It would be nice to have someone who wasn't a responsibility.

This was a pretty sweet, wish fulfillment type of story with Cinderella vibes. The kind where everything works out in the end, or even before the end, most of the problems exist in characters' heads and can be overcome with some thinking, soul-searching, and conversation, and the biggest external obstacle the characters have to overcome is a locked door and a discharged phone. Also, it has the best, sweetest, most terrible cat. I spent a couple of pleasant evenings with the book, and it did lift my spirits, so yay for that. 

It's hard to ignore the flaws, though. The book manages to be simultaneously too shallow and too big on what the characters are feeling/thinking. When I say shallow, I mean stuff like... well, Leo has identified as straight his whole life, but then he falls for a guy and he barely gives it a second thought. And the clearly was the sort of person who has a lot of brief flings, enjoys both flirting and sex, but never gets attached, and now suddenly he wants a commited monogamous relationship, and again, he's just like, "Oh, well, this is my goal now, I'm gonna pursue it." He just discards all the things he knew about himself and his romantic/sexual preferences, instead of reconciling his new wishes and desires with what he's been into his whole life.

And there's basically no discussion of the class difference, or how Eddie's going to get integrated into the royal society and diplomatic circles, etc, beyond Eddie sometimes thinking he should have looked up royal protocols and never actually doing it, and Leo mentioning that he likes how Eddie is so genuine and so real and doesn't know how to behave at the royal ball. There's a brief subplot with a nosy reporter, but no discussion of how Eddie and his family are going to adjust to being in a public's eye. It's all, "Oh, cool, we're moving to the royal palace! Yay! This will surely entail nothing but comfort and joy!"

I guess it kind of works for a total wish fulfillment fantasy, which this book is, but I'd still prefer it if there was some attention given to these big questions. The lack of that attention made the book feel somewhat... YA-ish? I found it hard to believe Leo was 30. 

And when I say it's "too big on what the characters are feeling," I mean the overwhelming quantity of inner monologues. I've lost the plot thread more than one time, because a scene would begin, someone would say something, and then the POV character would retreat into their own head, think about stuff for paragraphs and paragraphs on end, go off tangent, think about five different things, have three different feelings... And then the initial dialogue would continue, but like, wait, what are they discussing? Who's saying what? Where are we? :D

Despite all that, it was sweet and somehow comforting and there were many moments that made me smile. It's not the kind of book I'll want to re-read or rec to others, but I don't regret reading it at all. I enjoyed Leo's revelations about responsibility being good actually and Eddie's journey from extreme shyness and low self-esteem to confidence. And while I still have no idea why the characters fell for each other in the first place, once they were together, their pairing worked great—they clearly brought out the best in each other, and that's what I love to see in romance: people in love lifting each other up and helping each other become the best versions of themselves.