Twisted Palace by Erin Watt

Narrated by Angela Goethals & Zachary Webber

Twisted Palace is the third book in the young/new adult trilogy, The Royals. I must admit that this has been one of the most evolving series I have ever listened to. Each book has really had its own feel, differing so much in style that I’d almost say they felt like different stories altogether. Fortunately, I did enjoy book 3 more than book 2, Broken Prince, which I felt had more of a filler feeling to it (as is frequently my experience with trilogies). The conclusion and big reveal at the end even caught me off guard, as I never imagined the story culminating that way. However, even book 3 moved a bit slow for my taste. It almost felt like the story stalled a bit until the last three hours or so, when the tying up of the loose ends in the plot really accelerated and became intriguing. For the last part of this story, I was definitely glued to my earbuds.

Please note though that although each story in this trilogy had a different feel to it, you do still need to listen to them in chronological order. Therefore, if you haven’t yet started this series, I recommend you see my AudioGals review for Paper Princess as the below review contains spoilers for the earlier books.

Twisted Palace picks up where Broken Prince leaves off. Ella’s father is alive, to everyone’s surprise. Moreover, he suspects his wife – who Ella has never gotten along with – may have been the one who tried to kill him.

Reed, in turn, is the primary suspect in Brooke’s (his father’s girlfriend) actual murder. Reed and Ella are now both convinced of their love for one another, but as you can imagine, no father is thrilled to see his little girl dating a boy not only known for his player ways, but also one who is suspected of murder.

Things therefore get heated as Reed and Ella race against the clock to try to both prove Reed’s innocence and keep their continuing relationship a secret. Can there possibly be a HEA under the circumstances? Moreover, is Reed innocent and, if so, who actually killed Brooke? Will they be able to prove it before it’s too late?

Both Angela Goethals and Zachary Webber, who narrated book 2, return to narrate book 3. This dual narration works well to highlight whose viewpoint is being shared, with Ms. Goethals narrating the chapters from Ella’s point of view and Mr. Webber the ones from Reed’s perspective. I appreciated that both narrators maintained remarkable consistency in the voices that they used for the various characters which allowed me to easily slip back into the story even with a number of months in between the two last books.

The narrators also both have youthful, pleasing voices which easily sound like you would expect the younger (mostly teenaged) cast of the series to sound. At the same time, they were able to vary their voices sufficiently to also convincingly portray the adults in the book. I also enjoyed the ways both narrators communicated emotion and urgency for the more suspense-filled scenes.

All in all, I’m happy I listened to Twisted Palace. I must admit that after my experience with Broken Prince, I entertained the thought of not finishing the series. However, Ms. Watt did a good job with the conclusion, and in particular she impressed me with the big reveal/twist at the end, so, though I had to wait until the last three hours to be satisfied, in the end it was definitely worth the wait!

BJ