This is a short royal unplanned pregnancy second chance romance.

Given the length of the book and the romance genre, I did not expect to read a groundbreaking story, but I was nonetheless disappointed that the book was filled with so many clichés and some sexist undertones.

We have the royal MMC that is a f*ck boy that is full of himself and only sleeps with women once, and they apparently like it when he doesn’t stay the night and the precious, righteous virgin FMC that is terrified that he will find out she is a virgin and lose interest. (Not that he’ll have any interest after they hook up). They meet again after almost getting involved with each other in college, their hook-up failed though because he required her to sign an NDA, which she did not want to. Apart from the fact that the MMC does not seem appealing to me at all, what is so wrong about signing an NDA? I am so tired of FMC’s sticking to principles to show the reader how pure they are, especially when those principles don’t make any sense. It would be fine if she gave him a pass, because she did not want to be a one-night stand, but doing it because he wants an NDA?
The MMC is scared to get screwed over, and this is why he only has one-night stands and requires them to sign NDA’s. This notion does not make much sense to me. Wouldn’t it be easier to find one person that is trustworthy instead of hooking up with so many people that can still mess with you in many different ways? That being said, when the FMC rejects his NDA in college, he goes on to kiss another woman in front of her that he had apparently already hooked up with. So he sticks to one-night-stands, sometimes.

When the FMC learns that she is pregnant, she makes very many presumptions about what that MMC wants without actually talking to him. When she then goes on to contact him, because she has fallen pregnant the MMC does not believe her at first, because so many other women have tried pinning their pregnancy on him, proving my point exactly that it doesn’t make sense to have one-night-stands for “safety reasons”. And if so many women tried pinning their pregnancy on him, why is he not taking precautions to avoid pregnancy himself?

The MMC is basically the picture of male toxicity. He thinks that the FMC contacting him after their one-night-stand is a red flag, and immediately brings in legal counseling for their meeting. Because obviously he is amazing and anyone he sleeps with will exhibit obsessive behavior, like contacting him (which is a perfectly normal thing to do). He is also too proud to apologize for his mistakes. For a person that is so clear about his own boundaries, he respects none of the FMC’s. After she cuts ties with him for his poor behavior, he just shows up to her new place unannounced and demands to see his son. Even after he has her contact information, he keeps showing up unannounced. He pressures her into marrying him, because for him there is no other option (which is outdated). He issues her an ultimatum and keeps doing so whenever there is a choice to be made. Instead of discussing their options and hearing her side of things, he just makes all the decisions by himself, and she has to go along with them. He is completely overbearing, (when there is no reason to be) even deciding what the baby’s nursery looks like and where it is supposed to be (10 min away from her rooms). He does all of this because he does not ‘want to fail her’, when that is all he does, in my eyes. He also says romantic things like ‘I can be faithful if I have to’. While I understand that there is some attraction between the two and the FMC wants to try to be a family, she tolerates way too much red flag behavior from the MMC without standing up for herself or confronting the MMC.

And all of that because ‘boys need a father’… I guess they are made for each other after all.
Then we also have some other woman drama with a character that called Cassia that just paints women to be either the motherly virgin type (our FMC) or vicious, malicious, jealous beings (Cassia). Being a person with trust issues, the MMC obviously chooses to believe Cassia instead of the FMC, for unknown reasons.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book and the accent of the male narrator was unfortunately very quirky.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK Audio for gifting me this ALC of the audiobook to review.

2.5 stars


I was looking for a quick and spicy listen when I applied for this and unfortunately this wasn’t for me.

It’s started over shaky and it just kept getting worse. Angel is no book boyfriend/husband. He just kept being an ass and completely fucking up. He didn’t even start to redeem himself, there was NO grovelling. For each massive! Mistake, he just added something else and made it impossible to root for this couple. Gabby was such a pushover with no backbone, I wish she was stronger and just left Angel.

They don’t get along, I don’t think they’re in love and just stunned this is a recent release. Overall, this was really not for me.

'Her Best Kept Royal Secret' is an enjoyable, second-chance romance with a royal setting that adds additional complications to the romance. In this immersive audiobook, the narrator convincingly brings the characters to life, making the relationship dynamics believable. I like how the couple's emotional commitment deepens until it matches their passionate attraction. I like this romance's characters, the couple's sizzling chemistry and the glamorous setting.

I reviewed an audiobook from the publisher.