HIS TRUE QUEEN (Smoke & Mirrors #2) by JODI ELLEN MALPAS

“My life is in your hands, Your Majesty.” His murmured words hit me hard. “I love you. You love me. In today’s world, it should be as simple as that.”

We’ve been dying for the conclusion to Josh and Adeline’s love story, wondering, was it going to be a case of love winning over duty or duty winning over love? After the thrilling end to The Controversial Princess we were left pondering how Adeline would handle her new enforced role, and more importantly, how would this affect the passionate, intense and building love between the royal girl and her American boy?

As the title suggests, Adeline Lockhart is now Queen Adeline however we won’t go into the why’s and wherefores that led to Adeline being proclaimed Queen, but suffice to say, her new role comes with many demands, rules, protocols which leave her little or no chance to maintain her relationship with Josh the way she had hoped. Mind you, these two are very imaginative when it comes to ways of meeting up for some very steamy bedroom athletics, they manage to make it happen!

Josh Jameson is besotted with Adeline, he worships the ground she walks on but despite having people acting on her every whim, Josh doesn’t mind putting Adeline in her place, and for that, Adeline is forever grateful. She has a man that loves her with abandon, treats her like gold, who respects her as the woman she is and not the title she holds.

“I bow to no one….except you.”

This book is one angsty ride as the royal girl must find a way to balance royal protocol with her lust for the American actor, Josh Jameson, a man who is clearly not acceptable husband material for the Queen of England. The sovereign has already decided on a suitable suitor for the Queen and it’s certainly not Josh Jameson, though that won’t stop Adeline and Josh and their clandestine meetings.

His hips pushed into my arse, his wet mouth on my cheek, Josh holds me tightly. Possessively. Like he owns me. And I don’t care. He’s the only thing in this world I don’t mind controlling me. “Maybe now I want to violate a queen.”

Again, Jodie Ellen Malpas had us swooning like crazy, hanging on the edge of our Kindles as twists, turns, lies, and deceit met us at every juncture!  Some of the twists certainly shocked and surprised us, and whilst we did love this conclusion, we have to admit we did prefer the first book in the duet. After discussing His True Queen, we agreed the reason was that Josh was absent for a lot of the time, and we wanted more Josh in this book, not less. We had hoped to really get to know the man who had captured Adeline’s heart, but felt we didn’t know him any more intimately than we did from book one. Don’t get us wrong, we fell head over heels for this dirty talking, seriously hot and swoony man, however, we didn’t feel as if we really knew him, not in the way we did Adeline. Adeline who we absolutely loved.

“To the world you are the Queen of England. But to me, you are everything.” 

Apart from that, we loved everything about this duet. We wanted romance, we wanted emotion, we wanted seductively searing passion, and we wanted to escape and be thoroughly entertained, and on that, Jodi Ellen Malpas more than delivered. There’s a reason this author remains a 1Click TBB fave – her writing, her characters, her stories and her flair for mixing romance with searing passion and a damn good tale never fails to win us over time and time again.

 “I don’t need protecting, Josh….I just need loving.”