I admit that I used to be more than a little obsessed with the British royal family, especially when I was younger. Certainly my infatuation with the monarchy has faded over time, but I know I'm not alone in having flirted, however fleetingly, with this fascination. So there's no doubt that Rebecca Armitage's THE HEIR APPARENT, which takes a fresh approach to the royal family, will find a large and receptive audience.

The book opens with a shocking accident. The crown prince of England, Prince Frederick, and his grown son, Louis, next in line for the throne --- along with Louis' brother-in-law, Kris --- are killed in an avalanche while skiing. This is a tragedy of national proportions, but it's also a deeply personal one for Lexi Villiers, Louis' twin, who's informed of these unthinkable losses when her grandmother (the queen)'s right-hand man shows up in a helicopter at her home in Tasmania.

"Readers will be captivated right to the end, eager to guess what choice Lexi will make. They will cheer her on, whatever path she chooses."

Lexi has lived in this remote but beautiful corner of the world since taking a gap year. She fell in love with the place and decided to pursue her medical training there rather than returning to the United Kingdom for school. After a series of misunderstandings and betrayals, she's grown increasingly distant from her family, essentially not speaking with any of them since Louis married Amira three years earlier. Now, however, she's summoned back to the queen's side, where she is once again outfitted as Princess Alexandrina. With her father and brother gone, she is now first in line for the throne.

Lexi never really imagined reigning, which her grandmother recognizes. So she gives Lexi a year to decide whether to accept the crown or to cede it to her father's younger brother, her smarmy uncle Richard. For readers who've spent any time dreaming of the glamour and wealth of the royal family, this might seem like an easy choice, though it isn't for Lexi. She has truly loved her medical training and can't imagine giving that up. Nor can she think about relinquishing her budding romance with a handsome local, Jack, heir to his family's vineyard business. She also grew up seeing the toll that the crown took on her own mother, who tragically died too young.

But as Lexi spends months back in England, reintegrating herself into palace life and restoring relationships within her family (not to mention trying to repair her reputation in the British tabloids), she realizes that she might actually come to be good at this whole monarchy thing. Among other factors, she thinks that she might have the potential to restyle the monarchy as a more progressive institution, one that acknowledges the lingering damages of colonialism and tries to rectify them.

Armitage's debut will give royal-mad readers much of what they're hoping for in a novel of the royal family, with plenty of glimpses at wealth, privilege and power. But at the same time, it acknowledges --- in large part by structuring many characters as revamped versions of recent real-life royals like Princess Diana and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex --- the darker, more constricting side of royal life. There's also plenty of romance, as well as more than a few secrets that Armitage doles out like royal favors. Some of these require attentive reading. The plot plays out mostly chronologically, but there are a few intentional gaps and flashbacks that might trip up those who are (understandably) reading quickly to get to the next juicy page.

Readers will be captivated right to the end, eager to guess what choice Lexi will make. They will cheer her on, whatever path she chooses.