how much she wishes differently.

Ben knows Lizzy is off limits. Completely and utterly. She's his best friend's little sister now, and no matter how hot the chemistry is between them, no matter how sweet and sexy she is, he's not going to go there. But when Ben is forced to keep the one girl he's always had a weakness for out of trouble in Sin City, he quickly learns that what happens in Vegas, doesn't always stay there. Now he and Lizzie are connected in the deepest way possible... but will it lead to a connection of the heart? 

“I'd never needed to know that my sister was a screamer. Never. That Mal was a screamer too just kind of confused me.”

No. No no no no noooo. 😭

I didn't devour Deep like I did the other books in this series. Maybe I don't like bass players? Sadly, I doubt that's the problem. Ben just annoyed the hell out of me. He was so mellow about everything. Dude finds out he's about to have a baby with Liz and he basically does the equivalent of a shoulder shrug. That nonchalant attitude is pretty much how he behaves the rest of the book, too.

I didn't really like how their relationship happened either. All of the secrets and sneaking around, ugh. They were two consenting adults and shouldn't have had to hide their feelings for each other. Ben didn't want to upset his friends, and Liz... she just wanted to make Ben happy. She jokes about stalking him, which he laughs off later, but no...she totally did. It seemed like a tainted romance even in the beginning. 

I don't know why Liz put up with Ben's nonsense. She had her sister and Mal, two people who would do anything for her, and she pined after Ben the entire book. Ben can't decide what he wants, and his apology at the end was rubbish. Liz most definitely deserved better. Oh, and Ben's sister? He should have never, ever let her speak to Liz like that. He didn't even pretend to intervene. 

Halfway through the book I hoped Lizzy would end up with a guy from a different band. His name currently eludes me... Vaughn? I can't remember. He wasn't mentioned very often, but he was obviously attracted to her even though she was pregnant. She only ever smiled around him, and their bathroom scene was more romantic than anything Ben ever did for her. 

I still enjoyed the overall story because of all the other familiar characters. It was nice to learn what was going on in their lives, but I was disappointed with Ben and Lizzy. I just didn't like either one of them. I wanted more chivalry from Ben, and I wish Liz had been less of a doormat. 

Play & Lead (Stage Dive, #2-3) by Kylie Scott

Narrated by Andi Arndt

Synopsis (via Goodreads): Mal Ericson, drummer for the world famous rock band Stage Dive, needs to clean up his image fast—at least for a little while. Having a good girl on his arm should do the job just fine. Mal doesn't plan on this temporary fix becoming permanent, but he didn't count on finding the one right girl.

Anne Rollins never thought she'd ever meet the rock god who plastered her teenage bedroom walls—especially not under these circumstances. Anne has money problems. Big ones. But being paid to play the pretend girlfriend to a wild life-of-the-party drummer couldn't end well. No matter how hot he is. Or could it? 

“We’ve broken my bed,” I said, stating the obvious.

“In battle, sacrifices must be made, pumpkin.” 

This was another book that had thousands of quotes to choose from! Mal is hysterical, and Anne doesn't take any shit from him. “The first male to pee on me, however, would pay with his balls.”

I think I might have enjoyed Play even more than Lick, if that's possible. Mal and Anne have their problems, but they also have their individual demons to deal with. It was lovely watching the two of them learn to depend on each other, and finally connect emotionally. There was no judgment between them, just love and acceptance.

Also, Mal is a riot to read about! I really enjoyed his character in Lick, even though his appearances were brief. It was great to hear his story and learn more about him.

♡

Narrated by Andi Arndt

Synopsis (via Goodreads): As the lead singer of Stage Dive, Jimmy is used to getting whatever he wants, whenever he wants it, whether it's booze, drugs, or women. However, when a PR disaster serves as a wake-up call about his life and lands him in rehab, he finds himself with Lena, a new assistant to keep him out of trouble.

Lena's not willing to take any crap from the sexy rocker and is determined to keep their relationship completely professional, despite their sizzling chemistry. But when Jimmy pushes her too far and Lena leaves, he realizes that he may just have lost the best thing that ever happened to him. 

“Even with the head start, he was gaining fast. Given he liked jogging and I liked pie, this was to be expected.” 

The first two books made me really dislike Jimmy, so I was excited to see how he would be portrayed in Lead.

I don't know if I liked it more than Play, but it was another delicious read! I love how all of their stories are intertwined, so we still see familiar characters from the previous books. There's also no confusion, and Scott sets up their stories beautifully. I already have an idea what the last one will be about!

Lena was an awesome female character, and I love that she admitted to having feelings for Jimmy in the beginning. Both she and Jimmy were aware of her feelings, but they tried to make them go away instead of acting on them. It was sweet and heartbreaking at the same time. It was also an interesting spin for their story, and very different from the previous two books.

You learn a lot about Jimmy's childhood and the many obstacles he's had to overcome. Not all of his problems went away just because he became famous. If anything, they only made some of them worse. He's learning to deal with his addictions, and Lena plays a large role in that.

I am absolutely in love with this series and cannot wait to read the final book! 

Lick (Stage Dive, #1) by Kylie Scott

Narrated by Andi Arndt

Synopsis (via Goodreads): Waking up in Vegas was never meant to be like this.

Evelyn Thomas's plans for celebrating her twenty-first birthday in Las Vegas were big. Huge. But she sure never meant to wake up on the bathroom floor with a hangover to rival the black plague, a very attractive half-naked tattooed man in her room, and a diamond on her finger large enough to scare King Kong. Now if she could just remember how it all happened.

One thing is certain, being married to one of the hottest rock stars on the planet is sure to be a wild ride. 

“I was going to kill him. Slowly. Strangle him with the overpriced thong. A fitting death for a rock star.”  

Lick is another audiobook I stumbled across on Overdrive (it's synced to your library with your library card). Overdrive is free, which is awesome, and they offer ebooks and audiobooks. I know a lot of people use Audible, but Overdrive lets me pull from most of my local libraries with one library card.

I was looking for a quick romance with steamy sex scenes, and that's exactly what I got. 🤤 There was also a deeper story there that I wasn't expecting, and it made everything else more meaningful. It was also completely believable. I could honestly see myself reacting similarly to their situation. There wasn't an ista-love, or anything like that, it was just two people that fell in love twice.

One of my favorite quotes from David is, “It’s not fair that I remember and you don’t, Evelyn.” He knew exactly what he was doing when he spontaneously married Evelyn. David, a rock star with girls begging to be with him, chose to marry her. It kills him to remember the reasons why, and what they did together, only to find out that she can't even recall who he is. I would have been furious if that had happened to me.

Ev is understandably shocked when she starts putting the pieces together, and I love how careful and kind she was. She desperately wanted her memories from that night to come flooding back to her, but I thought it was sweet the way she would remember just a fraction of a story only to have him elaborate and give her more details. Those moments were special to him, they meant something.

It didn't take me long to get through this book, so if you have an afternoon to spare, read this. Seriously. I giggled and laughed, swooned a little, and cheered them on from the sidelines. I borrowed the audiobook from my library, but now I own physical copies of the entire series.

I think the next book, Play, is from Mal's perspective. I loved his character in this book, even though his appearances were brief, and I'm excited to read about him on a more personal level.

“Mal!"
"What?"
"Close the door down there and lock it," David yelled. "Don't you come up here under any circumstances. Not till I tell you it's okay. Understood?"
There was a pause then Mal yelled back. "What if there's a fire?"
"Burn.”