Royalteen - Наследникът

The novel “Royalteen: The Heir” is the new hit. This week Netflix released the film inspired by the book, which in a few days will be published by “Knigi za vsichki” in a translation by Vladimira Stariradeva. It is a modern fairy tale about a most ordinary girl who wins the prince – something like “Cinderella” meets “Gossip Girl”.

Lena is the new girl in a posh metropolitan high school with a hundred-year history. She must finish her last year there because her family has moved to Oslo. Her classmates will include the most famous twins in the country – the crown prince, Prince Karl Johan, and his sister, Princess Margrete.

Very quickly Prince Karl Johan, called Kalle by his friends, and Lena begin to develop warm feelings for each other. She is charmed but also skeptical for many reasons. Party prince Kalle is a constant figure in tabloids and gossip blogs, one of which is run anonymously by Lena herself until she is exposed. She painfully realizes that meeting the future king may put both of them in an impossible situation because she hasn't told Kalle or anyone about her much bigger secret, which is the reason she moved from her hometown.

“The Heir” is the first novel from the “Royalteen” series – plot-independent books that will also come out in English. The authors are Anne Gyn Halvorsen and Randi Fuglehaug, who have separate literary careers but have now joined for this novel that became a hit.

Imagine you’re sixteen, having just moved from the small town to an elite school in the West End with the king's children in your class. In this novel the twins are Princess Margrete and Crown Prince Karl Johan. Let your imagination run wild to the point where Kalle, who is kind, funny and good-looking, falls immensely in love with you and you with him.

That’s exactly what happens to Lena. She should be on cloud nine. But she is not. Lena has secrets of which she is deeply ashamed.

But not everything is so romantic. Some moments in the novel are realistic without a doubt as you put yourself in the characters' place and share their feelings.

It is not easy for the royal descendants either. You can never trust that your friends won't sell information to the press, and you must always be on your guard. Kalle realizes this after a Halloween party when he dressed in baggy pants, a large T-shirt with “BООM” on the chest, a golden chain around his neck and his face painted like blackface. A scandal follows when photos are secretly sold to the media and blackface Kalle ends up on front pages of all newspapers (a scene probably inspired by the tasteless Nazi costume of the British Prince Harry).

In its own way, the novel is remarkably fresh and fun, and the authors write lightly, stylishly and confidently. The novel is very contemporary about internet trolling and bullying, problem lies that pile up, misunderstandings, sex and shame.

The end may seem like a happy ending, but until the last sentence it makes you jump and cry “I need a sequel!”.

A novel that can't be anything less than a big hit.