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Blurb

When I first applied for the job I thought it would be like all the others: working as a nanny for an aristocratic family.
Then I got the job and found out how wrong I was.

Now I’m the new nanny for two adorable little girls who happen to be princesses.

Their father is the widowed King of Denmark.
And my new home? The royal palace in Copenhagen.
Adjusting to my new life isn’t easy but the hardest part hasn’t been the girls who still grieve over the loss of their mother.

It’s their father.
Cold, mysterious and moody, with an icy stare that seems to penetrate your soul, King Aksel may have hired me to take care of his daughters but he wants as little to do with me as possible.

Yet the longer I share these palace walls with this man, the more that I’m drawn to him. His chiseled face and sexual swagger are only part of the package. It’s in the long, intense glances at the dinner table, the way we’ll brush up against each other in the halls, the rare glimpses of the man deep inside, like the sun passing through clouds.
But no matter how I feel about him, we can never be together.

You think it’s bad enough being in love with your boss?
Try falling in love with a king.

A Standalone Royal Romance Spin-Off

 

 

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Review

5 Royal stars!

Karina Halle, you have stolen my heart once again! This beautiful, heart-pounding read is a wonderfully slow burning forbidden-ish romance between the widowed King of Denmark and the feisty Australian Nanny hired to care for his two young daughters. It’s full of chemistry, fantastic sexual tension, sizzling hotness and a gorgeously swoony love story that completely swept me away, and I absolutely loved it!

This book fits into Karina’s royal standalones, and we have seen glimpses of King Aksel in the previous books, but this one can be enjoyed independently with only minor mentions of the characters from the other books, so feel free to read this one on its own – but don’t miss out on The Swedish Prince and The Wild Heir because they are fantastic!

King Aksel of Denmark was left heart-broken and guilt-ridden following the death of his wife. She was revered for her charity work, beloved by his people, and they were considered a golden couple with their two beautiful young princess. But the reality of their marriage was very different, and in the two years since her death, Aksel has been lost to his self-loathing and anger as he struggles to deal with the secrets and lies that he has been forced to live.

Fate has made me the lost king, encased in cheap armor that only keeps up appearances, forever fighting a battle he will never win.

And then along comes Aurora James. Aurora is a 25 year old Australian living in France and working as a Nanny. She is well-respected and she knows she’s good at her job, but she’s still stunned when she lands an interview with the royal family of Denmark. She falls instantly in love with the two little girls she will be caring for, and they with her, though their father is less than impressed with her. But she is given the job and moves herself into the royal palace.

Of course Aurora recognises the hotness of his Highness from the moment she first lays eyes on him, and though she is smart and sensible, she knows nothing about royal protocols, and her lack of filter does not go down well. And with Aksel’s perpetually bad mood and Aurora’s penchant for referring to him as him “King Asshole”, the antagonism between them is fiery as, for the first time, somebody dares talk back to the King and he finds that he quite likes it.

“Did you talk to all your past employers this way?” he eventually asks.
“I would have if they were as rude as you.”
Both of his brows shoot up and I’m prepared for him to start shouting to his secret service and have me dragged off to the guillotines.
Instead he gives me a tight smile. “I’ll be paying your salary. That doesn’t mean I have to like you.”
“And I’ll be earning that salary. That doesn’t mean I have to like you either.”

And of course… things slowly begin to shift. Aurora recognises that more than simply taking care of the Princesses Clara and Freya, they need love and light back in their lives, and that’s exactly what she brings, effortlessly brightening their days and bringing them back to life. At the same time, impacting on their father in a big way.

I see her like she was tonight with the girls, caring for them as she does with her big, persistent heart…
Is it fucked up to want that?
Is it even more fucked up to want that from her?

As Aurora becomes a pivotal part of the palace, she and Aksel slowly begin to grow closer, and every moment of it just sizzles! A true, caring friendship develops but their attraction to each other simmers through each encounter and the stares, the smiles, the brief touches and sweet gestures are absolutely delicious. They both know they can’t do anything about it, but their longing for each other is a palpable thing and I could feel every spine-tingling moment of it.

Our eyes lock and that tension and heat I’m always trying to ignore crackles between us.
She’s going to ruin me, I’m sure.
For once I might not mind.

It’s crazy. It’s crazy. I’m the nanny, he’s the king, but even though I tell myself this over and over again like a broken record, it does nothing to stop it. I throw words and logic at my heart and it deflects them every time.
I love him and it’s killing me that I can’t have him.

The inevitable culmination of all of that sexual tension is just as epic as I was hoping, filled with so much hotness, and a surprising amount of dirty talk from the filthy royal. But it’s filled with so much emotion making it all very heartfelt and romantic as they give into their feelings, and it’s a total swoonfest!

“Look at you,” he whispers harshly, gaze roaming all over my face from my eyes to my nose to my temple to my lips.
“Me?”
He gives a faint shake of his head. “What a rare and beautiful thing you are.”

And totally freaking hot…

I surrender completely.
I want to give him everything.
I want him to take me, take me over, devour me.
Rule me.
I want every single part of him, deep inside. I want to see how much of him I can take, how he feels from the inside, what it’s like to be thoroughly fucked by the King of Denmark.

But as much as Aksel and Aurora feel for each other, they have so much standing in their way. Not just their positions and responsibilities, but secrets from the pasts which threaten to unravel everything that they have found.

“Aurora,” he whispers against my mouth. “How can I keep you forever?”

OMG, I love this love story so much! There is so much passion, emotion and intensity, and though their situation is far from simple, there is a natural easiness to them that is so, so beautiful. They love each other deeply, and it’s gorgeous to see them embracing that – and the forbidden secretiveness to their relationship just makes it all the more exciting. Aksel completely stole my heart – as King, father and lover, he is an amazing man and I fell for him in a big way. And Aurora is just perfect for him. The light to his dark, she brings so much into his world, and they are wonderful together, true partners despite their obvious differences. It’s no surprise how the book is going to end up, it’s just a matter of hanging on with these two as they honestly and functionally deal with the hurdles they are faced with and figure it all out together, and I freaking love that!

“I am a king. And I belong to you in ways I never thought possible. More than I belong to my people, more than I belong to the people, I belong to you.”

Swoooooooooooooooooon!

This is a beautiful read, possibly a little bit sugary in places, but an exciting and all-consuming romance that had me captivated from start to finish.

5 stars.

An Advanced Reader Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

 

Karina Halle’s Royal Standalones

 

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Meet Karina

Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of The Pact, Love, in English, The Artists Trilogy, Dirty Angels and over 20 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.

Halle is represented by the Root Literary and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.

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