Alice Gaines, $0.99, ISBN 978-1-940854-10-6
Contemporary Romance, 2015

When Alice Gaines’s Royal Affair opens, Lady Marta Damrova finally gets to kiss Prince Royal Friedrich VonRamsberg, whom she has had a crush on ever since she was a fetus dreaming of popping out into the world to dry hump Freddy’s leg, and confesses her feelings to him. The rest of the story basically is about him telling me what a terrible late husband Marta had, how selfish and what not, when he’s not constantly being surprised – in a good way, of course – by how hot Marta is and how she innately knows all the tricks and techniques to make him go wild in bed.

That’s nice, I’m sure, but who are these people again?

Let me guess, I’ve stumbled upon some tail end entry into the series, and this is one of those “Thank you so much, my fans, and to show you how much I love you, I’m giving you one more opportunity to give me more money!” little short stories authors usually put out once they have completed a few full-length books in a series?

At any rate, the romance seems to have already taken root prior to this story, and the two characters don’t have much of a journey together to the happy end. The whole thing resembles more of two people casually gushing about how awesome the other person is, how hot, how sexy, and how they are going to be so happy together.

Again, I’m happy for these two, but given that I have no prior emotional investment in this series – Princes of Danislova, I believe – or these two characters, and the author never gives me any reason to try, I simply can’t give a rat’s rear end about this story. Good thing it sells for cheap, I suppose, although I’m sure there are better stories one can buy at that price. Let’s leave Royal Affair strictly to die-hard fans of the series.