Wall Street Journal bestseller!
His name is Royal, but he’s no prince charming. He’s not even a prince – though you could say I loved him once upon a time.
He was my older brother’s best friend.
Growing up, he sat at our dinner table every Sunday, teased me mercilessly, and pretended I annoyed him.
When I was old enough, he took me on my first date.
Royal taught me how to drive. Escorted me … date.
Royal taught me how to drive. Escorted me to my junior prom. Gave me my first kiss…amongst other things. He was my first taste of toe-curling, all-consuming, can’t-sleep love.
We had our whole lives ahead of us. There was never anyone else for me but him.
And then he disappeared. No letter. No explanation. Not even a goodbye.
My sisters and brother never forgave him, and my parents forbade me from speaking his name in our house ever again. For all intents and purposes, we were to pretend Royal Lockhart never existed.
I’ve spent the last seven years trying in vain to forget my first love, but just when I think I’ve finally moved on, guess who’s back in town?
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is a full-length, stand alone, older brother’s best friend/unrequited love romance with a happily ever after and no cliffhanger. Enjoy! xoxo
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I think one of my favorite “types” of heroes is the man who as a boy came from a poor home life and despite it all and the world being against him proved them all wrong. Royal. Is. EVERTHING amazing about this book. After tragedy struck his life out of circumstances completely beyond his control, he lost everything. The faith of the only people he could consider parents and the young woman he loved. He watched Demi from afar for many years, and came back into her life when she needed someone the most. Royal’s character is so strong, good to the core, despite all the wrongs done to him.Although Demi never stopped loving him, she never knew the circumstances of his exit from her life and was hurt and betrayed. I enjoyed Demi’s character, there’s not much to dislike, however her wishy-washiness was. SO. annoying. *Spoilerish* Brooks cheated on her, left her for another woman, whom he got pregnant, and wracked up A TON of debt and never truly loved her for HER, and Demi somehow still stuck by his side for appearances. I guess you could say it’s because her character was a good person and attempting to be there for someone, but after all that and at the expense of her happiness was just tough to read. Royal waited patiently for her and stuck by her side, all the while terrified she’d leave him once she knew the truth.
I truly enjoyed Royal and Demi’s story of a persistent love that supersedes all.
Well done, another good read from Winter Renshaw.
All books, no exceptions, written by Winter Renshaw are 5 stars!
Loved it
Had my interest right away would recommend it to anyone that’s into that kind of reading
For a full review please visit https://bit.ly/3hPhFtw.
Royal & Demi’s Childhood Animosity Turns Into Steamy Teenage Love Until One Horrible Night Rips Royal Away From The Life He Always Wanted! Seven Years Later He Reenters Demi’s Life, Hoping For The Best But Expecting The Worst. Their Angsty Story Is About Trust, Redemption, & Second Chances.
This is book one in the Rixton Falls series. Rixton Falls, New York, has a population of about ten thousand and is home to the Rosewood family. This book is Royal Lockhart and Demi Rosewood’s brother’s best friend story. Book two, Bachelor, is Derek Rosewood’s story. After being burned in marriage, he is a committed bachelor. In Filthy, book three, Delilah Rosewood heads to Florida to visit her great aunt, where she ends up meeting a football player who is trying to salvage his bad reputation.
Demi Rosewood, twenty-five, was raised in a perfect family. Her parents are happily married. Her father is an attorney, so she and her siblings – older brother Derek and her younger sisters, twins Delilah and Daphne – grew up in a nice home. And now she is engaged to Brooks Abbott, whom she has dated since their senior year at Hargrove College. Demi is now a kindergarten teacher, and Brooks is quite the catch as a financial planner and an Abbott. The Abbotts are a very prominent and wealthy local family. For Brooks, appearances are important. Demi is happy, even if her love for Brooks will never match the love she had for Royal Lockhart, a name that had been banned from her family home seven years ago.
Perhaps that is why when Brooks calls off the engagement suddenly, the feeling of abandonment doesn’t cut quite as deeply as she had expected. But when Brooks ends up in an accident and is placed under a medically-induced coma immediately after walking out on her, Demi is placed in the impossible situation of trying to be sensitive to loved ones and public perception alike by keeping the breakup to herself for the time being and playing the role of grieving fiancée.
Royal Lockhart, twenty-six, had at one time been an honorary Rosewood. He was eleven when his best friend Derek first brought him home, and though Royal had been moved from foster home to foster home, the Rosewood family was the most constant thing in his childhood. He credits the family for the bright future he once had. He had been good at sports and popular with the girls at school, who eagerly hoped to be his flavor of the week. He and Derek had plans to attend law school together and join his father’s law practice. Derek did go that route, but today Royal considers himself lucky to be employed as a mechanic in a rundown town nearby.
Just one year younger than he and Derek, Demi had attracted his interest since they met. She was stubborn, girly, and prickly. He had wanted to date her for years. It wasn’t until his graduation approached that he finally knew he needed to ask her out – before he and Derek left for school. The next year and a half were the best in his life. But one call changed everything. He never saw her again, or any of the Rosewoods for that matter. He would never be over Demi, but he made himself a promise. He would remain at a distance so long as Demi is happy. So when Brooks ends up in the hospital, he can no longer stay on the sidelines. After almost five years of watching, he finally decides to knock on her door.
Royal and Demi’s brother’s best friend story is devastatingly angsty and tragic. Royal is a bad boy, but there has only ever been one girl that he truly wants. He spent most of his life thinking he doesn’t deserve her. He is used to life handing him bad breaks, but until seven years ago he always managed to get past them. Demi was destroyed when Royal walked out never to return. She never learned why he left. Her heart hadn’t been won easily, but once she handed it to Royal, there could never be another love equal to his. Royal and Demi both have secrets now, each treading carefully with one another and with society in general. Their reunion is emotional. Royal had broken her trust when he disappeared, so there is no happy reunion. Demi remains prickly and stubborn, and Royal is patient but persistent. The odds are against them as circumstances as well as those around them work to keep them apart. They are both victims. They have both hit rock bottom in life and had to learn to live with the pain and keep moving forward. Perhaps that is what gives them the strength to keep battling for one another when everyone else is against them.
Royal and Demi’s childhood animosity turns into steamy teenage love until one horrible night rips Royal away from the life he always wanted. Seven years later he reenters Demi’s life, hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Their angsty story is about trust, redemption, and second chances. It is well-written and plot-driven. The characters are wonderfully developed. It is easy to connect to both Royal and Demi. Royal’s fall feels real and devastating. It is easy to sympathize with his plight. Young and so alone, raised in the system, it is so easy to envision how easily he fell through the cracks. Demi, too, is a victim – of the circumstances surrounding what happened seven years ago as well as of recent developments. The story is written in first person. The POV alternates between Royal and Demi. I rate this book 4.5 stars.
review on my blog
https://www.emilythebooknerd.com/2020/06/royal.html#more
2.5 stars
this book was just okay for me. Royal came across as a pushy ahole sometimes who didn’t want to give Demi the space she was asking for. But like all these romance books out, that is supposed to somehow be romantic and not totally over the line. Oh well. It was a quick and easy read although I skimmed over a lot of the sex scenes because eww 2 wrongs don’t make a right.
Also on a side note , this whole virus epidemic and being forced to stay home is working wonders on my book challenge, now gotta go wash my hands!
I think my heart broke a little for Royal.
Interesting characters, but I just didn’t really get into it. Some aspects of the story, mostly related to secrets, annoyed me more than intrigued me. Just not my cup of tea, I guess.
This is just a real good read. Well worth the time!
Loved it. Shows you should never give up on someone. We’re all different and there’s good in everyone. Sometimes you have to think outside the box.
I love when an author takes a wounded soul and puts them back together. It just seems more realistic to the real world rather then the all shiny everything is wonderful with minor bumps.
Well written .
This book, for me, is a prime example of why you shouldn’t trust all book reviews and authors with a “best seller” status.
Plot overview: Demi’s first love, Royal, returns after a 7-year unexplained absence to win her back after her fiance (who she really wasn’t all that fond of, anyway) was in a horrible car crash, resulting in a medically induced coma.
I hated Demi with the fire of a thousand suns. I have kinder thoughts about disease-carrying ticks than I have about Demi. She was a complete and utter doormat and I had ZERO respect for her. Oh, how I hated her. Let me count the ways:
1. She agreed to marry a dude she was fairly lukewarm about because she was still in love with her highschool sweetheart. Why not be honest with the dude—and yourself—and be alone for a while? Maybe sort out your feelings and find a way to move on? Nope…not Demi. She’d rather stay in a bad relationship for no good reason.
2. When the fiance dumps her and then is in a horrible car crash, she still sits at his bedside everyday, so as not to offend his mother. How about you be honest with the mother and not sit by the dude’s bedside like a doting fiancee?
3. She lets Royal waltz back into her life after 7 years and doesn’t push him for an explanation as to where he’s been or why he left. Why? Because he doesn’t want to talk about it. She should’ve told him to eff right off until he WAS ready to talk about it. But, no…not Demi. She’s far too weak to ever do something that straightforward.
4. When the dude wakes up from his medically induced coma and Demi confronts him about some shady stuff he’s done, he claims to have amnesia. She doesn’t necessarily believe him, but decides that she can’t leave him until he remembers because that would make her look bad. Don’t worry, Demi. In my eyes, you couldn’t possibly ever look worse.
5. Royal admits to stalking Demi over the past few years. It doesn’t bother her. She even admits to putting photos of her with her fiance up on social media, hoping Royal would see them and be jealous. Classy, Demi. Totally classy.
Royal wasn’t the worst hero I’ve ever seen (if you’re able to overlook the stalking thing), but he was a manwhore who had plenty of “fuck buddies” when he wasn’t with Demi. I have very little patience for so-called heroes who screw around with tons of women while supposedly pining for “the one that got away.”
And don’t even get me started on Demi’s parents who abandoned Royal in his time of need, even as they insisted he’d “been like a son” to them—which was a horrible turn of events that they never really properly apologized for. Demi’s sister managed to annoy me several times, too, by being terribly judge-y about how Demi wasn’t spending enough time glued to the fiance’s bedside.
Overall, this was a sickening stew of unlikeable characters, over-the-top angst, and a complete lack of communication between, well, everyone. Blech. But, since my mom said I should always say something nice…the cover is pretty. That is all.
Romance Rehab: book recommendations, author services, general badassery: http://www.romancerehab.com/
It was a good book, with great moment, I went on a roller coaster of emotions Royal and Demi’s relationship was everything they ever needed and wanted but life was cruel and things happened that we’re not expected.. after many years of knowing each other and loving each other life plays a trick on them.. now Royal needs to work hard to get the woman he loves or he will lose everything he ever wanted.
Overall it was a good read.
Loved how this story unfolded. Believable set of characters. The chemistry was intense between the heroine and the hero. One of the few books I’ve read that the drama between the two main people wasn’t caused by the heroine being stupid. You won’t regret the time spent reading this one.
Royal and Demi started out together at 10 years old and at 15, out of nowhere, Royal, just up and disappeared from Demi’s life, no note, no goodbyes, nothing, just gone! Her parents and family had disowned him, even though he was a part of that family, even though he was not blood related, he was as much a member of their family as anyone else.
Over the next 7 years, Demi found love, well what she thought was love, until the bastard cheated on her and is having a baby with another woman from a different town! Royal appeared out of thin air one night after Demi’s cheating fiance was in a terrible car wreck and was put into a coma. (BTW: she didn’t find out about him cheating until Royal showed up and told her about it!) He has been stalking her, well not stalking her, but keeping an eye on her from his car for quite some time.
While Demi’s fiance was in the hospital, she found tons of credit card bills in her name with cash advances that her fiance had taken out in her name without her knowing. She was having a hard time leaving her fiance because she thought that he was having memory loss, until she walked into the hospital room and her fiance and his girlfriend were talking about the baby and how much he was missing out on her being pregnant. Well needless to say that was the end of that relationship!
Finally, her and Royal ended up together after all these years and he explained to her why he just up and disappeared so many years ago. He made up with Demi’s family and brother after all those years.
This was a great book! I am loving this series and Winter Renshaw’s writing. I cannot get enough and cannot wait to start the next book in the series!
Great book and it is so deificult so guess how it ends.
Couldn’t put i down, because I just needed to know what would happen next.
A very good read. It was interesting with some plot twist.