"Cracked Kingdom" by Erin Watt

Book: "Cracked Kingdom"

Author: Erin Watt

Pages: 305

These Royals will ruin you.

Ever since Hartley Wright met Easton Royal, her life hasn’t been the same. There are enemies behind every corner and dangers beyond each door. When tragedy strikes and steals her memories, she can’t trust anyone, not even the blue-eyed boy who promises her that everything will be all right.

Because while Hartley’s memory is full of gaps, her instincts tell her Easton is dangerous. She doesn’t know if he’s the snake in the garden or her chance at salvation. The chaos he brings wherever he goes is too much to handle, the intense feelings he evokes are too confusing to unravel.

Easton wants her to remember. Hartley thinks it’s better to forget.

She might be right.

Tragedy. Treachery. Trust. Hartley has to face the facts—in this world, you can’t escape the Royals.

Either you live by their rules or you die by them.

Hello, Angels!

The story about Easton Royal continues! And what a story that was!

Sebastian Royal was in a brutal car crash and Hartley Wright is involved in it. The whole Royal family and their world has crashed down. Soyer Royal hates his brother Easton because he thinks that everything is Hartley’s fault, even though that is not entirely true. Hartley’s family hates her and blames her that she ruined their family. Hartley blames herself for the car crash and it seems like Easton and Ella are the only ones that are on Hartley’s side and doesn’t blame her for this disaster.

Hartley’s family is far from perfect - her father is controlling, tyrannical and very abusive, and Hartley’s mother lives in the illusion that their family is perfect and Hartley is the one that ruins them; the most important thing for Hartley’s mother is what would the society thinks about them. Her older sister despises Hartley and she is interested only from the family’s wealth and money. Overall - Hartley’s life is not easy. She is forced by her father to move out because she opposed him, and that is unacceptable.

Little by little Easton finds out what Hartley is going through and he is determined to help her and to be right there next to her and to support her.

Now everything’s turned upside down.

Easton went to Hartley’s house (that happened in “Fallen Heir”) to bribe him so he would not force Hartley to return to New York. The only mistake that Easton made was that he was drunk yet again. And then it happened… Sebastian - Easton’s little brother crashed in Hartley’s car. And from all the stress and pressure from both families, Hartley fell and hit her head pretty hard and is in hospital with her memories lost without any chance of getting them back.

Easton has to be responsible and he is torn between Hartley and his desire to protect her, and his brother who is in a coma. Everybody turns against Easton and like that’s not enough - a girl from school, very ambitious one that Easton turned down because of Hartley, now threatens him and is trying to destroy him. Easton has nobody to turn to and constantly pushes Ella back, he thinks that he is all alone, and he decides to go and live in Hartley’s apartment. He finally grows up, he learns how to be responsible and not to lean only on his father’s name and money. Little by little Easton leaves his addictions behind and we see a completely different side of him - a very pleasing one.

Hartley starts to fill out the lost memories by people’s stories but everyone around her lies to her and they confuse her even more. And it turns out that Easton Royal may be the only one that she can trust to tell her the truth.

Hartley and Easton start to dive into Hartley’s past and slowly they find out why her father and her whole family accuses her of lying. It turns out that years ago she saw her father taking a bribe from people to sweep under the rug very serious crimes and lose evidence. Easton and Hartley want to oppose her father and to reveal the truth, when they accidentally (well, it wasn’t that accidentally because they went to spy on him and sneak in his house) found out that Hartley’s father wants five million dollars as a bribe to lose the evidence against Ella’s father.

So, what else can Hartley and Easton do, except to team up with the rebellious Ella and secretly follow Hartley’s father on his meeting with Steve O’Halloran so they can take pictures and present them in the court, so they can put the two fathers in prison. Yes, that is perfectly good plan and definitely a good way to spend Saturday evening.

And yet everything went down the drain! Steve threatened with a gun Callum, Ella, Easton and Hartley; then shot Hartley’s father; then Hartley’s father told her that he never wanted kids and they were just a complication so he tripped her in the hospital in the hope that she would die; Hartley’s father died; Steve then threatened Ella and Callum and tried to shoot Callum but Easton got in the way and got shot and barely survived…. Yes, that was a very good plan, guys! Way to go!

To be honest, the Royals are so… dramatic. But at least everything turned out to be with a happy ending.

Ella and Reed finally got married! The ceremony even got me with tears in my eyes (but I usually am such a crying reader so…). Yay! Sebastian got better and is recovering after the incident. Hartley and her little sister moved in the Royal’s manor. And yes, they all lived happily ever after! I couldn’t hope for a better ending.

And I thought that the fourth book was dramatic and full of twists! I couldn’t be more wrong. However it was quite interesting for me to see Hartley’s life, which is not easy at all and to see what she is going through. I’ve loved to go through the pages and moments where Easton finally ditched all his addictions and turned out to be grown up, mature person and ready to protect the ones he loves. And despite the feud between the two families, Easton and Hartley managed to find themselves and to keep what they have.

I think that with all the drama, the obstacles and all the problems Easton and Hartley had to go through they have managed to find a way to each other and to overcome everything together. Yes, this book was definitely way more romantic than sexual.

Overall the book definitely got my attention and it was the perfect ending to the series, although I am not quite sure if it is an ending at all. We can never be sure with the Royals.

At the end of the day I can say that I am a fan of the series due to various reasons. Yes, I do love the beautiful and romantic books, even though those series were not exactly beautiful and at times really far away from romantic. However, the charm of the books is hidden in the simplest thing - even though the Royals are not the typical family, they manage to stay close to each other and to be a united front - they are all for one and one for all and that is what makes them strong.

The glamorous and luxurious life is not for everyone because all of this comes with countless expectations from the society and a whole other dimensions of problems. Even after all of this, I was charmed by the world that I’ve been dragged in to and I can’t shake it off - I wish I could read more and more about the Royals.

With great pleasure I am giving the last book and the series 5 /5 golden stars and with sadness that just like every other book series this one has come to an end , I am going to find something else to read.

P.S. I’ve thought of reading again the series “The Selection” by Kiera Cass but I might read them later on in time.

I will see you in the next review!