Playing the Palace

I loved his book. I think I have more highlights in this book than any in recent memory. I literally laughed out loud in so many parts. It’s clever, it’s with, it’s got some great social commentary on celebrity and the media. It’s insightful.Carter is a gay, Jewish stereotype but it’s clearly done in love. Edgar is restrained by the role he has been cast in as a member of he royal family. He secondary characters are fantastic and play important roles in moving the story forward.The story arc moves well and the relationship issues serve not only as moments of character development but also social commentary. Carter’s realizations about the situation famous people find themselves in is striking and strikes an emotional cord. It was interesting to read this book the day before Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral after a week of listening to petty ridiculous sniping in the various press outlets about the behavior/actions of Meghan Markel. So much was familiar and it made the commentary here that much more pointed.The crisis point is absolutely gut wrenching. I was alternately heartsick and irate. It’s the one criticism I have of the story because the precipitating incident is never dealt with and there’s definitely a story behind it that needed to be dealt with or there is no way Carter would have been accepted. It’s the one weakness in the story to my mind.The ending is sweet and it would be nice to see it happen in the not too distant future.

I laughed out load so often on the train I think my fellow travelers had me ready to be committed. OK, so I cried a few times too. A funny, warm , and crazy read. I’ll be back for more from Mr. Rudnick.

I find it hilarious that “gay English prince” is a legitimate subgenre of queer romance. Still, I worried that I’d find it repetitive after previously enjoying Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston and The Spare by Miranda Dubner. Overall, this book is much more of a romantic comedy like the former, but it also stands apart from those two by one notable detail: Prince Edgar is already out to the world.Therefore, Edgar has always been a queer icon to Jewish NYC event planner Carter Ogden, and their shared birthday ties them together even more. That doesn’t mean they are destined to meet, but in true New York City fashion, they end up with a private encounter at the United Nations. A bit of Carter’s personality buries the intensity of the shared attraction they experience, but throughout the story, the major reveal is how much these two men have in common at their core despite their vastly different lives.As the sole point of view character, Carter has a dynamic narrative voice that caused me to laugh out loud multiple times. He has attitude and personality in spades, and rather than subduing him to match the “reality” of the plot arc, Rudnick instead heightens a bit of the external ridiculousness factor. The outrageousness did kill a bit of the escapism factor for me, especially when I found myself rolling my eyes even while giggling.I recommend this novel to those who are interested in the gay royalty trope, but I think I’d recommend the two books mentioned previously over this one. However, I’ll happily read more of Rudnick’s work, and I have no regrets over the time I invested in this still thoroughly enjoyable novel.

This book could not be more praiseworthy. It was well written, didn’t drag on in places it didn’t need to, and was quite comical in some places. It had a good feel to it and I finished the book wishing it had been a bit longer. Excellent book. I do wish it had been a little steamy though. Excellently entertaining.

I NEVER read fiction but a review of this book caught my eye. I needed something for a 12 hour flight that was light so I ordered this and “Red, White, and Royal Blue”, thinking if I didn’t like them at least I’d fall asleep. Wrong! I finished it before landing. I lived in the UK at the same age as Carter with an English boyfriend so get the cultural differences. His family didn’t like me either. It’s pure fantasy of a plot but isn’t that what vacation reading should be? Maybe I should give fiction another try.

I had high hopes for this book. I loved the play Jeffrey by this author - clever, witty, and insightful. The first couple chapters in the sample made me think that this book would be similar. And though there are occasional quotable bits, the main character is an idiot. After chapters full of awful choices one starts to wonder why the prince is interested in him, and the character loses all credibility. The humor is broad - think Jerry Lewis goes to Buckingham Palace to marry the prince, "hilarity ensues" but it doesn't. The jokes depend on tired stereotypes with simplistic cutout characters. Around the 70% mark, our hero makes a remarkably stupid choice and lies to the reader about his memory of it - which simply disrespects the reader. 3 stars is pretty generous - I gave it a star as the proofreading was generally good and there were some clever moments. But I couldn't read past 72% or so. It just got too stupid to believe in the characters or the plot. I can't recommend it unless you really like buffoonish humor.

Bought this despite reading other negative reviews as it was only £1.99 but wish I hadn't! I was hoping for another 'Red, White & Royal Blue' but was very disappointed. The romance in this story skips the usual character and relationship building, and has the two main characters deeply in love after basically one date which just feels completely unbelievable and leaves you caring very little about them. We didn't really get to know them at all and so when their relationship hit challenges I found myself completely uninvested. And let's not get started on the inaccuracies with how the British (not English as the book kept insisting) Royal family were described - American authors really do need to do better research when basing characters on a real life institution.The best character by far was the prince's right hand man, who I imagined as Ian McKellan and he wasn't in it much!With more chapters, better character and story building and less jarring inaccuracy this book could have been wonderful but sadly it's just meh. Save your pennies and but something else!

Gave up half way (actually 54% of the way), so I definitely tried...The writing style is relentlessly, knowingly *witty*, which is draining. The characters are paper-thin caricatures I couldn’t engage with, and the story manages to be both unbelievable and predictable. It’s all surface and no substance.Not for me, this one.

Both the writing and the story miss the mark, it could’ve been a terribly fun genre read but instead it’s just generic and boring. Couldn’t finish.

An enjoyable read with a slightly different twist on the fall in love with a Royal trope. Have to admit at first I found Carter as the protagonist really hard to like, he was whiny and I found it hard to connect with him. But as the story progressed I found my opinion changing.

Lacking in any form of believability (not just the ludicrously constructed context and plot, but the coherence of character) this book is tedious, poorly constructed and has just about nothing to recommend itself.