Reviewed by Anna Lynn

TITLE: The Royal Roommate Disaster

SERIES: Frat Brats of Santa Barbara #2

AUTHOR: Hayden Hall

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 250 Pages

RELEASE DATE: May 19, 2022

BLURB:

My crown never weighed as heavy as when I had to leave the guy I love.

Mateo

My life is nothing like a fairytale. Weighed down by duty and constantly watched, I hope to find a little freedom at Highgate.

Nobody knows who I really am; the Andalonian Heir Apparent. Not even the embarrassingly handsome Joshua Sterling.
He makes living seem easy. He makes falling in love effortless. He makes me believe in fairytales.

But the price of falling in love with an American boy is steep. The duty I’ve carried my entire life — the duty that had kept me away from taking a risk and living my best — reminds me that we’re nothing but a passing fancy.

With every lie I speak, I bury myself deeper. Whenever I miss a chance to tell him who I am, I lose him a little more. And when I love him the most, a disaster strikes. My lies catch up with me and I risk losing more than just my crown. I risk losing the best guy I’ve ever met.

A prince should not need a knight in shining armor. But this prince wants nothing else.

Joshua

Trailed by his bodyguards and deliciously strange, Mateo Garcia is like nobody I’ve ever crossed paths with. My reputation isn’t exaggerated. I’ve crossed paths with plenty of hot guys. Not a single one of them looked past what I was ready to show. Not like Mateo.

His enigmatic presence tempts me to share my deepest fears and sweetest secrets. His innocence makes me want to be more than just a one-time fling.

Here’s a guy who could love me, I think. Here’s a guy I could love back just the same.

But when he touches my wildest desires and when the promise of a little happiness is too sweet to resist, I discover that he’s nothing like what he said. He is a prince suffocated by tradition and expectations. And what does that make me? A rebellious experiment and a college flame.

Mateo taught me how to fall in love. Then, he taught me how badly a heartbreak hurts.

Maybe I’m better off living the way I used to. Maybe a pretty face and a hot body is all I’m worth. But his departure rips a hole in my chest that no amount of hookups could fill.

REVIEW:

This is Book 2 of  Hayden Hall’s Frat Brats of Santa Barbara series and I love this story so much! It is still low-angst and so full of sweetness and discovering oneself that you can’t help but fall in love with our two main characters, Joshua and Mateo.

When Caleb dropped out of school to pursue his dream of being an actor, Joshua was left alone. No best friend and no roommate. But he totally understands why Caleb had to do what he did, he found the love of his life and is now free to pursue his love of acting. Meanwhile Joshua stays the same, hooking up with men who usually discards him after one meet-up. He certainly believes he doesn’t deserve more than that. Which is kind of sad because Joshua is a good guy, he is kind and sweet, loving and beautiful. Sometimes, the persona we present the world is the exact opposite of who we truly are inside. And sometimes, people around us have this image of us because we come from a certain family, which is totally prejudiced.

Mateo has the chance to be free, for a few months, when he was allowed to attend college in Santa Barbara before he embarks on his duty as the Prince and eventually the King of Andalonia. When he meets his new roommate, Joshua, he starts to wish for things that simply couldn’t be. He starts to dream of a life where he is free to be himself. Finding Joshua, after a disastrous potential date gone wrong, alone and so distraught, it started a friendship that he dreamt of for a long time. He wished for friends who would just accept him for who he is, not as a Prince.

Mateo and Joshua hang out, meet up with Joshua’s friends and because Mateo mentioned that back in his country, he was not so free to do as he wished, Joshua made sure that he shows Mateo how the other half lives. But Mateo is afraid to tell Joshua who he truly is, afraid of losing Joshua as a friend. Before he knew it, they have become more than friends, well, they both want to but they have not express it verbally until a very sweet date that Joshua took Mateo to. Since then they have been inseparable and totally in love.

But secrets do have ways of coming out. This time it was in the form of the disastrous hook-up that Joshua had the day he met his new roommate. This guy knew who Mateo was and took a video of the two while they were having a good time in the bar one night. And before Mateo was able to tell Joshua the truth, this ugly (on the inside) person sent Joshua the info via a video and an article in a tabloid.

What happens next will make you cry, I did! The people we surround ourselves tells us the kind of person we are when we have friends who will do anything to help us, to wake us up from whatever despair we find ourselves in. And it is a good thing too or else Joshua’s mom would not have come and talk some sense into him.

I love this book so much! I really cannot wait for the next one. I am hoping it would be London’s, he deserves his own story and happy ending. Thank you to Hayden Hall for another amazing, sweet story!

RATING:

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