Her Royal Highness

Gr 9 Up–Seventeen-year-old Millie has dreamed of spending her senior year in Scotland at the renowned boarding school Gregourstoun. For the first time, girls will be allowed to attend the school, and Millie is hoping for a scholarship. Leaving her hometown of Houston is that much more attractive after she has a falling-out with her close friend Jude. Determined to make the most of her academic experience, Millie plans to spend her year studying and exploring the geology of Scotland. However, her roommate turns out to be the Princess of Scotland, Flora Baird. Suddenly, Millie’s social life takes a dramatic turn as she becomes an unwilling participant in Flora’s attempts to get herself expelled from the boarding school and sent back to Edinburgh. Despite Flora’s poor treatment of Millie, the two form a friendship that eventually develops into a romance. Their relationship not only faces the typical challenges of insecurity and miscommunication, but direct meddling from the Queen of Scotland as she attempts to control Flora’s public image. Unlike in the first book, Royals, the characters here are not fully developed. Readers will need to rely on Flora’s backstory from the prior companion novel to fully appreciate the story. The pacing is a bit slow at the beginning but picks up as Flora and Millie’s relationship progresses.