Wicked Queen (Royals World #2) by Geneva Lee Review

Hi ForeverBookers, 

How are you all today? Hope you’re well! It’s very hot, where I am in the world! 

I’ve just finished “Wicked Queen”/“Claim Me,” Royals World book 2 by Geneva Lee and I really enjoyed it. 

3.5 Stars!

“Wicked Queen”/“Claim Me” is book 2 in the Royals World trilogy, which is meant to be read after the Royals series by the same author, as it’s a progression of that series. We follow Clara, who got pregnant with the second royal baby in “Wild King”/“Cross Me” and is still pregnant in book 2 have to deal with the fallouts and drama of Royal life. Secrets get revealed and the tagline for the book is “Every family has its secrets,” which is true, certainly in this case. We have to watch the characters deal with these secrets, and it’s addictive. I think that’s the best word to describe this series. 

“Wicked Queen”/“Claim Me,” like “Wild King”/“Cross Me” (book 1 in the Royals World series) is told in dual POV. Both Clara and Alexander’s POV’s are in the book, unlike in the Royals series, which only had Clara’s POV. One person who’s been brought up in the Royals World and so knows what to expect, Alexander, as well as someone who doesn’t know what to expect, Clara. This made the novel interesting because we could see from both sides. Can Alexander and Clara learn to come together to make decisions? You’ll need to read to find out!

I read Wicked Queen for a few readathons! They were:

Cardcaptor-a-thon - The Sleep - Where a character has a tiring job - In the anime Cardcaptor Sakura, Fujitaka, Sakura’s Dad (Aidan in the 90’s dub) is a university professor. The Sleep Card sends him and his colleagues to sleep...In “Wicked Queen”/“Claim Me,” Alexander and Clara are King and Queen of England, which is about the most tiring real life job I can think of. Especially pregnant as Clara is - #4

Reading Rivalry - A book with less than 5000 ratings on Goodreads - “Wicked Queen” or “Claim Me,” as it’s known on Goodreads has 203 ratings on Goodreads, which is less than 5000. 

Fiction Feud Society - for 15 points - author birthplace or residence - Geneva Lee is from  North America (USA).

Book Junky Trials - Queendom Stone - Read a book featuring Royalty - “Wicked Queen”/“Claim Me” does this in spades as it’s about Clara learning her place in the Royal order. 

Sweet Shop Reading Challenge - Rolo - Read a book in your favourite genre or by your favourite author - contemporary romance is my favourite genre and that’s what “Wicked Queen”/“Claim Me” is.

Sims-a-thon - Live Mode - Get Married - Read a book with an already established relationship...Clara and Alexander are married before this book in the series.

I couldn’t fit “Wicked Queen”/“Claim Me” into a Popsugar 2019 challenge, as what it would have worked for I’d already read.

The Royals books are ALL ADULT reads, due to the sex scenes and grown up themes discussed. There’s also BDSM in “Wicked Queen”/”Claim Me.” 

Spoilers Below

The novel starts with Clara and Alexander cross at each other after the reveal of the mystery character from “Wild King”/“Cross Me.” Clara thinks that Alexander doesn’t trust her with his secrets, which as King of England he has lots of. 

“I would have laughed if I’d had it in me. Another lie. It was getting harder to decide which I hated more, the lies or the secrets, although it didn’t seem like there was much difference between the two.”

is what Clara says to herself as soon as she finds out about the secret/lie that Alexander has kept from her. The secret person is indeed, Alexander’s sister, Sarah. She was drugged when she was 16. Clara knew none of this before this novel. Sarah lost out on ten years of her life because she was in a coma so she’s missed out on lots of her young life, meaning she’s angry and annoyed. Does she take it out on the right people, though? Or is it the wrong people she takes it out on? You’ll have to read to find out. This is a lot of this book, which I didn’t mind. There was a lot of Sarah drama as she settles back into life as a Royal. I laughed at a lot of these sections. Sarah is a bitch when she comes into the story. She thinks that she should be Queen, I think, which of course won’t happen. She acts very spoilt, as is seen in,

“It’s fine. Not like I’ll stay. I’m old now. Don’t you have to gift me a house or something.” The word “gift” denotes her as spoilt, as she thinks that just because she’s a part of the royal family and has missed out on years of her life, due to a bad decision on her part that everyone else should make up for it. It was HER fault, her choices, no one else’s. This is what Alexander tries to get through to her throughout the novel. Sarah has friends from when she was 16. One of those being a character from previous books, Pepper. Pepper is nasty and spiteful. She thinks that because her life didn’t turn out the way she expected that no one else deserves a happy future. 

“She hadn’t been born to be a royal. She’d been born a queen,” is what Alexander thinks of Clara, whom he loves beyond all else. He just wants to protect her and his family. This novel isn’t really about Alexander, though. He’s very much on the outskirts.  

In “Wicked Queen”/”Claim Me” Clara keeps a secret from Alexander about the baby she’s carrying. Will everything work out okay for him/her. She tells Belle, her best friend, who’s also pregnant and offers her council. You’ll need to read to find out what happens...

“I hate days like this, where I’m too busy being Queen to be a mother. It makes me feel guilty,” is what Clara thinks when she doesn’t feel like she can be a mother to Elizabeth, her firstborn with Alexander, as well as the Queen of England. Clara is the kind of heroine that I love reading from because she’s clearly grown from Command Me, where she was an American who didn’t know much about or even care much about the English monarchy, to now still being an American but one who has to learn to embrace life as a Queen. “Wicked Queen”/“Claim Me” is as much about Clara learning how to be Queen as it’s about Sarah realising that she won’t be Queen. I think the first title of this book, just“Wicked Queen” comes from Clara learning that she has to be at least a little strict or wicked to be the Queen that England and the wife/sister/mother her family deserves, as well as perhaps the BDSM elements that are brought into the latter part of the novel. 

In “Wicked Queen/“Claim Me” there aren’t really any issues that arise between Alexander and Anders, his brother that we meet in “Wild King”/“Cross Me,” that there were in the that novel. There are a few little bumps but nothing to take away from Clara. She’s really the driving force of ”Wicked Queen”/“Claim Me,” where Alexander was in “Wild King”/“Cross Me.” I enjoyed the novel being focused on Clara and her role of becoming Queen. 

There are “Twilight” references when Sarah first comes to stay at Buckingham Palace. She was part way through reading “Twilight” when she was drugged. Her room hadn’t been touched in the time since then so everything was left the same. Sarah asks Clara, “does she end up with the vampire or the werewolf?” meaning Bella, the heroine of “Twilight.” I liked how “Twilight” was referenced as it was incredibly popular when it was released. This just shows the gap of time that has elapsed since Sarah’s accident. 

There is a cliffhanger ending at the end of “Wicked Queen”/“Claim Me” that I of course won’t spoil but I’m excited to read the third and I think final book in the Royals World series. Overall I enjoyed “Wicked Queen”/”Claim me.” I didn’t think it was the best in the Royals series but it was more about character growth than the plot, I believe. We ultimately see Clara become who she’s meant to be and as I said above, I’m excited to see what will happen in the last book...

Stand by for my next review coming soon...