Fallen Heir by Erin Watt

My rating: 4/5 stars 

When I discovered the Royals I  was extremely intrigued and couldn’t wait to continue the journey after the first 3 books. As expected, the lovely ladies united under the pen-name Erin Watt, had something bigger in stored for Easton and continued this wild ride, as I called it, in the 4th book “Fallen Heir”.

We all know how Easton is, wild, reckless, acting on impulse and not giving a damn about the consequences. Well, in this book nothing much changes, he is still the same character, trying to calibrate his life, but failing miserably. Even if he is a really good guy, with a great heart, trouble sticks to him like glue, generating a lot of interesting situations, sometimes hilarious, sometimes dramatic. The perks of being a Royal..

Things kick off soon after “Twisted Palace” wrapped up, seeing Reed and Ella having the long distance relationship and Easton just being…..Easton. We also get to see a lot of the twins, but I will let you discover the circumstances. Going back to Easton, he is terribly bored of school, nothing managing to catch his attention more than 10 minutes, but everything will change when Hartley will enter the classroom and see him making out with his teacher. Oooops? Yap and so Easton-ish, he will try to persuade Hartley to not tell anyone what she saw, but in the process, he will be extremely captivated by her, beginning a lovely pursuit for this girl’s attention.

The whole story revolves around Easton and Hartley trying to get to know each other, even if Easton is doing all the work, Hartley being extremely guarded and mysterious. Even if she was raised in a rich family like Easton, she now lives in a small place, taking up a job to support herself. She is a puzzle that can’t be put together so easily, but I had fun discovering her through Easton’s eyes. She is not interested in having a relationship and there were times when she kept on throwing mixed signals, confusing me a little in the process.

Continuing on the same pattern, Easton was very hard to read as well. If you don’t have his background from the first 3 books, it would be very complicated to understand him, because he is very consuming and shifting all the time. Because I know the struggles he lived, I get him, but there were times when I wanted to slap him and make him focus and be more alert. His addiction is worrying and this caused a lot of trouble for everybody. He really is a nice person, but adding this in the mix, it’s a very disturbing combination that only makes him believe he is the villain from the story. He is also very immature and in various situations will do a lot of silly things that will even make you laugh.

I really thing that “Fallen Heir” managed to capture both sides of Easton, but the focus was on the bad. You know the journey every guy has when following an evolving path, becoming someone better? I think this is it for him, because the amount of bad situations is high and I really hope Easton will learn from all of them. The plot is not extremely alert, being a slow burn romance between East and Hartley, but the focus is on the characters, digging deeper into their souls and searching for clues and answers. I feel this book is only a piece of a huge puzzle which is dying to be finalized.

I know “Cracked Kingdom” will deliver everything we want and hope to find out from this story, and maybe seeing a more healthier Easton and a more at peace Hartley. They are really good together, but just have to solve their internal conflicts in order to embrace happiness 100%.

And I don’t want to spoil, but no one warn me about it, and it would have been very nice to know this book ends in a cliffy. So, now you know, prepared to be ruined, for the 4th time 😀