Reluctantly Royal

Royals Gone Rogue, Book 1

By: Erin Nicolle, Erin Nicholas

Narrated by: Jason Clarke, Shaina Summerville

Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

A marriage of convenience between a dirty-talking prince and the socially awkward scientist who brings him to his knees...

A marriage proposal from a deliciously handsome and wickedly charming prince sounds like a fairytale.

But for a nerdy scientist with severe social anxiety, it's a horror story.

Prince Torin O'Grady, with his mischievous blue eyes and cocky grin, is always in the spotlight. And he needs to marry me to inherit the crown.

But we have nothing in common. He's a future king. And I'm perfectly happy slogging through mud in my work boots.

So why can't I stop thinking about him?

Maybe because he won't stop texting me. And sending me gifts. And making me feel like everything I find awkward and weird about myself is special and amazing.

And there's also that little detail of him offering me my dream job and telling me that together we can change the world.

Well, I could probably work for him.

And if I have to marry him temporarily to get what we both want, then fine. It's for the greater good.

It has nothing to do with the way he kisses me. Or that dirty mouth. Or the royal treatment he gives me in the bedroom.

Fine. Maybe it does. Still, it's only a year. Then I can turn in my tiara and come back to my normal, boring, behind-the-scenes life.

But Torin is determined to turn me from reluctantly royal to royally his.

©2024 Erin Nicholas (P)2024 Erin Nicholas

Absolutely loved this book...Perfect Narration

I loved everything about this book. I loved the story itself and it was made 100 times better with the fantastic narration by Shaina Summerville and Jasone Clarke. I have been a fan of Jason's for years. But this was the first time I have listened to Shaina and I just loved her performance. And Jason with an Irish accent...sign me up please. He did such a fantastic job with the accent work, he literally blew me away.

Who wouldn't want to marry a handsome prince...even if it is for convenience and for just a year. Torin needs to get married so that he can become King when his grandfather steps down. Unfortunately, the person his family wants him to marry is in love with someone else and Torin just doesn't want to marry her. But Torin does have his eye on a certain American he can't get out of his mind.

Abigail is working hard with her farming ideas but it's just not gaining the ground she needs for it to take off. Torin however loves her idea and wants to put it to use...at his home in Cara and he would love for her to do this as his wife. Abigail isn't sure about this at first but then Torin convinces her it will just be for a year while he proves to his grandfather that he can and wants to be King one day.

Abigail and Torin both agree that it's only for a year and feelings shouldn't be involved. But these two can't help but falling in love with each other. Together they prove to everyone in Cara that they are the perfect Prince and Princess.

10 out of 10 performance for this cute royal story

This is a really adorable story that I listened to within the day because the duet performance by Jason Clarke and Shaina Summerville is a 10 out of 10. Jason Clarke is one of my favorite narrators and this performance of Reluctantly Royal is no exception - his slight Irish accent is spot on and both he and Shaina really made this very cute story come to life.

Reluctantly Royal is a marriage of convenience coming off of instant attraction between Torin, a prince who needs a wife to be taken seriously, and Abigail, the introverted, anxious genius who wants to use her talents to create sustainable farms. They are complete opposites but their chemistry is fire. Torin has a very dirty mouth and uses it well. There are scenes where he encourages Abigail to use her words too which is spicy but also made me giggle.

Abigail's reluctance to get emotionally involved was frustrating but by the end of the story, I understood her perspective better. This story was overall fun, very spicy, and just a good time. I think listening to this one made some of what I thought were repetitive scenes not too bad because of the performance but I am not sure if I would have enjoyed this book as much if I had read it.

Tropes & Elements:
💍 Marriage of Convenience
🩷 He falls first and super hard
🔥 Spicy
👑 Prince finds a Princess
⚡️ Opposites Attract
🫶 Anxiety Rep
✌🏻 Dual POV

Great narration

Reluctantly Royal is the first book in the Royals Gone Rogue series, but it can be read as a standalone.

I love a good marriage of convenience, but throw in the whole royalty aspect, and it was even better. In this case, Torin had to get married and the only woman he wanted was Abi. She was reluctant for many reasons, the main one being she did not want to be in front of people.

The mental health aspect was so well done. I truly felt for Abi, and I really loved how Torin never once judged her for it. He just did whatever he could to make her comfortable; he wanted her as his princess and never forced her to do anything that would make her anxious.

Torin was really so sweet and caring. And he fell so hard and fast for Abi. I just liked seeing how patient he was with her and how much he truly cared and listened to her.

Abi gained more confidence in herself, and I liked how she was so passionate about certain things.

This was such a cute royal romance, and I enjoyed it. It was my first book by Erin Nicolle, but it won’t be the last.

Audio:
Narrators: Jason Clarke and Shaina Summerville
Style: Duet

This was my first time listening to Shaina, and she did an amazing job as not only Abi, but the side characters as well! There was a podcast of a few women, and each one sounded different. Jason Clarke does an accent, and it’s amazing (though he never disappoints, so I wasn’t surprised).

Princess

Reluctantly Royal-Erin Nicolle
Narrated by Jason Clarke and Shaina Summerville

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Narration 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

I loved this book! I am a sucker for marriage of convenience and he falls first books and boy did he fall first. Abby is such a brilliant mind but she’s also so socially awkward and gets social anxiety so bad that it’s debilitating. And it makes her so relatable, not only to us as the reader, but to our super charming hero Prince Torin as well. He is enamored with her from first sight and he turned the charm all the way up. These two are as opposite as two people could probably be, but they also work so well together. Torin needs a wife in order for his grandfather to pass the throne down to him, and Abby wants to end world hunger by building community indoor farms. Torin’s small remote country off the coast of Denmark and Ireland would be the ideal climate for her to put all her research into practice. Will they get through the year of their fake marriage in order to win over the people of Cara with Abby’s farms in order for Torin’s grandfather to pass the crown down to him?

The audio for this was absolutely phenomenal. I was not prepared for how freaking scorching Jason was going to be. Between an Irish accent and Torin’s dirty mouth 🥵🥵🥵 and Shaina did such a stunning job bringing Abby to life. Abby had a lot of vulnerable moments with her social anxiety and I think Shaina did a great job portraying all of Abby, but her vulnerable moments especially.

Why can’t I give more than 5 Stars!?!

Audiobook and Book Review

🩷 Reluctant Prince
💜 Scientist/Farmer
🩷 Marriage of Convenience
💜 D!RTY TALK!NG MMC 🥵
🩷 ‘Charming’ 😏😈
💜 “My wife”

Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Narration: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (can I give it 10?)

ABSOLUTELY SWOON-WORTHY. The amount of gasping, squealing, hand to my chest or mouth out of sheer excitement, giddiness, screeching, and overall smiling so hard my cheeks hurt, while reading this book was astronomical. It has been a very, very long time since I have read a lighthearted book that made me feel so many wonderful things, all while being Spicy AF! Reluctantly Royal has moved to the top of my list of favorites for 2024! 💜🩷

Ok this story is adorable AND spicy! But more than that, Abigail’s reasons for being a farmer and believing that government should be taking care of its people. Feeding its people. Providing assistance, not to the BIG farming corporations for money and profit, but to the small mom and pop farms. To family farms so that people can eat healthier and have better access to all types of foods. Well damn it, it just makes sense! Our government needs to read this book. Because Abi makes more good points than most of our “leaders” combined!

Generational stubbornness adds to Torin’s frustration to try to make real changes. He may have abdicated but he’s back and wants to make real change, positive change for Cara. Torin may have a proposition for Abigail to get the throne, but there is a ‘rightness’ to it. Torin wants a wife yes, but he wants to support her dreams. That means so much. Most men don’t understand that a woman just wants to be heard and seen. Torin does that, like on an EPIC scale, all while being a respectfully dominant dreamboat 😍 Torin is the best kind of MMC, not only does he listen, but he’s thoughtful, and he wants to make a difference. Holy sh!t does he have some of the best, graphic d!rty t@lk! Wowzers!

Abigail is an actual freaking genius. She may have stage fright because kids büllied her for being intelligent, but I love that Torin just “has her.” Her encourages her and props her up rather than trying to diminish her. She has excellent plans for sustainable food growth for people. Torin is helping her make those plans a reality, all while giving her the confidence she lacks because of what she experienced growing up. Abi may have social anxiety but instead of letting it rule her, she shows her vulnerability. She comes up with creative ideas to interact with people without letting her anxiety take over. So what if she throws up? Torin will be there to help her…even if it does leave her bootless. 😉

Listening to Jason “super sweet in person (I’ve heard) but absolutely wicked behind the mic” Clarke, narrate with a hint of an Irish accent, is sinfully delicious. And I 👏🏼am👏🏼here👏🏼for👏🏼it! SIR. 🥵🫠 I continue to be enthralled with his narration. His voice and his skill are both perfection. That is all.

I legitimately forgot that I wasn’t actually listening to intelligent, shy, sassy Abigail, but that I was listening to Shaina Summerville narrate! That’s how good she was! This is my first audiobook of hers but will definitely not be my last! I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Shaina! She is AMAZING 🩷🩷🩷

Thank you Home Cooked Books for the ALC of what is now one of my favorite books! 😍 This is a dynamite combo of narrators for this book. A new top duo for me!

🪴 “As a prince I’m kind of obligated to return shoes to beautiful, intriguing women when they leave them behind after we dance,” I tell her.
🪴 "No. You’ve said enough tonight. All I want to hear from you is yes, Torin, or my Prince. Or, sir, if you'd like. I'll even allow Your Highness. But yeses and my name or title. That's it."

5 stars

Torin needs to get married to inherit the crown. So he makes a marriage proposal to Abigail. They have nothing in common, but she can't stop thinking about him. In exchange he's planning on helping her make her dreams come true.

I giggled and swooned over Torin. I thought the story was super cute and it's spicy! This was my first book by this author. I loved her writing style. I listened to an advanced copy of the audiobook. It's fantastic! Performed in duet narration by Jason Clarke as Torin and Shaina Summerville as Abigail. Jason has an Irish accent and is a prince. I loved him as Torin. He exuded Torin's charming personality. I loved how Torin fell head over heels for Abigail right from the beginning. Shaina is a new to me narrator. She captured Abigail's quirks and anxiety. I loved how Abigail was very passionate about climate change and farming. I loved how very supportive Torin was of her dreams. Overall, if you like royal rom coms I would recommend this one!

Reluctantly Royal: Royals Gone Rogue Book 1

🎧🎧AUDIOBOOK REVIEW🎧🎧

My ears had entirely too much fun listening to this story. SO MUCH!

LISTEN, I don’t know if reading this story would be the same experience because I have not done that, but listening to it was a PARTY! Both Jason Clarke & Shaina Summerville were delightfully incredible with their narrations!

Okay, so about the story … I am so in love with everything about this story that I just don’t even know where to begin! THE HUMOR! THE CHARM & WIT! THE DIRTY TALKING sexy-sexy! Did I say CHARM yet? The entire story put me in a state of bliss. Like I never once *cursed* a single thing!

I am SO looking forward to more royals gone rogue!!

Never thought barfing in boots could be so funny!

Reluctantly Royal is book #1 in the new Royals Gone Rogue series. I went into this listen "blind" and was glad I did. Prince Torin doesn't want to be prince but he wants a wife even less. Abigail is a uber-smart scientist who is awkward in social settings and is deathly afraid of speaking in public. The author leads us on Torin's relentless pursuit (across two continents) of Abby who finds it harder and harder to resist his charms. This marriage of convenience, opposites attract, he falls first, steamy royal romance gives us a LOT of cute banter through texts and video chats. Additionally, there is a lot of talk on being environmentally friendly and becoming crop stable with indoor farming which was interesting, but did get a little monotonous. Still loved this and can't wait for the rest of the series!

The narration was fabulous. Jason Clarke voices Prince Torin so his normal growl is enhanced with an Irish accent. You just can't hear him say "My Wife" enough... Shaina Summerville is a new to me narrator, but she's no newbie! I'm definitely putting her on my watch list for the future. 5 delicious stars for this duo!

Loved it!

This story was entertaining and enjoyable. Prince Torin was my favorite character. He’s just the perfect book boyfriend, who’s tentative, determined and passionate. This story will have you believing in adult fairytales in the real world. I absolutely recommend this story. Jason Clarke and Shaina Summerville did a fantastic job narrating this story.

Excellent duet narration, enjoyable characters…

Erin Nicolle’s first book in the Royals Gone Rogue series presents two very appealing characters via a serviceable story. The driving trope is marriage of convenience (with a time limit), and it is well executed. One aspect I found particularly pleasing was that there is no third act kerfuffle that felt manufactured to create drama - any conflict was organic. And while I felt dropped in the middle of some of the other relationships (some of which will no doubt play out as the series continues), this outing ably fulfills a key duty of a book one— setting up characters that make a reader want to come back for subsequent stories.

Couple number one, Torin and Abigail (Abi), are MCs whose connection makes for a solid jumping off point. He’s a reluctant royal fighting for change, she’s got a passion for indoor farming and sustainability. I was engaged from the first, and despite some hiccups in pacing and a slight imbalance between their sexual connection and emotional intimacy, found them to be a fine match. I love how into Abi’s work Torin is and how supportive, and for the most part that never wavers. He believes in her goals and sees the importance and applicability of it, so he works to use his privilege and position to make it a reality. Abi is equally as supportive of Torin; acting as his cheerleader without letting him off the hook when he needs a reality check. She was adept at re-contextualizing things he needed to understand about his responsibilities without scolding him. They present a true partnership and it’s clear they’ll make a great royal pair.

As much as I admired the MCs, there were aspects of the story that did frustrate. There were some finger-wagging moments regarding Abi’s work, that to me, struck a bit heavy-handed; this did make Abi is a bit pedantic at times. I agree, these are important issues, but there were moments I felt Torin’s frustration, and where I wanted the story to be more about their relationship than her professional passions. And ideally, their relationship outside the bedroom. This was another aspect, where, though I appreciated the hotness of it and Torin’s bossy dirty talk was *chef’s kiss*, the frequency as the story progressed seemed to replace actual relationship development. So, occasionally those scenes felt more like a mechanism rather than intimacy. I guess I wanted as much of them growing as a couple outside the bedroom as in it.

One aspect I have absolutely no frustration with is the narrators and their performances. The duet narration here was fantastic! Jason Clarke putting on an Irish accent was a joy to my ears. And despite my qualms regarding the smexy scenes being a bit a of crutch plot-wise, performance-wise is another story entirely. Holy hotness, Batman! If you’re going to have that volume of scenes, you definitely want Jason Clarke as your narrator! Of course, he’s just as wonderful with the story and character beats beyond the sexy bits. He’s very well cast and has solid chemistry with his con-narrator. Shaina Summerville was a great Abigail. She had a real talent for the scenes where Abigail battled her social anxiety. But Summerville was just as adept at portraying the chemistry and intimacy between the MCs. The duet narration style is truly an asset to the romance genre, and helps to palpably establish the interactions and intimacy between characters. Overall, the performances and production make this an audiobook I highly recommend.

I received an ALC copy of the audiobook via Home Cooked Books and read via KU. All opinions are my own.