Terrific Treatment

The Royal Treatment by Lindsey Leavitt

* Was sent this ARC for review
* Some mild spoilers if you haven't read the first book Princess for Hire.

This book gets a royal 5 out of 5 gnomes for having Desi, a great strong-willed character with just the right amount of sarcasm and a story that will keep you guessing.

I love the magic, the mystery, and of course the traveling by bubble.  I think anyone who has ever watched The Wizard of Oz has wondered what it would feel like to travel around in a bubble like Glinda.  This form or travel does seem pretty glamorous but I think I'd be terrified of being in the bubble while it popped.

After the troubles from the last book which are still having an impact.  Desi has to learn even more to advance and be allowed to be a Level Two princess sub.  She has to do this all the while knowing that she has to prove that she won't make any more mistakes in the line of duty.

Her home life is important to who she is as a sub.  It's great to read about her regular life as well as all the assignments she goes on.  Also interesting is when things she's learned at home end up helping her on assignments and vice versa where being a princess gives her confidence in her real life.

She still has a mean girl/bully to deal with in the form of Celeste who used to be her best friend but now, not so much.  Desi has to see more of her then she wants to because her mom is Celeste's coach for beauty pageants.  This leads to tension between them but you can start to see that she might not be as horrible as Desi thinks she is.  They have some issues to resolve between them but in this book you can see almost a flicker of understanding between them.

Desi is unique even at Façade, the agency that places all the princess subs, she tends to advance much faster than other subs do.  The style she uses when helping her clients is very different then what the agency is used to, she gets into character extremely well.

In this book you learn a lot more about the Façade Agency and its inner workings.  It's much more complex then Desi thought and she starts to see that everything is not as clear as she thought it was.  You also get to see how important makeup really is to the agency and learn even more secrets about the people working there.

Meredith, the agent in charge of Desi, is once again a great character.  She's as snarky as ever but has secrets to hide and quite the entertaining story arc so far.  Meredith does have an abrasive personality sometimes but you can tell that she really cares about Desi succeeding.

The ending, WOW, after reading it I laughed and actually did a little happy dance.  It's very nice to have a cliff hanger type ending that is hopeful and feels like a great place to stop the story for now.  I like that the ending leaves you with a surprise and yet the feeling that there is plenty in store for the future.  I can't wait to read the next book in this series.