What I Loved About Truly Madly Royally
This book is SO CUTE without being eye-roll inducing. I was nervous about reading it because many reviews recommended it, but as “younger YA.” I loved it! Zora’s character is determined and community-centered. Despite running into multiple hurdles throughout the story, she perseveres.
As an unabashed royalty-love-story aficionado, this satisfied all my desires. Yet, the romance is just a fraction of what Truly Madly Royally is about. Zora runs the Walk Me Home Program — an initiative to walk neighborhood kids home instead of having them walk alone. She’s basically the perfect child and I have zero qualms with that. Many YA novels depict “good” kids as lacking fun, adventure, or fulfillment, but Zora’s life is full and satisfying. She doesn’t feel the need to rebel — neither does she need to choose a “bad boy” love interest.
Speaking of which, I enjoyed Owen’s character — polite, thoughtful, and supportive. I also really liked her family and found the tensions between her and her brother and her mother and father to be realistic. When she travels to Landerel with Owen, the book becomes an almost-Hallmark movie, but I have no complaints.
Overall, Truly Madly Royally is a charming young adult novel featuring a positive representation of Black teens. There are also strong undercurrents of community outreach, strong female friendships, and being true to oneself. If you’re a sucker for royal romances, this one will steal your heart.
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Truly Madly Royally is a charming young adult novel featuring a positive representation of Black teens. There are also strong undercurrents of community outreach, strong female friendships, and being true to oneself. Click To Tweet
More YA Reviews
- Can’t Beat the Chemistry by Kat Colmer
- Stealing Home by Becky Wallace
- This Side of Home by Renee Watson
Have you read this book? What did you think? What are your favorite royalty-related books? I’d love to know!
Thank you for reading and reviewing. I’m glad you enjoyed TRULY MADLY ROYALLY. Congrats on our lovely blog!
Hi Debbie! It’s my pleasure! Thank you so much for such a lovely book and your kind words about my blog 🙂
Added to my TBR! Do you have any other clean YA recommendations? I tried to read To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and I couldn’t get through it because of the content even though it’s relatively tame. It’s hard to find YA that I’m comfortable reading. Thanks!
Renee Watson’s latest LOVE IS A REVOLUTION is squeaky clean too, save for a couple of kisses. I also liked Tiffany Schmidt’s THE BOY NEXT STORY. It’s part of a series, but totally fine to read alone. ALMOST AMERICAN GIRL is a nice graphic memoir that I loved. THE CODE FOR LOVE AND HEARTBREAK and THIS SIDE OF HOME by Watson are also fairly clean.