Broken Prince

I needed book two the night I finished book one

I finished Paper Princess annoyed at the cliffhanger and I ordered the next book the same evening. That is the only honest way to start this. Erin Watt is the joint pen name of Elle Kennedy and Jen Frederick, and Broken Prince is The Royals number two. The edition I am talking about is the EverAfter Romance 2016 paperback, 370 pages, ISBN 9781682305034. It picks up almost where book one stopped, with Ella Harper gone from Bayview and Reed Royal left to deal with the fallout.

Paper Princess ended with Ella running after she learned ugly truths about her father Steve and about the Royal family. Broken Prince opens with Reed gutted. He is the second Royal son, the one who ran Astor Park Prep through football and fear, and suddenly the girl he pushed away and then pulled close wants nothing to do with him. She tells him they wreck each other. He believes her and hates believing her.

I read most of this in two sittings. Short chapters. A lot of shouting. A lot of scenes in cars and hallways. If book one was Ella learning the house rules, book two is Reed learning what happens when those rules stop protecting him.

Reed with no Ella and no control

Reed starts the book in a bad place and it gets worse before it gets better. Ella is staying away. Callum Royal, the father, is distracted and guilty. School is watching Reed for any slip. Other boys who used to follow him smell weakness.

What I liked here is that Reed narrates a good share of the story. In book one we mostly saw him through Ella. Here we sit inside his head. He is possessive, jealous, quick to swing, loyal to his brothers in a way that sometimes looks like control. He misses Ella in a physical way. He keeps checking his phone. He drives past places she might be. He tells himself to let her go and then does the opposite.

He also makes mistakes that cost him. He parties when he should stay home. He trusts the wrong ally for a night because he wants information about Ella. He lashes out at Easton, his younger brother, when Easton tries to joke him out of a mood. None of this makes Reed sweet. It makes him readable. You see a seventeen or eighteen year old boy who was raised to win and never taught how to apologize.

Ella, for her part, is trying to reset. She finds work, a small place to stay, a routine without Royal money. She is still the girl who counts cash and checks locks. She tells herself Reed is a habit she needs to break. The book lets her be angry for a long stretch, which I appreciated. She is not playing hard to get. She is scared that loving Reed means accepting lies from everyone around him.

My gripe with this opening stretch is pacing. The first third repeats the same beat. Reed mopes, Reed fights, Reed looks for Ella, Ella refuses, repeat. I get why. Heartbreak is repetitive. Still, I skimmed a couple of party scenes because they felt like book one extras.

Astor Park decides to eat its prince

The middle of the book moves the fight to school. Astor Park Prep is a private school full of rich kids with phones, and someone always records. A private video involving Ella circulates. A bullying campaign that started in book one gets sharper. Teachers hold meetings. Parents call. Reed, who used to be untouchable, becomes a problem the school wants to manage.

This is where rivals circle him, just as the cover copy warns. Boys who lost starting spots, girls who feel owed, parents who think the Royals bring scandal. Reed gets blamed for things he did and things he only stood near. He is suspended from routines that gave his days shape. Football, which was his proof of worth, becomes another courtroom.

Ella gets pulled back into this mess sideways. She does not want Astor Park drama, but her name is in it, her image is in it, and her old job history gets thrown at her again by kids who think shaming her will lift them. One hallway scene stuck with me, where she walks through whispers and refuses to look down. Watt writes that walk well. Ella keeps her chin up without making it look easy.

Watt also brings in Dinah, a new presence around the Royal house, and other fringe characters who test loyalties. I will keep this vague to avoid spoiling turns, but the effect is clear. Reed cannot tell who is feeding stories to the school and who is just enjoying the show. Paranoia suits him badly. He confronts people in public. He makes threats he cannot back up while adults watch.

If you disliked the bullying as flirtation dynamic in book one, brace yourself. It continues here. Reed and Ella fight with words that sound cruel and then cling to each other after. The book frames this as passion. I read it as two hurt teenagers confusing intensity for honesty. That may be the point, but some scenes made me uncomfortable, especially where consent and pressure blur at parties. Readers who need clear boundaries should know the book stays messy on this front.

Callum, Steve, and the adult lies underneath

Under the teen fights sits the adult story, and for me this is the stronger thread. Callum Royal took Ella in as his ward because of Steve O Halloran, Ella's father and Callum's old friend. Steve flew planes, drank, made promises, died. Callum carries guilt about Steve and about Ella's mother. He thought money and a big house could fix a debt. It could not.

In Broken Prince we learn more about what Steve did and what Callum hid. Bank transfers. A will. Who knew Ella existed and when. Why Callum waited so long. None of the adults look good. Callum loves his sons but parents them through rules and lawyers. He tries to protect Reed from police and school boards by calling contacts, which only teaches Reed that consequences can be bought off until they cannot.

Ella's mother hovers over all of this too. She died before book one, but her choices shape every reveal. Ella keeps a few small objects from that life and refuses to let rich people rewrite her mother as a cautionary tale. I found those moments touching. Ella will take Royal help for school or safety, but she will not let Callum or Reed speak for her mom.

Brooke, the polished girlfriend figure from book one who used a pregnancy claim to hold Reed, is gone in a way that still poisons rooms. People reference her, blame her, miss the version of her they liked. The book does not redeem her so much as show how a school and a family needed a villain and picked her. I wished Watt had given her a bit more interior life, even in flashback, instead of letting her function as a plot device.

The adult mess explains why Ella ran at the end of book one and why she hesitates to return. It is not only Reed. It is the sense that every kindness from the Royals comes with a hidden ledger. When Callum finally talks plainly, late in the book, it helps. I just wanted that talk fifty pages earlier.

Easton and the other brothers hold and drop the rope

One reason to read this sequel is Easton. He was comic relief with a wound in book one. Here he gets more weight. He drinks too much, owes money in places that scare him, jokes through pain, and still shows up for Reed when it matters. He drives Reed home. He covers at school. He tells Ella truths Reed will not say because Reed is too proud.

Easton also makes his own messes. He flirts with danger because stillness feels worse. A subplot about debts and bad friends could have carried its own novella. I sometimes liked Easton scenes more than the central romance because Easton admits he is lost. Reed insists he has a plan while clearly improvising.

Gideon, the oldest brother away at college, calls and visits in bursts. He plays the steady hand, the one who remembers their late mother and tries to keep Callum honest. Sawyer and Sebastian, the twins, are younger and meaner in packs. They test Ella, then defend her in uneven ways. One twin warms faster. The other holds grudges. Watt keeps their voices distinct enough that I stopped mixing them up, which I could not do in book one.

The house itself feels emptier in this book. Staff come and go. Rooms stay shut. Dinners are tense or skipped. Bayview money is still there, cars and clothes and a pool that glitters while everyone argues, but the safety is gone. I thought that was smart. A mansion should feel cold when trust leaves.

A small criticism. With five brothers plus Callum plus school rivals plus new hangers on, some side faces blur. A boy who threatens Reed at a party in one chapter vanishes for a hundred pages. A girl who leaks a photo gets punished off page. I lost track of who knew what about the video and when. If you read fast like me, you might flip back.

Ella comes back and they have to earn it

About two thirds in, Ella and Reed stop circling and start talking, really talking, in fits. She returns to Bayview orbit not because Reed begs best but because staying away costs her too. Work dries up. School options narrow. Lies follow her even outside Royal circles. She realizes exile did not give her peace, only distance.

Their reunion is not cute. It is arguments in parked cars, in stairwells, in a kitchen at midnight while the house sleeps. Ella sets terms. No more games at school. No more deciding for her. Tell the truth about Steve and about that night that broke them. Reed agrees and then fails and then tries again. Watt lets him fail more than once, which I respected. Change here is slow.

There is a hearing style showdown at school and a family confrontation at home that I will not detail beat by beat. The shape is familiar from soap plots. Evidence comes out. A rival overplays a hand. An adult finally uses power for protection instead of cover up. Reed takes a hit to his status that actually helps him grow. He apologizes with actions, showing up where Ella needs muscle or quiet, not with grand speeches.

The last act also resolves, for now, the question of whether Ella will accept being a Royal ward with money attached. She does not choose luxury or poverty in a tidy way. She chooses school, work she can stand, people who tell the truth more often than they lie. She lets Reed stay, but not lead. That felt right for her age and history.

I closed the book satisfied in the way you feel after a long episode that finally lets two people sleep through the night. Not everything is fixed. Easton still drinks. Callum still hedges. The twins still need growing up. But Reed and Ella have a base to stand on. Book three, Twisted Palace, is clearly set up, with family enemies still out there and school power still up for grabs.

What works, what creaks, and who should pick it up

What works is speed and heat. Watt writes short scenes that end on hooks. Dialogue snaps. Reed and Ella have chemistry even when they fight. Ella remains the anchor. She works shifts, studies for tests, grieves her mom in flashes, refuses to be bought. Reed is more interesting as a narrator than I expected, self aware in bursts and blind the rest of the time. The class tension still bites. Ella counting tips while Royal boys toss cash for bail style favors never stops feeling gross in a useful way.

What creaks is repetition and handling of harm. The middle sags with parties that look alike. The video and photo plots lean on shame aimed at a teenage girl to power suspense, and the book sometimes frames male protection as the cure for male cruelty. Adults arrive late. Consequences bend for rich kids until the plot needs them firm. Brooke is flattened. Some rivals are cartoons.

Who should read it. If you finished Paper Princess and need the payoff, read this next. You cannot skip it. The two books form one story. Readers who like new adult romance with high school edges, enemies to lovers heat, football and prep school politics, and mansion family soap will move fast. Readers who want careful consent, steady adults, or realistic school discipline should pause. The book has drinking, drug use, sexual content, bullying, slut shaming, and violence. It suits older teens and adults who know how to skim when a scene turns sour.

On craft, prose is plain and quick, heavy on looks and clothes and cars, light on Bayview scenery. You will not get long reflections. You will get texts, stares, slammed doors. That fits Reed. For the EverAfter Romance 2016 edition at 370 pages, the font and spacing make it a fast weekend read. Keep Paper Princess beats in mind while you read, because Broken Prince assumes you remember who leaked what and who owes whom. I kept a mental list of brothers. Gideon oldest and mostly away, Reed intense second, Easton charming third, twins Sawyer and Sebastian youngest. That helped.

I liked it more than book one by a small margin, mostly because Reed has to sit in shame and Ella holds her line longer. It is not a book I would hand to someone new to romance. It is a book I would hand to someone who already cares about Ella and wants to see if Reed can become worthy of her without ruining himself first.