Cracked Kingdom (The Royals #5)
Author: Erin Watt
Published: 2018
On Goodreads
My Rating: 
Rated D for drama trauma and M for Memory fuckery of the worst kind
Tragedy. Treachery. Trust. Hartley has to face the facts—in thes world, you can’t escape the Royals. Either you live by their rules or you die by them.
After a horrible car accident that leaves a Royal twin in a coma and Hartley with amnesia, Easton is struggling harder than ever before. Regret circles around in his head, but he’s determined to make things right. Nobody said it’d be easy though. First, he has to look out for the family because it’s not as if Dad’s around, nor is Reed or Gideon. Second, he must help Hartley remember him. However, doing so risks doing more harm than good. Easton won’t give up on Hartley though. He won’t give up on the girl he loves.
The Royals series is 1 of 3 that I am rereading as a part of my New Year’s Resolution. This is 5 of 5 books.
The Royals Reviews
This final installment to The Royals series was explosive! I thought Easton hit rock-bottom in Fallen Heir. I was sooooo wrong. Nope. That happened right here and it hit me really hard. Easton imploded his entire world without anybody’s help and while he knew he shouldn’t have kept going, he did.
Easton’s great struggle with wondering whether or not he’s Steve’s son was fecking tragic and heartbreaking. That would send me down a dark spiral too. However, Callum seriously stepped. He’s always been like the shadow parent-there but not-but now he’s stepping into the ring. After all that happened in the past, he’s vowed to do better, but that doesn’t mean it was easy. Still, he never once let this dark cloud hanging over the Royal Palace (one of many) come between him and his sons. It was powerful to watch him claim Easton and make him realize that no matter what, he was always his son. Freaking bomb.
Side Note: I love that Easton and Ella are basically Luke and Leia of Star Wars. Just sayin’. LOL.
The sudden turnaround gave me major whiplash. One second Easton is dragging everybody to hell with him and in the next he’s determined to turn it all around. It’s literally in the blink of an eye. I will say that I’m a bit disappointed that Easton never apologized for his assholery.
This time around, things are majorly different for Hartley and Easton. This was actually one area he didn’t feck up. I just wish he’d paid attention to the others in his life the way he did her. He was careful and doing everything he could to help her. It was beautiful. Granted, he was a typical Royal: a brute, pervy-flirter, easily aggravated, and always thinking about sex. (Seriously, it was non-stop. LOL.) Things involving both of their families grew increasingly scary. I can’t imagine people in real life acting as psycho as their families did, but these days, I wouldn’t be surprised though.
There was so much happening in this book. Exhilarating and definitely addictive. I was left wondering if it could get crazier after every chapter. It did. The Royals have always brought the wild and debaucherously side of life, and they do it so well. Of course, it always made me wonder why anybody is attracted to them because I don’t get it, but people enjoy living dangerously.
Okay, for a real complaint here, the ending totally should’ve been into a book all on its own, and it DEFINITELY shouldn’t have taken place after Ella barely graduated high school. Like, DAMN! Talk about moving fast. Plus, I feel jilted at not getting to experience all of the drama leading up to the wedding. THAT should’ve been the final book. Tie up all those loose ends with something sweet, celebratory, and possibly totally wild and certainly with the possibility to be deadly. I can only imagine how massive a Royal wedding would be. What a loss not to read about it. LOL. Okay, rant over.
Overall
Like the others before this one, I found the book to be a mixture of fucked up and sweet. It’s almost as if Watt thought up the most traumatic and shocking things possible and shoved them all together here, in these pages. From major injury to major secrets from the past popping up to sickly sweet romance. This book is completely over the top and such a guilty pleasure. I loved it, hated it, screamed at it. This one really evoked quite a bit out of me. Though this isn’t one of those ones that resonates with me with a bout of meaningfulness, it’s certainly fun and that’s enough for me to read it.
Quotables:
“She’s Hart, and she’s my heart.” (Easton, p. 44)
“I’m waiting for you to grow up, Easton. You’re eighteen. God help the people beyond Bayview, because I’m going to have to unleash you on them.” (Callum to Easton, p. 135)
“Fuck, man. Adulting is hard.” (Easton, p. 232)
More to come soon…
-K.
P.S. Song today? Gotta Be Somebody by Nickelback.
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The Scarlet Reader 
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