Below is the complete list of Meghan Quinn’s Not Really Royal books in order of publication. This is the recommended reading sequence for the series.
Not Really Royal Books in Publication Order
About Not Really Royal
Meghan Quinn’s Not Really Royal books are best understood as a short royal-romance line rather than a sprawling, heavily layered series. On her current official site, Quinn groups Royally Not Ready and Royally in Trouble under “Royal Romances” and also under “Royal Romance with an Alpha Male,” which makes the shape of the series clear: two connected books, one shared royal world, and a tone built around heat, humor, and fairytale disruption rather than complex long-form mythology.
What gives the series its identity is the tension between royal fantasy and Quinn’s usual modern romantic-comedy instinct. These are not solemn court novels or heavily political royal dramas. Quinn’s official description of Royally Not Ready calls it “a fresh take on a royal romance with a twist,” and that phrase is useful because it captures how the books operate. The appeal comes from watching ordinary emotional chaos collide with titles, expectations, public image, and all the pressure that comes with suddenly being pulled toward a crown-adjacent life.
Royally Not Ready establishes that tone especially well. Quinn’s official copy presents it as funny, steamy, and unexpected, which fits the larger series perfectly. The book leans into the fantasy of monarchy, but it never forgets that what really drives the story is character friction: attraction, resistance, vulnerability, and the shock of realizing that a supposedly impossible life might be becoming real. That balance is one of the series’ strengths. The royal setting gives the books glamour and scale, but the romance still works through the same emotional messiness that runs through Quinn’s best contemporary work.
The second book, Royally in Trouble, deepens that setup rather than simply repeating it. On Quinn’s official site, it is described as the sequel to Royally Not Ready and promises more heat, suspense, mystery, and a full happily-ever-after. The product description also makes clear that the responsibilities of the throne now matter more directly, especially the pressure to marry and produce heirs. That shifts the series from playful royal fantasy into something slightly more burdened by duty, which gives the second book a stronger sense of consequence without changing the overall romantic tone.
Because there are only two books, the series benefits from concentration. Quinn does not have to expand into a giant royal court with endless side couples and complicated succession webs. Instead, she can stay focused on one central emotional arc and let the royal setting heighten every decision. That compactness works in the books’ favor. The first novel delivers the rush of disruption and fantasy; the second deals more directly with what happens when the fantasy hardens into responsibility.
Beneath an already completed list, the best way to understand the Not Really Royal books is as Meghan Quinn in a glossy royal-romance mode: funny, sexy, emotionally fast-moving, and built around the collision between ordinary desire and extraordinary expectation. The books are connected by their shared royal world, but their real appeal lies in how Quinn turns monarchy into romantic pressure rather than distant pageantry. What lasts is not the crown itself, but the way love becomes harder, riskier, and much more public once fairy-tale fantasy starts demanding real sacrifice.