The Unlikely Heir: Unlikely Dilemmas, Book 1

Do you remember how in junior high and high school you read books in which the FMC wakes up and surprise! She’s a princess? Well, Callum goes on a date and SURPRISE! He’s a prince! Can I tell you, I haven’t seen the concept done in M/M romances before, probably because I didn’t look for them, but now I need to read every one I can get my hands on. While some of this is completely out of this world, and would not happen, I went in looking for the romance. This had it in spades. Callum was eleventh in line for the throne. He was never meant to see it. He was going to spend his life working in places like insurance call centers, going on dates he couldn’t quite seem to get to a second one, and living a mundane life. It all changes when the royal family does something corrupt and the Queen works with parliament to make Callum the next in line. Cue a whirlwind of activity, a series of unfortunate accidents while he learns how to be a prince for the British populace. Oliver, the Prime Minister, sees something in Callum that he could relate to in his early days as a politician. Mistakes were made, the public has never been his greatest fan, and he reaches out to Callum to offer a comforting word. Then everything changes between them. One thing I loved about The Unlikely Heir, was the use of text messages between Callum and Oliver. I feel like with get a much closer look into their relationship. It was also so cute. It reminded me of the early days of my relationship with my…

Just wrapped up *The Unlikely Heir* by Jax Calder and it was incredible! Picture a Prince of Wales falling for the prime minister—totally surprising and so good. The tale is about an insurance call center worker from sunny California whose life gets a wild twist when he unexpectedly becomes heir to the British throne due to some insane family drama. The slow-building romance between the adorable, clumsy Prince Callum and the serious, duty-focused Prime Minister Oliver kept me enthralled from beginning to end. It's funny, heartfelt, and unbelievably convincing despite the crazy storyline. If royal romances with humor, drama, and fantastic characters are your thing, you definitely need to read this. It’s the perfect blend of love and duty that’ll leave you floating on cloud nine!

The premise seemed outlandish but Ms. Calder made it work. I absolutely believed the two MCs fell in love over time. The pacing was just right; the relationship was filled with humor, bad jokes/puns and shared confidences. The angst was relatively low, centered predominantly around the challenge of figuring out how the two MCs could possibly have a HEA given their legally conflicting roles in the UK. I was kept guessing until the end about whether one of them would have to give up their profession (and if so, who would do so) or whether some new law/rule might be passed to allow them to be together. The grand gesture moments were satisfying, and the HEA ending didn’t feel rushed. Thank you, Ms. Calder, for another wonderful romance with non-cookie cutter characters and a unique plot. Edited to add: Given the current popularity of Red, White and Royal Blue due to the release of the show, I thought I’d add that I read RWARB a year or so ago. I enjoyed it and thought it was lighthearted and fun. A key difference between the two novels (aside from the overall plot) is that the stakes of the romance wasn’t that high in RWARB—the royal wasn’t the first in line to the throne, and no real, legal conflict exists to forbid the relationship. (The conflict in that book, using the US elections and possible negative public opinions as the backdrop, was more manufactured.) In The Unlikely Heir, however, the stakes are real and significant. The two MCs truly cannot remain the Prince of…

I loved reading this MM story! It was perfect and beautiful! I loved how the author developed their story.

Being sad a book is over is always the sign how good it has been. I feel like I could read about Callum & Oliver forever. ❤️ I’m actually amazed how romantic Jax Calder’s stories are. It’s hard to beat her in that regard. I’m always high-lighting the heck out of her books because they’re so sweet and swoony. And beautifully written, of course. (32 highlights on this one) Love that she proves modern romances don’t have to contain high heat to be super enjoyable and generally loved by readers. 👌