Vampire Royals 1: The Pageant

Vampire Royals Series, Book 1

By: Leigh Walker

Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky

Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Who's the fairest of them all?

Young women from every settlement in the land are being handpicked to enter The Pageant, a contest reminiscent of Miss Universe from the old days. Gwyneth West's social-climbing mother wants her to compete, but Gwyn isn't so sure....

The Pageant is government-sponsored. If you're lucky enough to be chosen, participation is mandatory. Aggressive competition is allowed, even encouraged.

And then there's the prize...

Dallas Black, otherwise known as The Dark Prince, will propose to the winner. Dallas is the son of King Black, who won the last world war and governs the new settlements.

The Royal Family is mysterious. Rumor has it they don't sleep. Rumor has it they eschew the sun. Rumor has it they're immortal.

When Gwyn is thrust into The Pageant, she fights to survive the competitive nature of the other contestants. But even if she wins...can she survive a vampire fiance?

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Leigh Walker (P)2018 Tantor

Vampire Romance, with a twist.

(I am basing this review off the audiobook)

4 out of 5 stars from me.

This was a breath of fresh air for all the spicy books I have read and listened to recently.

I haven't read The Selection, but I've read a lot of young adult vampire novels. While this was a quick listen, I still found it enjoyable.

As this is written for a younger crowd, I found some of the characters a bit obnoxious, but I did enjoy the story as a whole.

Gwyneth is a typical female hero in a vampire romance novel, but I found that I enjoyed her and seeing her come to terms with her circumstances. I did find myself groaning at her stupidity near the end, but I had to remind myself that she is still a teenager, and perhaps she will grow and mature as the story goes on.

Dallas was the typical vampire romance hero. Of course, this time, he is a prince searching for his future queen with a pageant. I can see his charm and am interested to see him grow as a character.

Aside from one or two side characters, most of them are just a bit bland and we don't really get to know some of them, which is understandable as this is supposed to be a contest over the span of a few weeks. I hope in the next books some of these characters get developed a bit more.

I did enjoy the bit of word building that we got, the settlements, the Royal City, and the North. I would have liked a bit more about the world. Hopefully, there will be a bit more in the next books in the series.

I have a feeling I know where this story is going to go, and I am pretty good about this, but I have a feeling that this story will surprise me.

I will eventually go back and listen to the rest of the series to see if I am correct, I hope to be presently surprised.

nice

it's a nicely mixed story combining the hunger games with vampire royalty. it's keeping me interested. off to book two. narrator is doing great too.

Enjoyable

Enjoyed this. Will be buying the next one. Good narration and a really good story.

Great

This novel was well great, and well put together, I felt that it flowed well and the characters were believable . I enjoyed it very much.

Good story

I liked it all the girl Gwen could be a little dense at times still a good story

The Selection

This story is pretty much "The selection" book all over again but with vampires. Heck I liked when they did it to Jane Austin, so why not.

horrible

horrible unless you are a 13 year old girl. I searched for books in the category of dystopia and this came up. it was so predictable and dumb.