So I got to about the 30% mark on this one and I couldn’t connect to the writing or story. So I put it down and came back to it again and only made it to the 45% mark before I decided to DNF. I didn’t write a review for it as I didn’t finish it and I didnt think that would be fair to the book or author. It was just a book that I couldn’t connect with

This book was not for me. I appreciate the publishers and netgalley giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Falling Hard for the Royal Guard is a fun story of a young woman finding herself after a bad relationship and loss of a parent.

This was a cute concept-at times it got a little slow but if you enjoy royal books that are not historical fiction this is a great pick!

I really wanted to like this book, but it just was not for me. While the history bits were interesting, the characters just did not mesh well. I didn't feel any of them were particularly likeable, and the romance was basically non-existent

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of Falling Hard for the Royal Guard by Megan Clawson.

This book sounded super cute before I picked it up. But I just couldn’t make it through this one. Maggie’s clumsiness was so cringeworthy and gave me ultimate secondhand embarrassment to the point that I was getting annoyed with it. I hated that she didn’t stand up to her bullies at work. You’re all adults. Just stand up for yourself. I was so perturbed that she just took the bullying without saying anything. And her ex was awful to her but she didn’t say a single word to get him to stop hurting her. Every time he did something she didn’t do anything to stop him. I just couldn’t take her character anymore so I chose to dnf.

I struggle with DNFing a book, but this was one that I had to put down. I had a hard time following the character and even becoming invested in what was happening. I was really disappointed because the premise sounded really good!

Thank you very much for the opportunity to read this book early! I really enjoyed it. I thought the writing was very well done, and the story kept me interested. The whole story was just so cute and adorable. I believe my students/patrons would also love this book and will be acquiring it for the library!

Wow, what an incredible disappointment. I had high hope for this….an interesting premise (girl lives in the Tower of London i. Modern times and falls in love with a guardsman), but the story fell flat at every turn.

To start, Maggie is incredibly unlikable. She’s depressed, codependent, a people pleaser and 90s-romcom-heroine clumsy, her only friends are ravens, she has zero meaningful conversations with anyone until she meets Freddie, and she has no self confidence or ability to stand up for her self.

Enter Freddie, who in the end is sweet enough, but rarely reveals much personality beyond cursory politeness and runs hot and cold for most of the book, spending time with Maggie and then abruptly disappearing or rudely dismissing her. I mostly worry that they barely know each other and neither of them have great support systems, so this whole relationship is a recipe for codependency.

And the Tower of London. Sigh. I’ve never been, and that was honestly by choice. I didn’t care enough to go there while I was in London, mostly because I lack the interest in English military history (however, I’m all on board for Scottish history of all kinds). But the way this book was written, it was too specific about the descriptions of the tower. Essentially, the book was so enamored with describing every detail of the tower, regardless of whether it’s relevant to the story (spoiler alert: it’s not.). As someone who’s never been, I spent way too much time trying to understand the places being described only to realize 90% of those details didn’t matter to the story at all.

Honestly, this book would have been a million times better with a more interesting heroine (who gets herself therapy when she needs it), Freddie’s perspective so the author could make him into more than a thin idea, and use of the tower only to drive the story forward. The only time I really enjoyed myself was when Maggie shared (either audibly or in her thoughts as narration) the tidbits of little-known history. I think you could try again and just write your combination history book/memoir of living in the tower.

I wish I could say I liked it more.

This book was a quick read! Lots of details about the setting as well! However I kept hoping for a bit more chemistry between the two leads.

I did not finish this one, it was not for me, I couldn't relate to the characters, and just did not care for the story.

I was very excited to read this one but it did not capture me as I expected. It seemed more like the author really should have written more of a general fiction novel or even a non fiction book about the setting, the Tower of London, the beefeaters, and the people. I thought the romance felt more like a little of an afterthought and way more attention was given to the setting than the character development. It just didnt grab me as much as I had hoped.

Maggie lives with her military father in the Tower of London - surrounded by Beefeaters and history. However, Maggie lives in the present day, so she turns to Tinder to find her knight in shining armour. When she meets Royal Guard Freddie, she thinks she might get a fairy-tale ending after all.

So the cover of this book implies that it will be a “cute” book (I mean, there is a heart on the corgi’s behind), and this is not a cute book - it’s pretty serious. Maggie is dealing with the death of her mother, a gaslighting ex, and a terrible work environment - not to mention her self worth. Freddie is also dealing with serious family issues and a serious job. The one word I’d use to describe this book was SLOW. It wasn’t bad - I enjoyed learning about the Tower of London - but it wasn’t the cute romance I expected from the cover. This is definitely a me thing, but my expectations didn’t match the book cover or the blurb.

Love love love. This book was perfection. It was adorable and romantic. And was the kinda book I needed right now. I absolutely adored it!

Falling Hard For The Royal Guard by Megan Clawson was such a fun read! This book is about Maggie who lives at home with her father who is a "beef eater" which I gathered from context clues means was part of the British military. Her home, by the way, is the Tower of London. She also works at the Tower as a ticket taker. Maggie has no work friends, feels stuck in her job, and her ex won't stop bothering her. She's gone onto to Tinder but encounters catfishes and disastrous dates. However, as Maggie is rushing someplace, she crashes into Freddie. It turns out Freddie is one of the Royal Guard. Eventually the two strike up a friendship that may just become something more.

I thought that Falling Hard For The Royal Guard was a sweet, light read. This is the perfect book for reading will out by the pool or sitting in the shade. I was transported to the Tower of London and just loved the setting aspect of this book. I did think Maggie as a character was a little over the top with her disastrous life. She absolutely does not have it together at all, has no friends, a terrible job, and is unlucky in love. However, Maggie is dynamic and soon her life does slowly begin to turn around and she gets friendly with the different royal guardsmen. Also, loved her with Freddie. The trope of friends to lovers is well done, even if at first they aren't really friends. Overall, if you want a contemporary romance that feels escapist, grab Megan Clawson's Falling Hard For The Royal Guard.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me an Arc of #FallingHardfortheRoyalGuard
The cover, the blurb, the whole Premise of this book looked really promising but unfortunately it just didn't do it. I ended up DNFing around 20%, the beginning had real Potential I loved the setting of the book being in the tower of London and the history that you learned with the story was really nice and I didn't mind the writing but as the story went along it just crumbled for me.

One of my most hated tropes is the crazy, toxic, abusive, Ex boyfriend so as soon as the trash came around I knew I would have issues with the book. But I was hopeful that he would Disappear but nope and on top of that the main character just having no self respect, one Minute she's expressing how terrible he was and mentally/Physically abusive he was and how she would never go back to him or whatever and the next he shows up somewhere in a creepy stalker way and goes on in her head about the "good" parts in their relationship and all this other stuff that I just blacked out on. But on top of the ex, the main character would cry Nonstop over the littlest convince. I have nothing against crying but not when the littlest Inconvenience happens which is every chapter.

And if the crying constantly wasn't embarrassing enough after the main character Crashes into the love interest aka a royal guard and breaks whatever he was carrying and it hurts her finger, the Next day or so She literally goes to his work, while he's on post, and confronts him about how she's sorry she broke that thing and can't pay for it, then she turns to walk away but then comes back, and then goes on and on about the item he had and how it hurt her and shows him her finger and then starts, of course, crying in front of everyone. And again, he's a royal guard on duty who can't talk to her and she's in her mind twenties I believe.

Overall I think this book did have a lot of potential but the way the characters were written on top of the most unbelievable actions, Scenes, characters, and Choices just made this book fall flat.

This is a sweet love story and I'm looking forward to more. This is very definitely a first novel (the appeal of the male MC is a little hard to see, tbh) but I am looking forward to more. The setting is one I've never seen before, and I would love more set here.

Megan Clawson’s debut novel is an entertaining read. She provides historical facts and details about the protagonist’s (Maggie’s) home, which happens to be within the London Tower. I really appreciated these details because I love history. The humour was spot on, which had me giggling and overall, I enjoyed reading this novel.

What I will say about this book is that it’s marketed incorrectly. This book is centrally focused on Maggie’s insecurities, her mental health and her very unique home and surroundings. Her character arc is well developed but this wasn’t a book that centered around her budding feelings with love interest, Freddie. A lot of the relationship development was missing as Maggie and Freddie barely see each other throughout the entire story, so I couldn’t buy the ending all that much. What also contributes to this conclusion is that the title, while so adorable (and of course, the charming cover!), doesn’t fit in with the main plot of the story. It makes the reader think this is a romance novel when really it’s a women’s fiction novel, which contributes to confusion and dare I say, a bit of disappointment. I would say this falls in-line with Sophie Kinsella books that are hilarious in itself, but expect the romance to play a backseat to the protagonist’s character arc.

I was really looking forward to this one but in the end it just didn't quite work for me. I love the point of view from inside the Tower of London. I hadn't realized that people actually lived inside and really liked the details provided. Overall the immaturity of the main character made this book a struggle to get through and the romance hard to believe.