Book 2, 2025

Purrfectly Royal by Nic Saint

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


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Today I completed the ebook Purrfectly Royal by Nic Saint. It's the 13th intsallment in the "Mysteries of Max" series. Main characters are large orange cat, Max, and his human, Odelia Poole.

When Odelia's childhood friend, former actress and current Duchess of Essex, narrowly escapes death, those closest to her believe she was the target of an attempted assassination. Wanting to keep such a scandal under wraps, Tessa's mother invites Odelia, Chase, and Gran to England to help with the investigation. Naturally, Odelia brings all four cats along. What they learn is that Tessa has no shortage of haters, from staff who claim she's "difficult", to overbearing paparazzi, to Prince Dante's friends who lament that he's no fun anymore because of Tessa, to those in society who think the Prince should have married a nice English girl. The cats, led by Max, do their own sleuthing, leading them to be kidnapped along with the Queen's corgis. It seems no one in the royal family will be safe until the would-be killer is caught.

It's clear that Harry and Megan are the latest targets of the author's lampooning, but at least it was a departure in scenery. The story was fun for the most part, although I could have done without Gran being her usual moronic self. She now feels she should be the Queen of America. Her behavior isn't funny; it's tedious. I did enjoy meeting the corgis. Plotting was a tad sporadic--more a series of scenes than a smooth-flowing narrative.

Favorite lines:
♦ "She's a duchess. Duchess of Essex." // "What does a duchess of sex do?" asked Dooley. // "Essex," Harriet corrected him.
♦ "This is all your fault. We meet you and five minutes later we are being kidnapped. Coincidence? I think not!"

This deserves 3.5 stars. I'll be kind and elevate it to four. Alas, I am no longer on pace to read 365 books this year. LOL!