Top Ten Tuesday - Ten Authors I Really Want To Meet

Top Ten Tuesday is a fantastic blog series hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This seemed like a fun topic to jump back in on the TTT bandwagon.

1. Diana Gabaldon. Aka, Herself. I'm a huge fan of the Outlander series and love her writing. I think I'd probably be rendered mute if I met her though.

2. Sarah Dessen. There are so many things I love about Dessen. She writes amazing books with amazing characters and plots, she is fantastic at creating places that you can just perfectly visualize, she drops in things from her previous books, like a band or a character at a coffee shop, so perfectly it doesn't feel forced, and she is so incredibly friendly, modest, and supportive of other people on social media. And she seems like the kind of person where you just know she's being genuine and not putting on an act.

3. John Green. My introduction to Green was when my friend Andea forced me to read TFIOS. I still owe her for that. Green creates some amazing characters, seriously Hazel Grace is fantastic. Plus I love how much he loves my favorite city.

4. Jen Lancaster. I don't just want to meet Lancaster, I want her to take me under her wing and be one of her besties. I love her sense of humor, her sarcastic wit (we have that in common), and the way she tells a story. Plus I love that she's an animal rescuer as well, that's definitely the key to my heart.

5. Emery Lord. Lord is another author that I have some friends to thank for introducing me to. She's also another one that is so incredible friendly, down to Earth, and supportive on social media. Plus when the Start of Me and You came out she sent people who preordered some swag and mine came with the nicest note based on the email I'd sent her. Anyone who takes the time to really read your email and personalize their response in the midst of a book coming out is extra amazing.

6. JK Rowling. Does this one really need an explanation? Her mind created Harry Potter, enough said.

7. Stephanie Perkins. Yet another author who seems so down to Earth, so supportive of others, and just genuinely nice. Plus she created Anna, Lola, and Isla and I'd really love to thank her for this is person.

8, 9, 10. I'm cheating a little here. Melissa Landers, Jessica Love, and Kelsey Macke are friends of mine, who at this point I only know through the wonderful thing that is the internet. Even though I've never had the chance to sit across a table from them I genuinely consider them my friends. However, I also consider them amazing authors and I'd love the chance to sit down with them and discuss the characters and places they've created.

Book Review: The Royal We

From Goodreads: "I might be Cinderella today, but I dread who they'll think I am tomorrow. I guess it depends on what I do next." 

American Rebecca Porter was never one for fairy tales. Her twin sister, Lacey, has always been the romantic who fantasized about glamour and royalty, fame and fortune. Yet it's Bex who seeks adventure at Oxford and finds herself living down the hall from Prince Nicholas, Great Britain's future king. And when Bex can't resist falling for Nick, the person behind the prince, it propels her into a world she did not expect to inhabit, under a spotlight she is not prepared to face.

Dating Nick immerses Bex in ritzy society, dazzling ski trips, and dinners at Kensington Palace with him and his charming, troublesome brother, Freddie. But the relationship also comes with unimaginable baggage: hysterical tabloids, Nick's sparkling and far more suitable ex-girlfriends, and a royal family whose private life is much thornier and more tragic than anyone on the outside knows. The pressures are almost too much to bear, as Bex struggles to reconcile the man she loves with the monarch he's fated to become.

Which is how she gets into trouble.

Now, on the eve of the wedding of the century, Bex is faced with whether everything she's sacrificed for love-her career, her home, her family, maybe even herself-will have been for nothing.

Spanning nearly a decade, The Royal We is a richly imagined, emotionally compelling novel that examines, with warmth and wit, what truly happens after your prince has come. 

My Thoughts: So first things first, I'm a royalty/royal-history nerd. Always have been, way before Kate sashayed down that infamous runway. I've read numerous books and tons of articles about various royals and periods of royal history, I even took a British history class in college because my royal love leads easily into a love for England and all things British. I woke up crazy early to watch Diana's funeral and praised the world for DVR as I recorded Will and Kate's wedding. All this to say that it's not surprising that I read this book, though I wasn't entirely sure how it would go when I started it.

I needn't have worried; this book is fantastic. It is obviously inspired by Will and Kate but there are enough differences and areas where this story branches off that it easily kept me entertained. Actually, that's an understatement. I adored this book. I could not put it down, and when I did manage to set it down (darn work) I was thinking about Bex and Nick and all the other characters. The authors paint such vivid settings and have such detailed, interesting characters that everything just comes to life. I finished this a week ago and honestly these characters are still in my head. That's a great sign. I seriously recommend this.