Review: Cracked Kingdom (The Royals #5)

Author: Erin Watt

Started reading: December 11th 2020

Finished the book: March 2nd 2021

Pages: 305 / 09:04:57

Genres: Romance, New Adult

Published: March 1st 2018

Source: Storytel

Goodreads score: 3.90

My score:

Synopsis

Ever since Hartley Wright met Easton Royal, her life hasn’t been the same. There are enemies behind every corner and dangers beyond each door. When tragedy strikes and steals her memories, she can’t trust anyone, not even the blue-eyed boy who promises her that everything will be all right.Because while Hartley’s memory is full of gaps, her instincts tell her Easton is dangerous. She doesn’t know if he’s the snake in the garden or her chance at salvation. The chaos he brings wherever he goes is too much to handle, the intense feelings he evokes are too confusing to unravel.
Easton wants her to remember. Hartley thinks it’s better to forget. She might be right.

My thoughts

So, first of all, it looks like I took a REALLY long time to read to listen to this book, and that's true, but also not true. I listen to audiobooks in the car to and from work, it took a bit longer, because we were in lockdown + Christmas break was in between as well. So that's why. I'm kinda glad that this series has ended, to be honest. I loved the book about Gideon the most, and book 4 was nice as well. I just didn't like this book that much and I think it's good that it's over now.

Pros

• Story: The stories in the books in this series are interesting. I don't have a hard time to get through. The thing that makes me give these books lower ratings, is because of the characters and the things they do. The stories in every separate book are nice and fit the romantic genre very well.
• Ending: There are a lot of things happening in the final few chapters, and I really don't know how I feel about it. It felt rushed and weird and it felt like the author just wanted to be done with it. But now you're wondering, where is the PRO?! I loved the final chapter with Hartley and Easton, because that's the romantic story in this book and I think it was a really cute ending.

Cons

• Easton: I have said this before: I LOVED him in the previous books, before your read from his POV. He was like a light breeze, the funny one, the sweet one. Well, he's literally ruined for me in this book. I didn't like him in the 4th book, and it seems like it just got worse with this book. He's just being an outright asshole at times especially towards the people he claims to love.
• Hartley: I LOVED Hartley in the 4th book as well. Her memory loss has just totally ruined her personality and the relationship she had with Easton. There is just some empty shell now that remembers things when it's convenient. I didn't like it.
• Behavior: Things that the characters in this book do, just don't match them all the time. Hartley being a badass out of nowhere and going back to being the grey mouse in school, Steve doing weird shit that just didn't fit him at all. A father that just takes off when his son is in a coma? A mother just packing her bags and leaving her 13 year old kid? And I can keep going like this...

Overall

I had the same love/hate relationship with the Twilight series. Sometimes you like one of the books better than the other, but non of them are a really big favorite. It's the same with this series. I'm a bit sad that we don't get any novella's about the twins, but I'm also just glad to be done with this series. Even though I loved the story, the characters didn't always do things that matched for me.

Thanks for reading!

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