The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage

The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage
Published by HQ on 2 December 2025
Genres: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 416
Format: eBook
Source: NetGalley
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Lexi Villiers is a 29-year-old Englishwoman doing her medical residency in Hobart, working too hard, worried about her bank balance, and living with friends. It's a good life, and getting even better, because as the dawn is breaking on New Year's Day, Lexi is about to kiss the man she loves for the very first time.

But by midnight, everything will change. Because Lexi is in fact not an ordinary young woman. She is Princess Alexandrina, third in line to the British throne - albeit estranged from the rest of her family and living in voluntary exile on the other side of the world. But following a terrible accident, Lexi - the black sheep of her family and, until this moment, always destined to be the spare - is now the heir apparent, first in line to the throne once her grandmother, the elderly Queen, dies. Called back to do her duty, she arrives in London to a Palace riven with power plays and media leaks, all the while guarding painful secrets of her own. Palace waters are treacherous, rumours are rife, and selling each other's secrets is a family tradition. And with the Crown just within her grasp, Lexi must choose what bonds she will keep ... and what she is willing to leave behind.

I love myself a bit of rich people drama, and what is more dramatic than the British royal family? Following Lexi as she was torn from her newly built life in Tasmania to rejoin the royal family (who don’t like her, by the way) and struggle to adapt to her change in circumstances all while having lost her father and brother was actually very thrilling and enjoyable.

I really liked Lexi and I could feel how she was being split in both directions, by her sense of desire and her sense of duty. At one point Lexi says that it’s all an impossible choice, and I have to agree. I don’t know how I would cope in that kind of situation. I also really enjoyed the insight into royal life through Lexi’s eyes, although I’m not sure how accurate it was for the most part.

I enjoyed Armitage’s use of dual timelines where the book switches back in time to include characters’ backstories and events which shape the present. The snippets of flashbacks had the potential to feel info-dumpy, but that wasn’t the case at all. I enjoyed reading about each of the characters and events which were featured as they provided context to the present day goings on.

I only had two gripes with The Heir Apparent, the first being that the book was just a little too long. At almost 500 pages, I feel like the book just went on and on, but the pacing was off because it ended up skipping many parts of Lexi’s year at the palace. I feel like the book could have been trimmed down slightly or the pacing should have been worked on a bit more thoroughly so we didn’t have massive gaps in time.

My other issue with The Heir Apparent is that the story and characters were clearly overly inspired by the real British royal family. Sure, there were enough differences to make the story interesting and to be honest I didn’t particularly care, but I found the similarities to be quite jarring and it made the story feel a little less unique and special.

I found The Heir Apparent to be a fun and enjoyable book and would recommend it to readers who, like me, are a fan of some Rich People Drama and want to get invested. If you’re a royal watcher, though, you might not be a fan.