Prince of the Palisades is an appealing YA romance standalone by Julian Winters. Released 20th Aug 2024 by Penguin Random House on their Young Readers imprint, it's 352 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
This is a modern royalty romantic comedy(ish) story which is queer (m/m) friendly and young. There's good representation here (young, gay, ethnically and culturally diverse) and fans of Red, White & Royal Blue will likely be in raptures. There are some good and important discussions about consent, identity, and being true to oneself. There is also a lot of high-school drama and unnecessary conflict; but it's a YA rom-com, so, fair play.
Some of the characterizations are cartoonish; the antagonists are over-the-top two dimensional. The redemption arc is sweet and not *too* saccharine, especially for the genre. There is no inappropriate graphic sex descriptions, those scenes are fade-to-black.
Four stars. Sweet, full of high school drama, but mostly for YA romance fans.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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