{A Resplendent Royals Review} Royally Drawn by Maude Winters

Royally Drawn by Maude Winters
Series: Resplendent Royals, Resplendent Royals #3
Published by Palas Publishing on October 25th, 2024
Genres: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary
Pages: 237
Buy on Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Storygraph, BookBub
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Drawn to the flame against all reason, is Ingrid about to get burned?

Princess Ingrid is taking the equestrian world by storm. When a teammate invites her to a pre-wedding party aboard a yacht, she gets more than a little fun in the sun.

When Prince Keir arrives for his cousin’s stag-hen party after a long deployment, he expects relaxation and debauchery. He doesn’t anticipate a new arrival, the much younger Princess Ingrid. To his chagrin, his stepbrother Lars sees her first. While they’ve never come to blows over a woman, Lars and Keir are used to competing for the same prizes. After a wild night, Keir throws down the gauntlet, and all bets are off.

Ingrid enjoys her springtime game of cat-and-mouse with Keir but isn’t convinced he’s worth the stress of a long-term commitment. He’s a cocky womanizing pilot—in contrast to his sweeter stepbrother. But as everyone loses themselves to a fever pitch of competitions and royal weddings, Ingrid cannot deny the undeniable chemistry she has with Keir.

When push comes to shove, will Ingrid follow her heart and give Keir a chance? Will Keir convince her he can give her the love she deserves? And will they crash and burn or ride off into the sunset together?

I received Royally Drawn for free. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Also in this series: Yachts and Yuletide

Young royals create royal drama. With Keir and Ingrid, the drama, the spice, and the romance are high in the third book in Maude Winters’ Resplendent Royals series, Royally Drawn.

Ingrid is finally able to shake off her grandmother’s cruel shadow. As a Princess of Neandia, Ingrid becomes friends with many other young royals. At twenty-one, she is one of the youngest invited to the bachelor/bachelorette trip of Cecilia, Crown Princess of Norway, and Isak, Prince of Denmark. On a beautiful yacht in Aruba is where Ingrid’s world collides with Keir, the Duke of Inverness. At thirty-two, Keir navigates his way through life as a military pilot flying jets all over the world. His love for the cockpit is only rivaled by the love for his enormous royal family led by his aunt, Queen Natalie. The attraction is instant when Keir and Ingrid meet above deck, but Keir’s brother, Lars, wants a shot at Ingrid as well. Keir is clever and works his way around Lars to win Ingrid’s hand.

While I have little experience in the equestrian world, I loved that Ingrid has a talent with horses and is able to compete at an advanced level. She has a goal to make it to the Olympics and throughout the story, she is able to make outstanding progress toward that goal. Keir is also able to sneak away to play her stablehand. While it is not something most women fantasize about, there is something sexy about a man taking care of a horse.

Keir has his own goals, to an extent. After the wedding season is over, he is committed to a six month mission. While he could use his aunt’s influence to change his military orders, he doesn’t want to. When he makes a commitment he wants to stick to it. It is no surprise that Keir and Ingrid keep it casual to begin with, but when feelings get involved on both their parts, things get complicated.

Winters’ dials up the spice throughout the story but is also able to give us an intricate plot with a diverse cast of characters. All the young royals in the book have their own personalities and they all shine through. I know how hard it is to give each individual character their own flair when dealing with so many. This is the first book I’ve read out of her interconnected worlds of books. I can’t wait to jump into the stories of many of the characters I’ve met in this story. I know I’ll enjoy the story of Ingrid’s eldest sister, Queen Alexandra, and her fight to find love with Prince Rikard in Royally Rebellious, and the story of the second eldest sister, Princess Astrid, and her rival, Parker, Duke of Westnedge, in Royally Rivalled.