God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen

Summary: Georgie and Darcy are “invited” to spend Christmas with the royal family. 

This past fall, I reread the Inspector Gamache book to prepare for the 18th book in the series. I enjoyed reading the series back to back instead of once a year because I saw subtle connections between the books I missed when I read them a year apart. But the other part is that the Inspector Gamache books have a depth to them that allows for rereading and the quality across the series is high enough that I want to reread them all.

I have continued to read the Royal Spyness series (which I originally started about the same time I started reading the Inspector Gamache series) because it is light cotton candy. A bit of fluff is enjoyable now and then. I read this in print in two days. The books are not long, and they read quickly. But I can't imagine rereading the whole series or reading more than two or three in a year because they don't hold my interest well.

I am reading this one more than a year after it was released because I didn't want to pay full price for a book I will not reread and do not care about that much. The $1.99 I paid was worth it, but I wouldn't have paid much more because the series has stalled.

Georgie, after having solved over a dozen murders and protected various members of the royal family many times, still is unsure of herself. And while Darcy is a good loving husband, he still isn't including her in his work even though she is just as skilled at being a detective as he is. The “naive girl that happens to solve a murder” schtick is getting a bit old.

I enjoyed the book as I read it, even if it was a bit frustrating. But it is hard to recommend the books without plenty of caveats about them not really being all that good. I like the characters, even with their weaknesses. And Bowen has decent plots. But they are still fluff, and it has been a while since I thought the series was worth recommending.