Back again and filled with more assassination attempts, political family drama, and a mystery to unravel for an american girl turner monarchy nightmare. Picking up where the last book left off Evan Bright has finally reunited with her mother and father and found out who tried to have her sexually assaulted, filmed, and destroyed... and tried to frame her for murder, her cousin Ben. Evan is still adjusting to being the illegitimate daughter of King Alexander, and the fact that her distant father is now dating her mom again and her mom is out of the psych ward and tentatively back in her life. Evan is also dealing with being in the spotlight and of course navigating a new relationship with her Earl boyfriend, Kit. Evan is meant to be spending Christmas with Kit and her cousin and her family, a cozy getaway from everything... except cousin Ben and his mother shows up... and things start going wrong as more news leaks about Evan tothe media, painting her as a villain and more attempts at her life begin to escalate but she can't prove it's Ben when she knows its him. With her loving boyfriend Kit beside her, Evan will have to find a way to survive all these attempts on her life while also dealing with the large amount of political family drama that comes with being part of the monarchy. This was a fun second book in the series that absolutely picked up the action and the tension, I felt so bad for Evan that after everything in the first book she had to go through even worse trials and endure so much more. I hope she finally gets her happy ending in the final book and can't wait to see what she plans to do to get revenge. This series has been such a fun read and I found myself completely engrossed until the very last chapter. I am so so excited for the next book!

Spoiler

During christmas vacation, ben arrives, Evan is shot at (she does get shot but she survives) and Kit is injured trying to protect her, then she is attacked by a mob while out with Maisie, then she begins hearing voices in her room (this is due to Ben placing listening and speaking devices to make her think she's inherited the schizophrenic disorder her mother has). Next she is sent to a museum with her father and there a bomb goes off, killing Evan's personal bodyguard and critically injuring her father (he is in critical condition in the hospital by the end of the book). THe more news drops about Evan the more the people hate her but no one seems to believe her besides Kit that it's Ben who is after her. But when Maisie's room is set on fire and she nows Evan didn't do it, they find out it was Rosie, one of Maisie's best friends who Ben was blackmailing, that was helping him and nearly killed Evan and her mom. We also find out that Kit was dragged into a secret society on the promise of finding out what happened to his brother only to realize that the group was anti-monarchist who were working with Ben to kill Evan. The book ends with Evan and Kit planning to take an opening to finally get back at ben but have to go away, as they tell Maisie that she has to give the seat on parliament to Ben and to pretend to hate Evan while they get a plan together. Ben wanted to kill Evan because if her mother actually married her father then it would make her a more legitimate heir to the throne and place her before him on the throne.*

*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*