Have you ever read a book – or in this case, a series – that you thought was rather meh, but as soon as you finished it, you just wanted to read it all over again? Yup, that's exactly how I'm feeling right now, and it's really effing confusing.

This series by Eric Watt has a total of three books: Paper Princess, Broken Prince, and Twisted Palace. I would say that the targetted public leans towards teenagers and young adults, but definitely more on the mature side. Some parts of this series are rather graphic, not just sexually, but also when it comes to sensitive topics. Death is one of them. 

The series follows Ella and the Royal family. Ella is seventeen years old, and her mother died when she was fifteen. She managed to move around and forge her mother's signature for a long time, but the time has come that she has to come clean. The reason being that her real father – who she's never even known or met – has passed away, leaving all his belongings – and children, apparently – to his best friend. Ella is then forced to move in with the Royal family, which consists of a father and five sons. 

But the Royals are filthy rich. Callum and Steve – Ella's deceased father – own an aircraft company. The Royals live more than comfortably in a mansion twenty times bigger than any house Ella has ever seen, and she continues her junior year at the local private school four of the boys also attend. Gideon has already graduated, but Reed is a senior, Easton is a junior, and Seb and Sawyer are sophomores. 

Ella is used to working hard. She was a stripper and used her mother's ID for a long time. She's not used to having money handed to her so easily, and the five sons think she's sleeping with their dad – despite the massive age difference. It takes a while to finally find peace in the mansion, and the boys certainly don't make life easy for Ella. Until one of them finds interest in her. After all, it is a romantic story. 

But what we find out throughout the series is that each of the boys has his own issues. Gideon is being blackmailed. Reed fights too much. Easton drinks and gambles. The twins are sleeping with the same girl. And Callum? His girlfriend is a gold digger, and she certainly doesn't replace the boys' deceased mother. 

So many things happen in this series that you kind of get a little bit lost and forget who did what. It's not necessarily a bad thing since it keeps the storyline entertaining, but I wish there had been less stuff happening and longer development. 

Then, there's the character development. And this is where it all goes wrong, because there's just none. None of the characters evolve. They don't seem to learn from their mistakes, and they also don't seem to grow with the story. Ella is just so immature, and you'd definitely expect her to be a lot more mature with all that she's been through. But no, she acts like a child, thinks like a child, and talks like a child. I hated her character, and I don't think I've ever said that from a character before.

What kept me going were the chapters in Reed's point of view. Despite being only a year older than Ella, there is an enormous difference in their maturity. Reed sounds like he already wants to be a man. He wants to move on from high school drama, and while his character development isn't any better, he's already more mature than the others. I just loved every chapter in his point of view.

So it might not have been the best series in the world, that's true. It needed a lot more work, and someone should tell Eric Watt that characters are supposed to grow in a story. That's, like, the  main rule of writing. But when I turned the last page, I somehow wanted to go back to the start. The relationship between all the characters, from the moment Ella arrives into the family and is hated by Callum's sons, to the moment they all get along, well, it's addicting. I love a book with tight brotherly love.

So judge for yourself. Grab the book at your nearest bookstore or on Amazon, and let me know what you thought! 

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