Royal Holiday is a sweet and fluffy romance about a mid-50s woman who accompanies her daughter Maggie to England, where Maggie has a temporary job styling a member of the British royal family. (It is quite obviously Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, whom she is styling, although she is never named.) Vivian and Maggie stay with the Duchess and Duke on the Sandringham estate, where Vivian meets Malcolm, the Queen's private secretary. Vivian and Malcolm are immediately taken with each other, love and passion fighting for first place, and Vivian lets down her guard and lets Malcolm into her life.

It's a holiday fling, which Vivian enjoys very much, but the reality is that Malcolm lives in England whereas Vivian lives in Northern California. Neither of them wants to uproot themselves. Vivian goes back to her life in the States while Malcolm stays in London. And unless you want me to spoil the remainder of the book, I'm going to stop there.

The book was bright and breezy, and just what I needed to read. It was warm and amusing and happy for the most part. If you're looking for a good beach read or a seasonal book over Christmas, this is the book for you. ( )

This was 3/5. So far out of all the books in the series, this didn’t click for me. I found it a little boring and maybe this could be contributed by my sourpuss mood. However, the story fell a little flat. It felts a little bit rushed. The chemistry between the characters was also not convincing enough. It didn’t do it for me.
Would highly recommend the other books in the series though.

Spice meter: ( )

I can’t deny anything related to the royals and I really like Jasmine Guillory as a person so this was a must read for me. Lucky that it turned up from the library at Christmas too!

As much as I like Jasmine, her books are a little hit or miss for me. This one has a preposterous plot but it’s still quite cute and I enjoyed having leading characters who were older and had different motivations and obstacles than our normal leads. Still, there was a formality to the relationship that left me just a little bit cold in the end.

However: Romance, Christmas, tiaras, scones = totally a Helen book. ( )

This book was a lot of fun, and the narrator of the audiobook had a wonderful voice. I really liked that the romantic heroine was a Black woman over 50. She was written with the common concerns and characteristics of a woman of that age, while clearly showing her as someone who is vivacious and fun. I also want to call out one particular plot point which I just LOVED (and which gained the book an extra half a star in my review)...when our heroine first hooked up with her fancy guy after knowing him for just a week, there was a whole scene where they discussed having condoms and not being able to have sex without one. It was light and natural, and a perfect example of what a couple should do when they are attracted to each other and yet don't know each other all that well, EVEN THOUGH they are not at an age where pregnancy is a concern. I wish all books had their couples have this conversation the first time they hook up!

Less interwoven characters in this one but still solid Jasmine adorableness ( )