The Royal We (royal We, #1)

The novel is narrated by Rebecca "Bex" Porter, an American woman from Iowa whose life becomes entangled with the British Royal Family after she falls in love with Prince Nicholas of Wales at Oxford University.

The story opens on the eve of Bex's royal wedding. Alone in a hotel suite, she receives threatening texts from an unknown sender demanding her cooperation. Her twin sister Lacey, estranged from Bex for months, bursts in looking ashen and announces she has done something. Bex knows she has done something, too. The narrative flashes back eight years to explain how both sisters arrived at this crisis.

In autumn 2007, Bex arrives at Oxford's Pembroke College as a Cornell exchange student. A friendly young man carries her bags to her room; her neighbor Cilla, a blunt Yorkshire woman, reveals the stranger is Prince Nicholas of Wales. In the bar, Bex meets Nick's floormates: Gaz, a jovial redhead; Clive Fitzwilliam, an aspiring journalist; Joss, a fashion student; and Lady Beatrix "Bea" Larchmont-Kent-Smythe, a protective childhood friend of Nick's whom everyone calls Lady Bollocks. That first night, Bex leaves with Clive, beginning a casual relationship.

Bex and Nick build a friendship through shared mornings by the river, late-night binges of a soap opera called Devour, and moments of vulnerability. Nick confides his frustration at being constantly watched, and Bex opens up about her competitive dynamic with Lacey. When Lacey visits for their birthday, she charms the group but does not meet Nick, who is away dealing with a tabloid scandal. Nick returns but hides in his room. Bex convinces him to sneak out to a karaoke bar, where he performs in a Batman mask. She wheels him home in a wheelbarrow, and he confesses that his father Prince Richard forced him and his brother Freddie to take DNA tests during the scandal. Bex touches Nick's face tenderly before pulling away. At the party, guests write on her Little White Lie T-shirt, where every statement is meant as its opposite. Nick writes "You are not my favorite," meaning she is.

Bex ends things with Clive. During a private Thanksgiving dinner Nick arranges at Windsor Castle featuring her mother's recipes, she blurts out that she is in love with him. Nick reciprocates, and they begin a secret relationship. The narrative jumps to summer 2009. Bex has moved to London and works as a greeting-card artist. She meets Nick's charming, irreverent younger brother Freddie, who becomes a close friend. When Bex introduces Nick to her parents, her father Earl treats him like any ordinary boyfriend, a warmth Nick treasures. Lacey drops out of med school, moves to London, and rekindles a relationship with Freddie that Nick fears will attract media attention.

At the Royal Family's annual ski trip to Klosters, Switzerland, a hidden photographer captures Nick kissing Bex, and the photo goes international. Nick becomes increasingly paranoid and reveals the family's greatest secret: His mother Emma experienced a severe mental health crisis when he was a child and has been unreachable for over two decades. The Royal Family hid her condition, maintaining the fiction that she chose a private life. Nick fears the press will destroy Bex the way it destroyed Emma.

Despite this confession, Nick withdraws. At his birthday party at Buckingham Palace, Queen Eleanor seats his ex-girlfriend Gemma Sands beside him, publicly humiliating Bex. Nick refuses to go public, tells the press marriage is not on his mind, and when he disinvites Bex from his uncle Prince Edwin's wedding in favor of Gemma, she confronts him. He admits he panicked at going public. They break up after four years, acknowledging they tried hard but not well enough.

Bex spirals into a reckless party phase. After seeing Nick with an ex at a party, she flees to Paris, sleeps with Clive, and recognizes she has hit rock bottom. She refocuses, founding Paint Britain, an art studio for at-risk children, and throwing herself into work. At a country house party, she catches Bea and Gemma together romantically, stunned to realize the woman she feared as a rival is gay. That same night, she and Freddie impulsively kiss in the dark. They spring apart, and the kiss confirms for Bex only the absence of Nick. Moments later, Lacey arrives with devastating news: Their father has died of a sudden heart attack.

After the funeral, Bex returns to London to find Nick waiting. He confesses he has loved her the entire time and proposes with a ring from their first box of Cracker Jack at Oxford. Bex says yes. Nick takes her to Cornwall to meet Emma, who is physically present but mentally distant. They discover Richard has been visiting regularly, painting tender watercolors of her. Nick decides to reveal the truth about his mother publicly.

Nick's chief of staff Marj orchestrates a Christmas Day engagement announcement. Nick proposes again with the Lyons Emerald, a historic twelve-carat ring that belonged to Queen Victoria II and was worn by Emma. In a televised interview, Nick reveals Emma's condition, begging the public's forgiveness. Queen Eleanor examines Bex's ring and tells her that once she walks out the door, she is "one of us, ready or not."

Bex resigns from her job and undergoes grueling training: deportment lessons, wardrobe overhauls, and memorization of protocol. Nick deploys with the Royal Navy for two consecutive tours, leaving Bex alone during her most demanding period. The Palace sidelines Lacey, replacing her as Bex's fashion advisor and blocking her book deal. After Lacey is arrested in Paris alongside Tricky Tony, a shady nightclub promoter she has been seeing, who is caught with cocaine, the sisters have a devastating fight. Lacey accuses Bex of freezing her out; Bex removes Lacey as maid of honor. They stop speaking. Bex sinks into depression, and Eleanor pressures her to renounce her American citizenship. At Gaz and Cilla's wedding, Freddie confesses he has feelings for Bex and kisses her. Bex knows Nick is her person and gently refuses. Nick calls and urges her not to sign the citizenship papers, but Bex signs anyway as a gesture of total commitment.

Returning to the eve of the wedding, the full crisis unfolds. Clive is revealed as the anonymous blogger behind The Royal Flush, a vicious gossip site targeting Bex. He blackmails her with proof that she and Freddie kissed, demanding she become his permanent insider source. Lacey, manipulated by Clive after witnessing the kiss, confided damaging information that Clive secretly recorded. Bex tells Nick everything at Westminster Abbey, but he already knows: Freddie confessed first. Nick is devastated and walks out uncertain.

At the pre-wedding reception, Freddie gives a toast calling Nick and Bex's love "once-in-a-lifetime." Bex visits Emma and speaks honestly about her fears, unaware Nick is listening from the doorway. He tells her she is still perfect to him. Together they confront Clive, who reveals years of resentment at feeling overlooked. Nick tells Clive to publish whatever he wants. Their friends rally: Lacey produces a recording of Clive admitting to blackmail, and his girlfriend Paddington, Bea's sister, turns against him. Nick proposes they marry secretly that night.

In the candlelit Chapel Royal at St. James's Palace, Bex walks the aisle in jeans and a striped shirt, the same outfit she wore the day she met Nick, flanked by Lacey and her mother. Nick waits in half his tux. A tipsy vicar performs the ceremony before their small circle of friends. Bex reflects that even if the public ceremony is canceled, these private vows are the ones that matter. She and Nick are married at last. A final chapter from Freddie's perspective reveals his decision to step aside, helping Nick win Bex back while quietly letting go of his own feelings for her.