Codename Charming is a cute and funny story. Matthias is nothing more than Pet's bodyguard but then an incident at a conference and a photo from that incident that gets published in a tabloid forces them into a fake dating situation but while pretending to be a couple they eventually realize that their feelings for each other are anything but fake. Codename Charming in my opinion, leans more towards a sweet romance rather than a spicy romance as there aren't really any spicy scenes until towards the end of the book but it's absolutely perfect the way it's written and I wouldn't change a thing. One of my favorite scenes was the one when they had to hide in the storage room together and he made her the tiny wooden mouse holding a teddy bear. That scene was so sweet! I also loved the scene with the parrot, it was so funny. These are a couple of my favorite quotes/lines from Codename Charming; "The sensible side of her mind was jumping up and down, all but waving placards to get her attention, but the romantic, masochistic side just nudged her impatiently, winked hornily, and projected an image of climbing Matthias's body like a fireman's pole and picking up where they'd left off." {Chapter 9, Page 189} "When there's zero factual basis to it, it's fairly simple to subvert this type of thing.” She lifted her pleasingly bushy brows at Pet. "One method being redirection. For instance, Person A is very unlikely to be involved with Person B, if their affections have already been won by Person C." Pet absorbed that for a single second. “Noted. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be much help there. I can't produce a Person C. I'm currently not even getting casual D." {Chapter 5, Pages 74-75} "Thank you, Captain Obvious. I had gathered. Apart from that weirdo at the Digital Star who seems to have a personal vendetta about it, I think everyone is well aware by this point that you'd like to climb that man like a tree." {Chapter 15, Page 296} And this was my #1 favorite quote from the book: "Life isn't always easy, Pet," Rosie said. "Neither is love. But they're sure as h*ll worth fighting for." {Chapter 17, Page 357} Codename Charming is a fun read for anyone who loves romances and/or romantic comedies. While this is the second book in Lucy Parker's Palace Insiders series, I will definitely be sure to read the first book in the series, Battle Royal as Codename Charming is 100% a five-star read.

Pet(unia) De Vere is the vertically challenged sister of Dominic, cake-maker extraordinaire of the first book in this series. She has landed the job of PA to Johnny Marchmont, spouse of the King's youngest granddaughter Princess Rosie of Albany. Now Johnny maybe lovable, a breath of fresh air, and the love of Rosie's life, but he is also a terrible klutz who seems to trip up and fall on/push Pet on numerous occasions. Unfortunately, this has led some elements of the gutter press to speculate about Pet and Johnny, especially after a picture was published of Johnny being kissed by another woman not so long ago. Luckily for Pet, the stoic, inscrutable, and extremely large royal security officer Matthias Vaughn is there to catch her, sometimes 'catch' is a bit of a stretch and 'break her fall' is a better descriptive, leading some people on social media to start shipping them as a couple. So the royal couple come up with a plan to defuse the speculation, Pet and Matthias will pretend to be a couple operation Codename Charming (as in Prince Charming). Can these two opposites ever pull off this deception? This was charming by name and charming by nature. Full of Lucy Parker's trademark good humour and lovable characters. My only gripe is that I liked the sound of C.W. Tallen's book and was disappointed that it was not available on the Zon LOL.