We loved all the royal drama in this compelling listen about what happens when “the spare” suddenly becomes the future queen. Lexi Villiers is living her best life in Tasmania, completing her medical residency and sharing a farm with her closest friends, Jack and Finn. That is, until she learns her father and brother have died and her formidable grandmother insists she come home to England at once. Oh, did we mention that her grandmother is the queen? Australian journalist Rebecca Armitage makes Lexi’s choice between the comfortable world she’s created and her duty as princess feel authentic and deeply human. There’s plenty of glamour and pageantry, but grief, guilt, long-standing family rifts, and the pull of her budding romance with Jack come with real emotional stakes. Shakira Shute’s smooth, expressive narration captures it all, shifting effortlessly between palace formality and Tasmanian warmth. The Heir Apparent is smart, modern royal fiction with heart.

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