Lucy Parker - Codename Charming

Petunia De Vere enjoys being the personal assistant to lovable, bumbling Johnny Marchmont. But the job has its share of challenges, including the royal's giant, intimidating bodyguard, Matthias. Pet and Matthias are polar opposites--she's spontaneous and enthusiastic, he's rigid and stoic--but she can sense there's something softer underneath that tough exterior...
For Matthias Vaughn, protecting others is the name of the game. But keeping his royal charge out of trouble is more difficult than he imagined because everywhere Johnny goes, calamity ensues, and his petite, bubbly assistant is often caught in the fray. Matthias hates the idea of Pet getting hurt and he's determined to keep everyone safe, even if it means clashing with his adorable new coworker.
When a clumsy moment leads to a questionable tabloid photo, the press begins to speculate that Pet is romantically involved with Johnny. To put an end to the rumors, the royal PR team asks Pet and Matthias to stage a fake relationship and the two reluctantly agree. But as they spend more time together outside of work, they begin to wonder what real emotions this pretend connection might uncover. Especially when a passionate kiss leaves both of their heads spinning...

Comment: This is the second installment in the Palace Insiders series by Lucy Parker. I've read the first two years ago and I'd say that the time in between releases might have affected my perception, but I've found this one to be a little less powerful than her other work.

Petunia "Pet" de Vere is the sister of Dominic (hero of the previous book) and she works as an assistant for the palace, namely she works on Johnny Marchmont's team. Johnny is married to Rosie, a royal, and he is still getting used to this, although he does have a propensity to be clumsy. This means Pet has had a lot of work making him look good, even though she has already fallen twice onto Matthias Vaughn's arms, one of the security bodyguards. Pet and Matthias seem to like one another but neither has been confident enough to take the first step, until this is forced on them by circumstances. To avoid more paparazzi gossip, the team devises a plan where Pet and Matthias "play" to be falling in love, but will they really be able to not fall for real, since the spark is already there?

Well, any romance reader would reply yes right away, but I will have to be honest and say that the two main reasons why I wasn't as dazzled by this book as I was with others by the author were: the main couple is, sadly, not that interesting to me and the plot is not very intense to begin with, so this conjunction made for a slightly thin story. I can see where the author wanted to go with her usual trademark grumpy/sunshine pairing but this time I was not fully convinced.

The story is set sometime after the events of the first book and an important element to remember is that Dominic and Pet weren't always in good terms. Stuff in their childhood separated them but during that other book they got closer and I think this is important to think of because it paints Pet in a way that makes her seem a little aloof at times, and by comparison, not as bubbly as Lucy Parker's other heroines. I liked Pet and I liked her personality but it's true she wasn't as charismatic to me in all things, as others were.

Matthias is even more vague to me. The author does try to develop him as a likable character, we know he seems distanced and too much of a professional, not easily mixing up with others or sharing personal details and I guess this makes it easier for us to understand why he isn't very loud, but at the same time he seems to be too stoic. This didn't have to be an issue and we do have plenty of information about his childhood in the foster system, and how he lost his best friend on an assignment, so he is a good guy still mourning, kind of, and we learn his romantic relationships hadn't been great because of his looks, but all these things still didn't warmed him up to me and I think the author could done this element better.

These two should not have much in common except the sadness and the inconsistent childhoods, but we are still told they like and want each other from the distance. I do like this trope/idea, but I was not convinced they actually felt like that, no matter how many times they "thought" about one another. I just could not see the spark even secondary characters claimed was there. I can't say if it was due to their quieter personalities or how they were described, but I just could not see it.

When they start being closer and share personal stuff, they kept on being too unsure of themselves and while this might be realistic, it did not make for a very captivating romance. I did like some scenes between them where they talked or had some romantic moments, but... and when they become intimate, closer to the end of the novel, it just wasn't vibrant nor special and felt more like an element the author had to add instead of something organically necessary to the evolution of their feelings and relationship.

Perhaps this would not be as weak to me if the plot had been better, but I felt there was no urgency, no real force driving things forward. The fake dating idea and their respective duties in the big scheme just didn't feel like much of a plot and what this made me think was that there was a lot of repetitive situations and ideas and nothing really important was happening except forced situations so that Matthias and Pet would have to interact. 

Again, closer to the end, however, we finally find a pertaining information regarding Pet, something that was very slowly being developed from the beginning, and when this is developed, the book is practically over. I felt that if this situation had been explored better, it would have been a much nicer plot devise, more intense, with a possibly better conflict to make things move on. The way it was played out, everything was simple, superficial, and to me, a lost opportunity.

I still consider this to be a positive read because I do like the author's work and her usual techniques of developing the plots, I still liked reading this and knowing more about all characters, I certainly liked seeing Dominic and Sylvie again and to confirm they are as in love as they were when their story was concluded, but yes, I cannot say this book was as special as I would have wanted.

Grade: 6/10