Experience The Dramatic Lover's Taboo That Is "His Royal Secret"

29485840 Title:  His Royal Secret
Series:  (His Royal Secret #1)
Author:  Lilah Pace
Review Format:  eARC
Publisher:  Intermix
Rating:  4.5 Stars

The first in an enchanting new male/male romantic duology from Lilah Pace, author of Asking for More and Begging for It ....

James, the handsome, cosmopolitan Prince of Wales, is used to being in the public eye. But he's keeping a king-sized secret...James, next in line for the throne, is gay.

He’s been able to hide his sexual orientation with the help of his best friend and beard, Lady Cassandra. Sometimes he feels like a coward for not coming out, but he daren’t risk losing the crown. If he did, the succession would fall on his deeply troubled younger sister, Princess Amelia. To protect her, James is willing to live a lie.

While on holiday, he meets Benjamin Dahan—a rugged international reporter with a globe-trotting, unattached life—who catches far more than James's eye. And when Ben is transferred to London, it seems fate may finally be smiling on James.

But what began as a torrid fling grows into something far more intimate and powerful. Soon James will have decide who he is, what he wants from life and love, and what he’s willing to sacrifice for the truth...  -Goodreads


My Thoughts
Falling in love should never be hard...
But for James, the very young, very handsome, and very closeted  Prince of Wales.  Falling in love can be dangerous.

Benjamin Dahan is a man who's life is lived in freedom.  The freedom to travel the world in his career as a financial reporter.  The freedom to drift causally from one lust filled hook-up to the next...without worry or consequence.  The freedom to look beyond the pomp and circumstance of courtly decorum, wealth, and title, to the man.
A man that he desires.  A man who, thanks to a rainstorm, a spontaneous holiday, and fate; Benjamin finds himself alone in a room with, for what become the most life altering hours of his existence.

James knows that the last thing that he should do is to involve himself with anyone outside of his very tight inner circle.  Least of all, the tall and darkly sensual reporter.  But even after personal tragedy suddenly strikes the royal family, and James is suddenly called home. He can't seem to forget the man or the passion that is Benjamin Dahan.
  
For Ben, information such as the secret that the prince is carrying would undoubtedly make his career.  But he also knows that revealing such information would destroy the man...and possibly the monarchy.
Saddled with the greater responsibility and closer public scrutiny in his new role as Prince Regent. James and the world can only wait and pray that his father is able to retake the throne after a sudden and devastating stroke.  Meanwhile, left to face the challenges of both his personal and public existances, and with the literal weight of his world resting squarely on his shoulders. It is imparitve that James steers clear of scandal of any sort.  Most of all, that surrounding who he may or may not be sleeping with.  But try as he might...James just can't seem to escape his desire for the one man who, because he once held his body in his arms.  Now holds his fate in his hands.

Lila Pace's fictionalized version of "life behind the crown," makes both James and Ben relatable to readers.  In effect, stripping them down to lovers, brothers, friends, and people.  Because of this, you as the reader cheer for every stolen kiss, every successful rendezvous, and every torrid coupling between these two gorgeous men.

Making things even more complex for James, and further endearing him to his audience the fact that his secret is not the only one he's keeping.  His younger sister, Princess Amelia, suffers in silence from a debilitating anxiety disorder, which makes her afraid to leave her home.  A disorder that she has resorted to self harm in a order to deal with.

James is also a man tormented by guilt.  A guilt that he feels anew each time that he looks into the face of the one woman, apart from his sister, that he loves most in the world.  His best friend and supposed fiancée, Lady Cassandra.  Who finds herself the object of public scorn and redicule after making the mistake of being seen kissing the man with whom she is secretly in love.

Through the skillful crafting of each of the dramatic building blocks that this review references, and a great many more besides.  Readers are ushered into a world where the most privileged, are yet the most deprived.

But as the passion between Ben and James grows into something so much more than either of the two a prepared for.
The questions must be asked.

Can they really have it all?
And...if so.
At what price?

Reviewer's Note:  This book is the first in a consecutively related duology.
As such, it is highly suggested that you read the much anticipated follow up novel, His Royal Favorite.

*The above review was provided in exchange for the galley received from the Intermix Publishing, a division of Berkeley Romance and Netgalley.









About Lilah

 Lilh Pace is a pseudonym for a New York Times bestselling author, so she can’t give away too much about herself here, but she has lived everywhere from Italy to the United Kingdom before putting down roots in the American South.
She’s addicted to Diet Coke, loves her dog, and daydreams about several British movie stars (though usually no more than two at a time).
And while it took her a long while to get up the courage to write books, now she hopes she’ll never stop.
Find Her:

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