This is Not a Fairytale: A Review of Once Upon a Royal Summer by Teri Wilson

Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.

It’s the last review of 2025. The end of the year really snuck up on me. It was mid Spooky Season and I blinked my eyes only for it to turn into winter. Now I’m not a big fan of winter. I really don’t like the cold. I don’t like it being pitch black outside by 5:30 at night. I much prefer the heat. So when I found today’s read a few months ago at an overstock shop, I was drawn to the summer vibes. And the three dollar price tag. You can’t beat that.

Please give a warm welcome to Once Upon a Royal Summer by Teri Wilson!

As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you’ve read any other review on this site then you will know I simply love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. This is your one and only warning. Also a quick trigger warning for Once Upon a Royal Summer. The story briefly touches on grief, loss, and sudden death. The book does not go into much detail, but these topics are relevant to the larger story. Please take care when reading. And with that, let’s get to the synopsis.

Move over Disney! Once Upon a Time is the best, most popular theme park in Florida! No one can sell a fairy tale better. Save for our main character Lacey. She works at Once Upon a Time as the ever popular Princess Sweet Pea. She spreads goodwill, cheer, happiness, and theme park princess magic to all the children she meets in the park. This includes one young, actual princess.

Princess Rose of Bella-Moritz is celebrating her seventh birthday at the park. Her father, Crown Prince Henry, wants his daughter to have a normal childhood. That’s very hard to do considering Rose is third in line for Bella-Moritz’s throne, and her mother sadly passed away when she was just a baby. But Henry is really trying. Hence why he and Rose are playing tourist at the happiest place on Earth.

Though the higher ups at Once Upon a Time can’t let their super-VIP guests roam the park on their own. Lacey, as Princess Sweet Pea, gets to escort Henry and Rose around the park! That’s not part of her job description, but it’s what she’s doing this week at work. Not that Lacey seems to mind. Rose is an extremely sweet kid, and Henry…well Henry is a literal prince and seems to be interested in Lacey. Never in her wildest dreams did Lacey think she would fall in love with a prince, but it seems like a fairytale has found her.

Hope everyone has their tiara on for this one.

I can’t wait for the sequel where Henry and Lacey realize they rushed into marriage without knowing anything about each other. I firmly believe Henry does not love Lacey. He loves the idea of her being a mom to Rose. Yeah…if you couldn’t already tell, I wasn’t a fan of this book. Granted I’m not a fan of the Hallmark channel or their movies so there was very little chance I was going to enjoy a book from Hallmark Publishing. Once Upon a Royal Summer is as cheesy, impractical, and improbable as one would expect. Objectively, this book is not good.

As this is a romance novel, Lacey and Henry and their relationship is what most readers care about. I wouldn’t say they have a love at first sight style relationship nor instant love, but it's very close to those. I don’t believe in love at first sight. I’m not a fan of romances where the couple meets and decides they are in love with each other. It’s not realistic and I can't move past it. Lacey and Henry meet and are quickly attracted to one another. They do spend a few days getting to know each other at Once Upon a Time, but they only know each other for about a week before they decided they’re in love. They don’t even go on a proper date before deciding to get married.

I need to know both Henry and Lacey's thought process in this book. I really do.

Henry and Lacey know virtually nothing about each other. They don’t know what the other is like in the morning, they don’t know the other’s hopes and dreams, they don’t even know their partner’s favorite food, nor favorite color, animal, or how they take their coffee. Yet they get engaged at the end. I’ll say it again, Henry doesn’t love Lacey. He loves the idea of Rose having a mother figure in her life. And Lacey doesn’t love Henry. She wanted a fairytale and what says fairytale more than a prince?

There is no depth to any of the characters, Lacey and Henry’s relationship, or the story at large. The story has no conflict. Any conflict that does come up is solved on the next page. This book has no substance. It is a sugary, tooth achingly sweet Hallmark story.

If you are a fan of Hallmark romances, chances are you will like Once Upon a Royal Summer. I don’t. Hallmark romances are incredibly unbelievable. The only reason I read this book is because it cost me three dollars. If I'm going to read a romance, I want it at least somewhat grounded in reality; which Hallmark will never do.     

With that, I shall bid you all adieu. Thank you for joining me for the final review of 2025, Book Nerds. I will see you all again next week with one final post of the year. It’s time I reveal my favorite reads of 2025. If you can’t wait until then, then I highly suggest giving Reading Has Ruined My Life a follow over on Instagram (@ReadingHasRuinedMyLife). I post there almost daily so come back often to revel in literary goodness. You can also follow the blog on Twitter and BlueSky (@RHRMLBlog). If you want something not related to books, then check out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. The show stars me and two of my dearest friends as we talk everything and anything. We talk Disney, Scooby-Doo, 90’s wrestling, weird and wild moments and people in history; we talk about it all! You can currently listen to the show on Spotify and YouTube.

Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.

See y'all then, bye!