ROYALS is a quirky, realistic YA novel perfect that falls in line with current events!
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their royal engagement, it prompted a big announcement in the book world from Rebel Belle series author Rachel Hawkins!
Penguin Teen used the occasion to announce Hawkins’ new standalone, Royals, which has been in the works since Prince William married Kate Middleton back in 2011.
The novel follows Daisy Winters, whose older sister Ellie is set to marry the Crown Prince of Scotland (which is not a real thing, in case you’re wondering,) and leaving Daisy’s life in shambles in the process.
“There are a lot of ‘oops, I accidentally met royalty and now we’re in love’ type stories, which are super fun, but I felt like it might be fun to explore when you get caught up in that particular whirlwind and it wasn’t really your choice,” Hawkins told Cosmopolitan, who recently shared cover and the first chapter. Take a look!
…I make my way across the store, noticing as I pass the magazine racks lining the register lanes that a bunch of them have been turned around, the ads on their backs, rather than the covers, facing the customer.
This has to be Isabel’s doing. I walk up to a rack and turn the nearest backward magazine to face me. I see a quick flash of blond hair and bright teeth, and then my eyes land on the headline, printed in bold yellow script: “TEN THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT ELLIE WINTERS!”
I wonder if any of the ten things would surprise me. I doubt it, though.
My sister has lived a life pretty free from the scandalous, almost as if she knew she’d end up on the cover of magazines. I’m almost tempted to flip through, but then decide that (a) it would be weird and (b) Isabel did go to the trouble of trying to hide the magazines from me in the first place.
“It was nothing bad this time,” she calls out now. “Just figured you didn’t need to see!”
Giving her a thumbs-up, I continue toward the door at the far side of the store.
My stuff is in the break room, a truly tragic space made up of orange walls, green plastic chairs, and a scratched laminate table. At some point, someone had carved “BECKY LOVES JOSH” into the top of it, and every time I sat there on my break, reading or studying, I wondered what became of Becky and Josh. Were they still in love? Had Becky been as insanely bored here as I was?
Although, hey, at least Becky was never confronted with pictures of her sister on the front of tabloids.
Or being in the tabloids herself for that matter.
Ugh.
READ THE FULL EXCERPT VIA COSMO!
Royals will hit shelves on May 1, 2018, just before the actual royal wedding.
