Twisted Palace by Erin Watt

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Title: Twisted Palace
Author: Erin Watt
Series: The Royals #3
Published by: Indie, EverAfter Romance
Release Date: October 17th 2016
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 322
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 #LetsReadIndie Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ IndieBound
My rating:

Blurb:

The hotly anticipated conclusion to the Royals series begun in the #1 New York Times bestselling novels Paper Princess and Broken Prince.

“This generation’s Cruel Intentions.” Jennifer L. Armentrout, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

Twisted Palace was an awesome conclusion to the Royals trilogy. Readers are in for an absolute treat. I eagerly await the next book from Erin Watt. —New York Times Bestselling Author Samantha Towle

"Erin Watt's words are addictive brilliance. If you haven't let these Royals ruin you yet, what are you waiting for?"—USA Today Bestselling Author Meghan March

These Royals will ruin you… 

From mortal enemies to unexpected allies, two teenagers try to protect everything that matters most.

Ella Harper has met every challenge that life has thrown her way. She’s tough, resilient, and willing to do whatever it takes to defend the people she loves, but the challenge of a long-lost father and a boyfriend whose life is on the line might be too much for even Ella to overcome.

Reed Royal has a quick temper and even faster fists. But his tendency to meet every obstacle with violence has finally caught up with him. If he wants to save himself and the girl he loves, he’ll need to rise above his tortured past and tarnished reputation.

No one believes Ella can survive the Royals. Everyone is sure Reed will destroy them all.

They may be right.

With everything and everyone conspiring to keep them apart, Ella and Reed must find a way to beat the law, save their families, and unravel all the secrets in their Twisted Palace. 

My Review:

3.5 stars — Hmmm…I was a bit…bored?  Bummer actually.  I really enjoyed the guilty pleasure of this series, but I felt like things could have been tightened up in this book.  I found myself wanting to skim and just get to parts where the plot was moving forward.  I think part of that is because I saw the “villain” from a mile away, and then spent my time frustrated that everyone was so oblivious.  And it’s OK that I guessed, I’m not sure it was supposed to be a well kept secret, but then it just made me want to know what the details were going to be, you know?  And for the length of the book, I felt like there were so many threads left dangling at the end, so many things not explained.  I get that they might go into it in the next two books, but I honestly doubt it.  All in all, I was disappointed.

I think part of my problem is that while I enjoy Ella and Reed, I don’t really ship them that hard.  I like them together, but they’re both ridiculously flawed people who don’t seem to be trying too hard to redeem themselves, and so I guess when 60% of the book is surrounding their relationship (and the losing of Ella’s virginity), I’m just not as excited.  Honest to goodness, that is the main area where I got bored.  It felt repetitious, and I just wasn’t seeing enough growth in their characters, especially knowing that this is the last book in *their* plot arc.

screech: SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T READ BROKEN PRINCE, STOP READING NOW, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!

And then we got the introduction of Steve.  I had an inkling from Paper Princess that he was not the awesome dude that Callum remembered, so I wasn’t shocked when he turned out to be a douche.  But I guess I was shocked with the level of douchiness.  And quite frankly, he was mentally/emotionally abusive to Ella.  And no one seemed to care.  I mean, I get that it happened when no one was around, but that’s NOT how a father is supposed to act, I hated that they all made her think that was normal.  Maybe in their circles??  I don’t know.

There were just so many things that went wrong for me in this book, where I was uncomfortable with behaviors/conversations, where I couldn’t understand what the characters were thinking/feeling.  They would feel sorry for characters, and I’d be like “WHAT??  Did you forget about <x>?”  Which is not to say that I don’t appreciate having empathy, but make it more reasonable I guess.

OK, I’m going off in a weird direction, I don’t really need to get into all the little things.  I *missed* East.  I even missed glimpses of the twins.  I LOVED the strange side story with Val and Wade, and I wish we’d gotten more.  I loved Ella and Val together.

I will admit that when I finally got to the payoff (probably the last 10-15% of the book), it was a fun ride.  But I think I needed more in the middle.  And more wrap up of details.

So yeah.  I’m still happy I dove into the series, I’m just bummed that it didn’t finish as strongly as it started.  I’mma take a break and read something else before tackling East’s story.  I don’t want these bummed feelings to taint it.