This book was SUCH a cute read! We follow Piper, a local school teacher who also loves romance books and has a romance podcast as she deals with the new challenge of having royals move next door. Her quiet island life taking care of her mother who has a mental illness is soon turned upside down by the presence of real life royals and more importantly…their sexy bodyguard.

This book was refreshing. It was fun and heartfelt and dealt with stigma surrounding quite a few issues, from mental illness to romance readers this book was never dull. I also appreciated that the love interest wasn’t the prince himself this time!

Overall I highly recommend this book for all lovers of contemporary and romance. The steam isn’t off the charts crazy but it is well done, well timed within the story and I had all the happy feelings by the end of this story!

While the actual royal story wasn't very original I quite enjoyed this book. I adored the aspect of Piper finding herself and love. Thats my favorite kind of story.

Also, who doesn't love a tatted British bodyguard who loves to bake.

At times the agenda seemed to be a bit forced but I overall loved the message of finding ways to just be authentic as yourself.

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley Romance for the advanced ecopy of this book.

This was a fun light quick read. The royals in the story gave me serious Meghan and Harry vibes. This would be a perfect beach read!

The Royals Next Door is a fun summer romance for anyone, but especially for those of us who voraciously consume any and all news related to Harry and Meghan. Do they have a hot bodyguard who will fall for their unassuming next-door neighbor? IDK, but the fictitious version of them do in The Royals Next Door and I'm super into it.

The first half was a bit flat for me. So, I put it down, started another book and came back and the second half got a LOT better, steamy better. 😉 I enjoyed the banter between Harrison and Piper. I also really adored the mother daughter relationship between Piper and Evelyn. If Harry and Meghan lived next door to me, I would most definitely want to be friends with them, way more than my current neighbors lol! The ending is some what every girls dream! I recommend this for all your HEA ending lovers.

Side note: I do admire the mental health awareness this book includes.

Thank you so much to @berkleyromance and @netgalley for this e-ARC of The Royals Next Door by Karina Halle! Pub date: 8/31

This book was utter ✨perfection✨ in my eyes. Seriously! It is by far one of the best romances I have had the honor to read this year. I’ve read past Karina Halle books and she just has a way with words that make you become invested and want the best for our couple - but she by far outdid herself in her newest novel!

Piper and Harrison were one of the cutest couples I have ever read about. Seriously, their chemistry was through the roof! Their tension was immaculate and could be sliced with a knife. Some of the things that Harrison did were just so unwittingly sexy and Piper knew how to push his buttons and AHHH. The moment they finally give in was when my heart leapt out of my chest.

I probably make zero sense in this review but you SERIOUSLY need to read this book once it releases. It’s amazing and I can’t wait to have a physical copy in my hands so I can re-read it ❤️

Thank you to @berkelyromance for a copy of this book. I stayed up way too late devouring this gem!! How could I not love a MC that is a podcaster that talks about romance books. This was such a fun summer read. The burn between Harrison and Piper was amazing and when they got together - the scene was so perfect!! Harrison is the perfect cinnamon roll,, I adored how he treated Piper’s mom. This is my first time reading something from Halle and I need to go and read her backlist.

What an adorable read! I couldn’t put it down and absolutely adored the characters and the setting. This one is the perfect quick summer read and I’ll definitely be recommending it all summer long. Thank you netgalley for my free review copy!

"Any excitement I should be feeling over the fact that the royals might be moving next door have been absolutely dashed due to this sexy British dick on a power trip." —The Royals Next Door
The Royals Next Door by Karina Halle has all the elements of a completely binge-worthy beach read. Karina Halle has written a completely fabulous contemporary romance. Using what is quickly becoming a favorite—the grumpy/sunshine trope, The Royals Next Door is a unique take on a royal-themed romance.

The royals in question move in next door to the heroine, Piper, and bring in their broody bodyguard, Harrison. Set on a small island in the Pacific Northwest near Vancouver, Harrison’s job is to keep the tabloids and nosy locals at bay. Piper and Harrison’s meet cute is the stuff of rom-com gold, especially when Harrison is hell-bent on deterring Piper from accessing the driveway she shares with the newly installed royal couple.

"Because any man, any person worth their salt, would see how good you are. How sweet you are. How fun. You have a very pure, very big heart, Piper, and anyone who doesn't see that isn't worth your time. Sure, you run your mouth off a bit, but it keeps people on their toes. I know you keep me on my toes." 

I’m constantly surprised by the ingenuity of authors who dove into their creativity during this last year. The Royals Next Door was written during the tumultuous times of 2020, and with that Karina Halle effortlessly writes themes within this new release that are not only relevant but also deserve to be talked about in any genre. Themes of mental health touch each of the main characters. Piper speaks quite plainly about her struggles with her own mental illness as well as living with her mother who also has her own unique diagnoses. Harrison and the royal couple, Eddie and Monica, also deal with their own issues.

Drawing inspiration from our current reality, Eddie and Monica’s battles with the British tabloids are familiar to Harry and Meghan’s experiences. Their need to escape to a small island in an even smaller town paints a stark contrast from the hubbub of England to the small island hamlet. While Harrison deals with keeping a celebrity couple safe from prying eyes, Piper wrestles with her self-described “hermit” lifestyle and with her wanting to feel like a local even though she has lived on the island for over 5 years. Isolation themes anyone? I think readers like me will also find these themes truly relatable. I really enjoyed that Harrison and Piper’s relationship navigated each of the bigger themes of the book and then navigated each bump in the road in their relationship with a level of self-awareness and communication.

"Because there is change in the air for all of us, a fire that's growing. Sometimes you just need a spark." 

One final aspect to point out is that Karina Halle has written Piper as a devout romance reader who produces her own podcast. I am also one of those people who will go to bat for the romance industry and I loved every aspect of Piper’s journey to erase the stigma surrounding females who enjoy romance and the romance book industry as a whole. This particular storyline is wonderfully fulfilling to me, and I think speaks to the overall changing attitude towards the romance genre as a whole.

Karina Halle is one of those authors who—for me—never disappoints me whenever I pick up a book she has written. For her to write such a fun, but truly on-trend book during the pandemic is stellar. Piper and Harrison have the odds stacked against them as characters. They each bring baggage to their potential relationship yet they approach each other with communication and trust. I adored reading a romance with the angst and drama getting addressed and resolved immediately. The Royals Next Door is as refreshing as it heart-warming. Look for it to release on August 31st! The Royals Next Door is not a book to miss out on!

This book was so good I read the whole thing in one night because I didn't want to put it down.
Harrison is the perfect male lead who seems grumpy and uptight at first, but is actually so sweet and surprises you with his interests. Piper is the hilarious, small town teacher who reads smut on the side and helps her mother with her mental health issues. The titular royals next door definitely give off Meghan and Harry vibes while making them real people. The parallel is easily brawn as the author touches on the pitfalls of celebrity and racism that Eddie and Monica experience.
Overall, this was a great love story that was easy to read while still dealing with some heavier issues. I'll definitely be recommending this one!

Piper Evans keeps to herself. Being an elementary school teacher, taking care of her mother, and having her anonymous romance podcast doesn’t leave room for much else. Besides, once she found her former fiancée in a compromising position on her wedding day and called of her wedding, she’s something of a pariah in her small town, and that makes the pickings for dating very slim.
Piper is looking for to summer break where she can sit back and relax, but her plans are derailed when she finds out that members of the Royal Family will be moving next door to her. Suddenly her quiet little end of the island she lives on is bursting with paparazzi, members of the royal family security with one bodyguard, Harrison Cole, who she can’t seem to stay away from.
Piper and Harrison’s first meeting is quite comical as Piper learns that she and the Royals rumored to be moving to her small island will not only be living next door to her but sharing the driveway entrance that leads their respective homes. While neither Piper nor Harrison are immediate fans of one another, they find themselves spending more and more time together. Piper eventually meets Prince Eddie and Duchess Monica and actually develops a friendship with them as they attempt to hide out from the world. As her attraction to Harrison grows, so does her relationship with Monica where it becomes clear that a relationship with Harrison is frowned upon.
Harrison is more than just a bodyguard to the Royal Family. He served in the military with Eddie and feels he owes Eddie a lot for being there for him when he needed someone. His life is guarding his friend/boss, he doesn’t have time for relationships or romance, but Piper is getting under his skin and he’s finding it hard to stay away from her.
I found this book to be interesting, not so much by the storyline, but by the multiple storylines. While the primary story was Piper and Harrison’s attraction to each other and then their relationship, we also received “sub-stories”. The first being about a royal couple that could have had a caption that said, “Ripped from the Headlines”, about of Duke and Duchess who receive less than stellar press from the media. Then there is storyline of Piper’s mother who suffered from BPD. While these two storylines weren’t huge, they still played an integral part in Piper and Harrison’s lives. Often with these types of storylines the story for the primary characters sometimes gets lost in the mix. That wasn’t the case here. The focus stayed on Piper and Harrison. Although we received some info on Harrison’s background I would like to have seen more.
Add this one to your summer beach read list.

Oh well look, if it isn't the book that launched my giant Karina Halle obsession...

This review took quite a while to write (aside from the fact that I am very late on reviews in general) but also because I spent the last month going down a rabbit hole otherwise known as Karina Halle's backlist - now if that isn't an endorsement telling you that you need to read this book - because what else says read a book like buying all the author's other books?!?

Small town, sexy bodyguard, royal family... AND a podcast about romance books!!!! Seriously, do you even need any more convincing?!? Go pre-order this book now so that it is in your hands on August 31st!

A light and sexy story from a new-to-me author. I appreciated the discussion of different mental health issues, as well as the full-throated defense of romance novels and their readers. I also enjoyed the obvious Meghan/Harry angle. Recommended for fans of Helen Hoang

Such a fun read! I appreciate NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of the Royals Next Door in exchange for an honest review. It's a sweet and sometimes racy book about Piper, a seemingly introverted teacher and the "royals" who move in next door to her on an island off the coast of Canada. She meets their head of security and has some summer fun. This is a light, summer read that anyone is sure to enjoy.

omg i loved this so much, the characters, the romance, the tropes. everything!! i cant wait to see more from this author because this was such a fun summer read

Absolutely binge-able this summer!

What an enjoyable book! I binged this one quickly! I've been burned lately by subpar books and The Royals Next Door was FUN. I loved the quick writing and character development of almost every character that surfaced in the story. One of my critiques was how closely the story paralleled Prince Harry and MM. I'm not a huuuuuuge Harry/MM fan so that aspect of the book with Monica and Eddie felt...unoriginal. But they didn't steal the show which I appreciated. The Royals Next Door revolves around Piper, who happens to live in the guest house of the mansion the Royals move into for a year.

This book has some STEAM (didn't mind it) and also gives a nod to mental health which I appreciated.

The Royals Next Door gets 3.5 stars from me! Such a great idea for a book, an awesome premise and so unique! I also lovvved that the main character was a teacher (fellow teacher here, if you can’t tell lol). It’s a nice light-hearted beach read. Probably won’t be a re-read for me, but I did enjoy it! Thank you Netgalley for my arc in exchange for my honest review.

An all new Karina book that will have all romance lovers, especially the royal trope lovers falling in love with the main characters that show the best of passion...

Diving in with hesitation when it comes down to Karina's books, is something that I am already used to. I have somewhat of a love and dislike type of relationship with her novels. But when you get drawn into this novel by not just only the cover, and the synopsis with the word "bodyguard", you just have to know that this will be an incredible novel. And I for sure was not wrong. Though it did take me more than the normal of time to finish this story, I think the slow reading made me cherish it more instead of skipping some details here and there.

With that being said, Piper & Harrison introduce a whole new world of being an outsider looking into the royal family. Though it is a given that the royals in this novel are based on Meghan and Harry's real life story, getting those glimpses here and there of the royal couple type of romance is very peaceful and beyond romantic. Falling for Piper and Harrison though is just the way to go. Especially when this rugged, aviator sunglasses lover is romantic towards Piper,

Overall, Piper and Harrison do have a rough patch of understanding each other. But once they do open up, one can truly admit that loving these two is inevitable because you will instantly fall for them. Wether it's drunk nights at the local "pub" or secret meetings at a private lake (including some nudes scenes), this is the ideal summer read that you do not want to miss out on. I just also hope Karina keeps on writing this light, heart warming romances that we totally need in the romance community. With that hint of spice to 'em **wink wink**, it's the perfect read to dive into!

Oh I loved this one! After reading way to many dark books lately, this was so refreshing.
This romance story with a royal couple definitely based on Prince Harry and Meghan takes a really interesting/realistic approach to an otherwise scandalous story. Meet Piper Evans – an elementary school teach who is a bit of an outsider on a tiny close-knit island. Her relatively normal life gets a bit upended when the royal couple moves next door. With that couple comes their very handsome and stubborn bodyguard, Harrison! What comes next, obviously they bicker, fight, and eventually fall for each other.
I loved the characters and appreciated how they had to overcome various issues throughout the book. The story line of mental health is also extremely thoughtful and caring. And the build up to their first sex scene, HOT!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC – read it!

This was such a cute story! I really enjoyed the main character, and her goofy personality. This has an enemies-to-lovers trope, which is my favorite trope, so this was already set up for me to like it. The characters though made it so easy to enjoy. I do wish that the mom who had two personality disorders would have been portrayed a bit more consistently. I felt like she was described at the beginning as almost unable to function, but her character has huge changes, that didn't feel quite real. I think that the only other thing for me was that this felt like it was so close to what is really happening with the British royals, I kind of wanted a story that didn't feel like it was taken from headlines.

Overall though, I enjoyed this.book. The characters are lovable, and there are so many cute moments!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.