Okay, so, we got a new POV for this chapter from a character named Nina Gonzales. She’s a student at King’s College (I think wholly made up for this AU, since the narration gives the date it was established as 1828 and the previous King’s College aka Columbia University was 1754 and named for a whole different kind of king) and she has a “Chinese character tattoo” which just kind of automatically makes me not want to like her.

So Nina is best friend of Samantha, the younger princess. During a convo about the ball going on tonight, Nina muses about how everyone loves Beatrice and no one likes Sam, because…..(reason not found). There’s some mention that the only people who don’t like Beatrice are just sexist jerks and there’s a small number of them which, excuse me while I laugh uproariously for a little bit.

1) A minority that keeps its actions to some online trolling? Really????

2) WHERE ARE THE ANTI-MONARCHIST GROUPS THAT SHOULD ALSO HATE HER? And also the rest of the family, because I mean.

Nina is in a history class, learning French history, which apparently does not include the revolution because France has a contemporaneous king. (Fun fact: here in our reality, Louis Alphonse is a Spanish royal family member but would be the king of France if France still had a king. At least, according to the Legitimists who think that should still be a thing.)

By the way, I’m still pissed that this book thinks no other revolution would have happened without America being a democracy.

The teacher is talking about treaties and political climate in Europe in 1985 and—then Nina trails off thinking about Samantha and NO WAY GO BACK TURN OF THE CENTURE EUROPE IS FASCINATING! IT WAS A TIME OF GREAT CHANGE AND THE LAST HURRAH OF EMPIRES BEFORE MOST OF THEM STARTED CRUMBLING LEADING UP TO WWI! Was there a WWI? Is Austria-Hungary still a dual monarchy? Did the empires fall? If we’re going with ‘royal families are the bee’s fuckin knees in all things’ then is Germany one country or dozens? What about the Ottomans? If there wasn’t a WWI, then did the Middle East not get all carved up? I KNOW I’M THE ONLY ONE THAT CARES ABOUT THIS, BUT ALSO I CARE ABOUT THIS.

Sigh. Okay, okay, only here for the romance and wealth porn, I know. Moving on.

Anyway, there’s an extended backstory about how Nina and Sam met as kids. It’s really boring and just boils down to ‘Nina’s mom had a government job.’ Then there’s a whole bunch on their childhood friendship, which is just ‘Nina is a commoner from a rich and influential family, but still a commoner, so how can she hope to fit in with the ROYALS? But Sam is nice to her so there.’ And like, I’m just not feeling any disconnect here. Both of Nina’s moms have high level government jobs and are a well-known “power couple” and yet it’s supposed to be some big thing for her and Sam to be friends?????

Well, at least the lesbian power-couple moms is just dropped in like it’s normal and there’s no talk about backlash. That’s much more my brand of escapist ‘not gonna think too hard about consequences let’s just have fun’ stuff.

Sam shows up to be effusive and all energy and sunshine and insist that Nina come to the ball as her plus-one. Nina is hesitant, but she gives in with barely any effort and then mopes ‘mysteriously’ about someone she dreads/wants to see and will probably run into at the palace. (Jeff, the prince and Sam’s twin. I mean, judging by the summary, who else could it be?)

Chapter three brings us to Daphne, a nobleman’s daughter who used to date Prince Jefferson. Is there ANYONE in this novel who isn’t extremely wealthy and powerful?

Also apparently the royal residence is called “Washington Palace” and I just really love how much that shows how young this monarchy is. Like, Buckingham Palace was named after the family that payed for it to be built, too, but the history is so old that it changed hands enough times to not be named after the family currently in it. In fact, this Washington Palace is on the same grounds/location as Mount Vernon, which…why isn’t it just still called that?

Oh my god, Russia still has an Empress. Russia. RUSSIA. RUSSIA. What can you do but laugh?

Extended backstory here about how Daphne and her parents are social-climbers, and I have to admit I do like how Daphne’s attitude is just “well, that’s how it is” and not meant to be, like, evil or something.

The whole peerage, now that’s evil, but that’s a separate matter.

Daphne intentionally angled to date the prince, but she caught him cheating on her the night of his high school graduation, was prepared to pretend it didn’t happen since he didn’t see her, but then he broke up with her the next morning anyway. That was six months ago, and tonight at the ball is the first time she’ll see him again.

Also, Daphne thinks of other girls going after Jefferson as ‘sluts’ and describes them in horrifically stereotypical language so that one brownie point she had from me is lost now.

There’s also a hint of something else she did on graduation night, so I guess…that’s the tone of this book now. “OooOOOoOOooOo there’s something in my paaaAAAAaaaaAAAaaast oops, end of chapter.”

Um…that was a really boring two chapters? I mean, I know we’re setting up characters and such, but Daphne especially. She sits down with her parents and at first it seems like it’s going to be strategizing to win back the prince but instead it’s just a “you okay?” “yup” interspersed with Daphne thinking about how she’s got to have a strategy to get him back. Like, sometimes there’s value in just telling people your character’s backstory, but not for a whole chapter when you also have a perfectly set up vehicle for showing that through character interactions.