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Calypso Kelly
A Royal Mess
Calypso Kelly has finally joined the in-crowd at her exclusive English boarding school. She also just happens to be dating Prince Freddie himself! But balancing her social life, her prince, and her parents' visit to London proves to be more than Calypso can handle.
Then, Freddie does the unthinkable and breaks up with Calypso--setting in motion a school-wide plan for a royal Counter Dump. Can Calypso win Freddie back just to break his heart?
All is fair in love and war . . . except, of course, if you're in love with a prince!
Then, Freddie does the unthinkable and breaks up with Calypso--setting in motion a school-wide plan for a royal Counter Dump. Can Calypso win Freddie back just to break his heart?
All is fair in love and war . . . except, of course, if you're in love with a prince!
512 pages, Paperback
First published October 11, 2011
About the author
Tyne O'Connell
29 books135 followersTyne O’Connell is a bestselling British author. Her 13 novels have been published to great acclaim by Headline UK, Bloomsbury USA & other international publishing houses.
http://edition.cnn.com/style/article/...
"An eccentric is not trying to define themselves, they're born seeking a different way," explains Tyne O'Connell, and if anyone should know, it's her. The Mayfair-based author and socialite seems to have been torn straight from the pages of an Evelyn Waugh novel; with her cut-glass accent, perma-fixed tiara and layers of pearls.
Despite recently being diagnosed with a brain tumor, O'Connell has continued to embrace the extraordinary.”
In 2015 HRH as patron of the historic Eccentrics Club awarded her the title of “Most Eccentric British Thinker” based on her research into the 17th C when Eccentricity became the quintessential aspects of the British character. Her extraordinary life has been featured in TV documentaries & feature-spreads in Vogue UK, Elle & most UK broadsheets. Cassandra Jardine in The Daily Telegraph UK wrote: “The Impossibly glamorous Tyne O’Connell’s real life is every bit as extraordinary as her fiction” ELLE UK.
Critics have described O’Connell as, “Enid Blyton of our time” comparing her bestselling boarding-school series, Pulling Princes to “an up to date Mallory Towers”. The first four books in the series are set in a fictionalised Eton College &St Mary’s Ascot near Windsor Castle and based on her three children’s experiences at boarding school & Oxford as well as her own extraordinary life in Mayfair.
Born into an Irish Catholic family, daughter of a retired spy, her favourite chore as a child was collecting eggs from the hens for sixpence writing & reading. She was told by teachers & family she would be an author from age eight. Her first bestselling book was Sex, Lies & Litigation, pub1996 Headline to rave reviews.
Shes spent all her life in Mayfair where she brought up two husbands & three children. The area is at the heart of her ancestry & many of her books. She writes about all things Mayfair for mayfaireccentrics.com, & elsewhere. Visit her at www.tyneoconnell.com & follow her on Instagram @tyneoconnell
O'Connell was educated by elderly Flemish Sacre-Coeur nuns (born in the 1870-80's) with the expectation that she would marry a diploma or Catholic aristocrat - perfectly equipping her for a world that hadn't existed since the 1930’s. It was an unusual Victorian style upbringing & by 17, she was accomplished in Le Cordon Blue, Croquet, Semaphore, Literature, Latin, Needlepoint, Flower Arrangement, Diamond Valuation, Deportment, Millinery & Embassy Dinner Seating. After school she returned
http://www.tyneoconnell.com
http://www.mayfaireccentrics.com
http://www.dandizette.com
http://edition.cnn.com/style/article/...
"An eccentric is not trying to define themselves, they're born seeking a different way," explains Tyne O'Connell, and if anyone should know, it's her. The Mayfair-based author and socialite seems to have been torn straight from the pages of an Evelyn Waugh novel; with her cut-glass accent, perma-fixed tiara and layers of pearls.
Despite recently being diagnosed with a brain tumor, O'Connell has continued to embrace the extraordinary.”
In 2015 HRH as patron of the historic Eccentrics Club awarded her the title of “Most Eccentric British Thinker” based on her research into the 17th C when Eccentricity became the quintessential aspects of the British character. Her extraordinary life has been featured in TV documentaries & feature-spreads in Vogue UK, Elle & most UK broadsheets. Cassandra Jardine in The Daily Telegraph UK wrote: “The Impossibly glamorous Tyne O’Connell’s real life is every bit as extraordinary as her fiction” ELLE UK.
Critics have described O’Connell as, “Enid Blyton of our time” comparing her bestselling boarding-school series, Pulling Princes to “an up to date Mallory Towers”. The first four books in the series are set in a fictionalised Eton College &St Mary’s Ascot near Windsor Castle and based on her three children’s experiences at boarding school & Oxford as well as her own extraordinary life in Mayfair.
Born into an Irish Catholic family, daughter of a retired spy, her favourite chore as a child was collecting eggs from the hens for sixpence writing & reading. She was told by teachers & family she would be an author from age eight. Her first bestselling book was Sex, Lies & Litigation, pub1996 Headline to rave reviews.
Shes spent all her life in Mayfair where she brought up two husbands & three children. The area is at the heart of her ancestry & many of her books. She writes about all things Mayfair for mayfaireccentrics.com, & elsewhere. Visit her at www.tyneoconnell.com & follow her on Instagram @tyneoconnell
O'Connell was educated by elderly Flemish Sacre-Coeur nuns (born in the 1870-80's) with the expectation that she would marry a diploma or Catholic aristocrat - perfectly equipping her for a world that hadn't existed since the 1930’s. It was an unusual Victorian style upbringing & by 17, she was accomplished in Le Cordon Blue, Croquet, Semaphore, Literature, Latin, Needlepoint, Flower Arrangement, Diamond Valuation, Deportment, Millinery & Embassy Dinner Seating. After school she returned
http://www.tyneoconnell.com
http://www.mayfaireccentrics.com
http://www.dandizette.com
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 20, 2012
I read a Royal Match a few months ago but I remember really enjoying it. When I heard there was a sequel I had to read it. I started the book and got through approximately 60 pages, by then I couldn't continue on reading. I rarely do this even if the book is terrible but I found it just irritating. I like how in some books if you haven't read the last one the author puts in little hints of what happened previously but here it was like A Royal Mess was a whole new book. I found the main character Calypso irritating and to dramatic for my tastes. That's pretty much why I found this book a one star. Maybe if I had read both books closer together I would've liked it more but doing it my way I simply didn't.
August 4, 2013
This book was quite a disappointment after the first book. Calypso has gone WAY too far in her goal to achieve high popularity. Not only has she become SOOOOO insecure that she can't wear wellies around her boyfriend, but she has become extremely occupied on her own personal issues, no wonder Freddie dumped her. I mean, she doesn't mind wearing a short skirt in the snow if it means she looks good, Freddie even asked why she wasn't wearing tights! Maybe Star was right, maybe Freddie is shallow, since he did have a VERY shallow girlfriend.
Now although I hated the main character, the book was okay, in fact, it was pretty well written. When the character wasn't focusing on popularity but on fencing, she would start to grow on me. When she's fencing I see the Calypso from the first book, confident and spunky. I also liked the new characters they introduced. I absolutely loved Malcolm (though I don't see why someone as bright as him would go out with a girl like Calypso... but I guess he loves her the way she is)he is artistic and different and sticks out from the crowd!
This book did have its good parts, but there were a few things that bugged me. When Calypso got dumped by Freddie, ALL the girls were helping her counter dump him, as well as all the teachers and nuns. In the real world, nuns and teachers probably wouldn't have found it that big of a deal, and would be against it. And about the rest of the girls, is it really such a big issue if a guy dumps a girl? Really?
Also Freddie confessed that he broke up with Calypso because she was so creative and exotic and he felt that he wasn't. As far as I can see, that is all in his imagination. He is WAY more creative than her for all the book tells us. There's tons more that just makes a bit irritated, but most of it was just small stuff.
I recommend this book to 13-14 year olds.
Now although I hated the main character, the book was okay, in fact, it was pretty well written. When the character wasn't focusing on popularity but on fencing, she would start to grow on me. When she's fencing I see the Calypso from the first book, confident and spunky. I also liked the new characters they introduced. I absolutely loved Malcolm (though I don't see why someone as bright as him would go out with a girl like Calypso... but I guess he loves her the way she is)he is artistic and different and sticks out from the crowd!
This book did have its good parts, but there were a few things that bugged me. When Calypso got dumped by Freddie, ALL the girls were helping her counter dump him, as well as all the teachers and nuns. In the real world, nuns and teachers probably wouldn't have found it that big of a deal, and would be against it. And about the rest of the girls, is it really such a big issue if a guy dumps a girl? Really?
Also Freddie confessed that he broke up with Calypso because she was so creative and exotic and he felt that he wasn't. As far as I can see, that is all in his imagination. He is WAY more creative than her for all the book tells us. There's tons more that just makes a bit irritated, but most of it was just small stuff.
I recommend this book to 13-14 year olds.
November 26, 2012
this book is incredibly boring.
October 11, 2023
read it for the first time at 14, reread it at 22
well!!! the conflict between sarah and bob in the third book was kind of annoying tbh...
also even though i used to like freddie in the first two books, he became very boring and annoying in the last ones... the only things he can do are giving disappointed looks, getting jealous, sulking, and not talking to calypso for days and weeks when shes doing her best to apologize and please him
in other words, he's childish as hell and a royal pain in the ass
also freddie was gone the second malcolm was introduced in the story
sorry not sorry to his royal excellence but malcolm is everything i wish he existed. he's so sexy like okay mister ginger please talk about cinema and italy and your next little movie im all ears!!! i wish calypso wouldn't have constantly thought about freddie when she was with malcolm because that was just rude. also malcolm is miles better than freddie and his gel combed hair (loser)
i was satisfied with the end because calypso acknowledged her love for malcolm (fresh beginning!!! mature love!!!) BUT THEN on the last page calypso was like hmm well maybe i still like freddie?!? i promise you that you don't 💗 there's no way you want to come back to this bland ass lifestyle!!!! freddie's not creative, he's not eccentric, he doesn't make impromptu decisions, he doesn't make you feel alive!!! with him, you will never be cherished and appreciated for what you really are!!!
so yeah to me the end needed a little sequel, even a novella would've been fine, because i really wanted to know who she was going to end up with. in my mind that's malcolm but then that last page kind of ruined it for me. so if the author sees this : even though it's been more than 15 years since the fourth book was published, i need a novella!!!
if you want a fun and unserious reading, i'd recommend
well!!! the conflict between sarah and bob in the third book was kind of annoying tbh...
also even though i used to like freddie in the first two books, he became very boring and annoying in the last ones... the only things he can do are giving disappointed looks, getting jealous, sulking, and not talking to calypso for days and weeks when shes doing her best to apologize and please him
in other words, he's childish as hell and a royal pain in the ass
also freddie was gone the second malcolm was introduced in the story
sorry not sorry to his royal excellence but malcolm is everything i wish he existed. he's so sexy like okay mister ginger please talk about cinema and italy and your next little movie im all ears!!! i wish calypso wouldn't have constantly thought about freddie when she was with malcolm because that was just rude. also malcolm is miles better than freddie and his gel combed hair (loser)
i was satisfied with the end because calypso acknowledged her love for malcolm (fresh beginning!!! mature love!!!) BUT THEN on the last page calypso was like hmm well maybe i still like freddie?!? i promise you that you don't 💗 there's no way you want to come back to this bland ass lifestyle!!!! freddie's not creative, he's not eccentric, he doesn't make impromptu decisions, he doesn't make you feel alive!!! with him, you will never be cherished and appreciated for what you really are!!!
so yeah to me the end needed a little sequel, even a novella would've been fine, because i really wanted to know who she was going to end up with. in my mind that's malcolm but then that last page kind of ruined it for me. so if the author sees this : even though it's been more than 15 years since the fourth book was published, i need a novella!!!
if you want a fun and unserious reading, i'd recommend
July 14, 2021
Didn’t really love this one. A book about a young girl in boarding school with her friends who is dating a prince. She spends a lot of time worrying about what he may or may not be thinking. The book spent A LOT of time with her worrying about the state of her parents relationship and overall was a bit on the boring side. While this is a young adult novel, it just felt a bit too basic and underdeveloped.
June 22, 2018
BORING. BORING BORING. my daughter quit after the first chapter and I am attempting to finish this book but it is sucking the life out of me. Yawn.
February 17, 2020
Romantic novel for a teen age girl. My grand daughter loved it. Light frivolous cute little book.
February 6, 2023
I couldn't get into this book. It comes off as dated, and I didn't find the characters likeable.
December 20, 2024
-It Was a good book but I didn’t feel the romance and the words were confusing. I never fully understood the character and her motives. Plus the ending was kinda a cliff hanger with no closer.
February 21, 2016
A one-star review! Quelle horreur! Trés, trés mortifying. At some point I questioned myself what made me put up with this early teen self-absorbed drama-queen narration. My compulsive obsession to read all books in series, that's what.
Yes, I know, life is too short to read books you don't like and all that, but...
So the title summed it up for me : it's a royal mess.
If in the previous book Calypso is borderline annoying, in this book she has crossed every line. Her fickleness gave me headache. Even Star, Calypso best friend, said so:
I could easily saw her as the antagonist, were it a book from Honey's point of view (which, frankly, would be more interesting, since there are a lot of unexplained things left about Honey, and she has the potential to be antihero, in my humble opinion).
Issues I have with the previous books persist, and then some:
1. Another insta-love after insta-love
2. Calypso has turned from a simple lucky girl into a speshul Mary-Sue snowflake. She made fit boys dropped into their knee with one glance.
Well my good friend Tyler Durden has something to say to you, Calypso darling :
3. It's just trés, trés annoying to see 'trés' everywhere. And using excessive prolonged 'so' does not emphasize your point, it just makes you looked sooooo immature!
4. Operation Counter Dump, which was supported by the whole Year Eleven. And the house matron and all the sweet nuns because how could His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of England dumped our little lovely special Ms. Kelly? Our schools' honor is at stakes!
I started reading the series hoping for a good nostalgic visit to my early teenager years. Well, I did get what I want, but this book took me to parts I don't want to revisit instead. And Calypso narration painfully reminded me to a so-called 'novel' I started writing when I was 12, and (thankfully) only circulated daily among my closest ring of friends (who admitted that they even liked it at the time, bless them). In that novel (which was written after excessive watching of Meteor Garden) my friends and I are a group of exotic, talented-in-many-ways students attending a prestigious posh school. Fit boys fell in love with us left and right, but we found our true love in characters thinly disguised from our real-life crush, who were of course related/friends forevarrr with each other. There were conflicts, but certainly not too tragic, since the story was based on real life and what if our reality turned to be as tragic as that story? Needless to say, we have silent agreement to never mention that story in detail ever again...
So, yaaah, darling book, perhaps it's not you, it's me...
Yes, I know, life is too short to read books you don't like and all that, but...
So the title summed it up for me : it's a royal mess.
If in the previous book Calypso is borderline annoying, in this book she has crossed every line. Her fickleness gave me headache. Even Star, Calypso best friend, said so:
"You're so wrapped up in yourself, Calypso, you just don't even see how your actions impact on others! (...),"Star continued to scold.
I could easily saw her as the antagonist, were it a book from Honey's point of view (which, frankly, would be more interesting, since there are a lot of unexplained things left about Honey, and she has the potential to be antihero, in my humble opinion).
Issues I have with the previous books persist, and then some:
1. Another insta-love after insta-love
2. Calypso has turned from a simple lucky girl into a speshul Mary-Sue snowflake. She made fit boys dropped into their knee with one glance.
Well my good friend Tyler Durden has something to say to you, Calypso darling :
3. It's just trés, trés annoying to see 'trés' everywhere. And using excessive prolonged 'so' does not emphasize your point, it just makes you looked sooooo immature!
4. Operation Counter Dump, which was supported by the whole Year Eleven. And the house matron and all the sweet nuns because how could His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of England dumped our little lovely special Ms. Kelly? Our schools' honor is at stakes!
I started reading the series hoping for a good nostalgic visit to my early teenager years. Well, I did get what I want, but this book took me to parts I don't want to revisit instead. And Calypso narration painfully reminded me to a so-called 'novel' I started writing when I was 12, and (thankfully) only circulated daily among my closest ring of friends (who admitted that they even liked it at the time, bless them). In that novel (which was written after excessive watching of Meteor Garden) my friends and I are a group of exotic, talented-in-many-ways students attending a prestigious posh school. Fit boys fell in love with us left and right, but we found our true love in characters thinly disguised from our real-life crush, who were of course related/friends forevarrr with each other. There were conflicts, but certainly not too tragic, since the story was based on real life and what if our reality turned to be as tragic as that story? Needless to say, we have silent agreement to never mention that story in detail ever again...
So, yaaah, darling book, perhaps it's not you, it's me...
December 26, 2013
I don't know why, but I seem to have a thing for two books in one for so,e reason. But really this was a great. I have to confess I didn't realize that there were two other books before these two, but that didn't affect me when reading this book. It actually made it even better and the book basically recapped what happened before, so it was okay. This was a really good book and I loved every part of it. The plots, the characters, the twists and turns, and lastly the ending. The first book Dueling Princes was really good and gave me a feel of the characters and what they were like. The characters were hilarious and I wished most of them were real because I would want to be friends with them. They were nice to each other and Calypso was fifteen and she already had a boyfriend who was prince of England. I know it's justo a book, but really. She was my age and she was able to do all these things. The one thing I didn't like was there was some things that weren't realistic. Like there fifteen and they are already drinking. Plus the nuns at the school weren't like other nuns, they drank too and let the kids basically get away with it too. But anyway, other than that it was really funny and I loved Calypso's personality. The endings in both books were great too. But I wished that in Dumping Princes, I would have known who she wanted to really be with. I liked Freds but Malcolm was good too. The ending just left off with Calypso not knowing who she really had feelings for, but at least she was happy and all. She would always have Freds and Malcolm who will be her friends. So all in all, this was a great double feature and if there are other books in this series I will loo coward to reading them. I will also read the first two, you can never get enough of Calypso Kelly and the rest of her friends in this series. Enjoy!!!!!!
October 25, 2013
A royal match was way better but I liked this one because it was nice to get back into the world of the boarding school etc.. Still witty and kind of funny but way too much drama involving the fencing
February 15, 2012
This book wasn't one of my favorites but I still enjoyed it. If i could pick one word to describe this book it would be cute. Worth the ten bucks though? probably not.
March 14, 2012
This was ok.. But I like her and Freds.. And I wish there was another book. Even if she doesn't get with Freds and stays with Malcolm, I want everything explained more.
May 3, 2012
Has a really great plot but it took for ever to get to the main point but I cant wait to read the next book
July 23, 2021
I could not finish it. I just could not it got to awkward for me. I loved a Royal Match and was a little dissapointed.
June 5, 2013
Its all about fairytale and happy ever after
June 11, 2015
This was interesting. It was writing from a 14/15 year old point of view and it gives an interesting glimpse into an English life. Although, it was really boring.
June 3, 2013
It was long but it was still slightly humourous with an open ending with a lot of questions.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews