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ellaperkins's review against another edition
1.0
dnf at 78% (ch 19).
1.5 stars.
it’s giving disney channel original movie….but like post-2012 when they went really downhill.
1.5 stars.
it’s giving disney channel original movie….but like post-2012 when they went really downhill.
sjsreads's review against another edition
4.0
A great start to Christi Barth's new series! I loved that Kelsey struggled with choosing between her old life and her new. It gave this fantasy a realistic spin that I appreciated. And I loved the chemistry between Elias and Kelsey. I also really enjoyed the family dynamics and can't wait to see the sibling relationships evolve over the next books. This was a fun read and I definitely recommend this if you're in the mood for something light and romantic with a little heat for these cold nights.
ink__and__page's review against another edition
3.0
A great setting, a story that started off feeling very much like Tangled (a royal family searching for their lost princess!) but with a more adult romance vibe. I enjoyed the premise, he two main characters. The pacing felt off in the middle of the story and like their relationship got serious way too fast for my liking, but otherwise I thought the story was interesting overall. I enjoyed the royalty aspect and the fact that the lost princess had to adapt to royal siblings as well as the rest of life as a royal.
christy_0909's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I wish that we got see more of the country and hear more of the language and see more of the culture as well. It was more about her relationship than her becoming a good princess and I wish we got more of a mix of those two aspects.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping and Sexual content
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Death of parent, Death, Suicide, and Gun violence
lord_farquaad's review against another edition
1.0
It was cute and fluffy but very cliché. The story was actually rather boring for me. And it was very instalove that made me not want to continue reading the book. I guess I shouldn't have expected anything else from this book. But it was not for me I got annoyed at the characters and their decisions and didn't feel any connection with any of them. I don't think this book is a bad book it was just that I didn't vibe with it.
sonny's review against another edition
4.0
I kind of had an inkling that this book would be exactly what it gave me...a Lost Princess is found, but had no idea it would be kinda/sorta based off Anastasia w/ a sidebar of Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries. It works, it truly, genuinely works except for a few major issues I have. I will mention them shortly because it completely stays with me even beyond the ending of this book.
It's a very straightforward story. Kelsey and Mallory are two closely bonded sisters attempting to live their lives together in a New York City apartment, but their budget is a bit on the tight side. I mean the whole conversation they have before the dreaded knock on the door is about pinching the pennies so they can eat or buy groceries...or decide to do one thing but not the other. Mallory is a few years older and Kelsey is still close in age but she's, maybe 24-25. They seem like they both left home and are kind of just barely scraping by. Mallory is going to be a teacher or work in a school and I think Kelsey works from home but she does a lot of tech-work on computers, where she may help out with web design and such. Anyway, neither sister feels they are spectacular but they love, admire and respect each other, which is sweet to have this situation right before the ceiling caves in...not literally.
They are just about to order dinner in their apartment, both are dressed down in comfy clothing, and then a knock sounds on their door. Kelsey is the one who runs to answer it and she looks through the peephole in the door and sees all these gorgeous tall, beefy men outside the long hallway. When she opens the door, she finds an even more handsome gent [and I mean a British-speaking guy] who asks who she is and tells Kelsey that he is here to take her back home to her own country. He manages to vomit out the whole entire "sounds-like-a-lie" backstory of how she was kidnapped at a very young age...she is actually a Princess...a Princess to a country she has never heard of to a race of people she has never heard of - I think it's described as neutral in politics somewhere near Austria or thereabouts. There was no map and I barely pay attention when countries sound made up and someone attempts to explain to me "Where in Europe?" this made-up country and people are located. I will, invariably, never retain this information. The huge man at the door, Elias, is actually a personal royal protector of her bio-brother, Christian, but kind of hoodwinked to come to pick her up in America, take her back home and be her "bodyguard"; he's part of the RPS - The Royal Protector Service...yada, yada...
Okay, now for my annoyed & frustrated bits. Royal stories are my catnip. Make them a "found" royal story...it's like catnip + cocaine = my enjoyment rises to 100. So this story is already my jam but I had a bunch of issues with this fairly straight and narrow "found princess" royal story... Kelsey will constantly want to go back home, to NYCity...to her hole-in-the-wall apartment...she wants to do normal, every day dumb things again. She wants to know purpose through having her silly hide-a-way job in tech...she never seems to want to be THERE and they are shoving her into preparing her for her royal coming out within a cram-session of TWO WEEKS, which then she must...MUST... make a decision on whether to stay or go.
By the end, I wished she had chosen to go...go back to NYCity so badly because I really don't feel like being a Princess is truly who she is. Her purpose is never going to be properly found amongst doing charity work and representing a country she had never been a whole part of from childhood years when it mattered. I'm sorry...I know the Author tried, there were several moments she gave Kelsey where she said "Ooo, Ah-ha! Yes, this is where I belong! This is me!" but I genuinely didn't feel she fit...or ever would. And the worst part about this is how not just her entire royal family, but the extended family just browbeat her...forcing her to cope when it was all too much...all too soon. They want her to be a Princess...to be a different person than who she is...they don't even want her to keep the name she's had for 25yrs. They want to call her the name she had as a baby, Valentina. And here is the clincher, Elias was the biggest culprit of forcing this...ramming this...down Kelsey's throat. I mean, Kelsey own bio-brother Christian - who grew up with Elias and they are BFFs - but he constantly sends Elias into Kelsey's pathway as she trying to learn to try to obey...trying to follow rules of royal life...and he tells him outright quite a number of times, "GET HER TO STAY! WHATEVER YOU DO...DO SOMETHING BUT GET HER TO STAY!"
O_O...uh, I'm sorry...what? So, this truly sours the romance Elias builds with Kelsey because...well, on the off-chance they have a great romance...They can't really be together as a proper couple. But he will continue to defy his own rules of conduct...even the rules of brotherhood [since he pretty much starts to have sex with his best friend's little sister]. This just...even in the last few chapters of the story... Christian is still begging Elias..."Oh, noes...you broke up with her? Why? Go back and makeup? Get her to stay! She MUST MUST MUST stay! She can't leave!" I'm mystified why no one genuinely cares about Kelsey and who she truly is....but mostly why it's so freakin' imperitive she stay and she can't leave...LIKE EVER?!
The only saving grace was that she got to have Mallory come along with her, although they really started treating her like shit. Don't get me wrong, Kelsey wasn't a pushover; she stood her ground when she needed to, but so many things were going to happen once she was announced as Lost Princess Valentina Come Back Home...and sure enough...Mallory got hurt in the process, which caused Kelsey to have a deeper consideration that she was a huge target, bringing more harm to her royal family, her own country.
Another thing that upset me was Kelsey/Valentina's own kidnapping story. It happened on a charity trip to South Africa. Weird Enough, but Kelsey's adopted parents [Mallory's bio-parents] were medical experts who were doing missionary work in the country and found themselves forced to take care of Kelsey as a small baby [mere months old]. Not only did this whole debauched kidnapping sound convoluted...it just never gets resolved. Kelsey's & Mallory's parents get detained by some serious government officials...and are forbidden to converse with Kelsey. It takes a minute for Elias to have second thoughts about how Kelsey's adopted parents have been treated...and he is pretty much a word vomiter of secrets around her...so he doesn't keep a lot from her. He feels too guilty.
There are a lot of intricacies deeper into this simple story...I even hated the way the family coldly tells Kelsey how her bio-mother... The Queen, Serena, died. It really just...I had so many moments of "Ooo, oh, I like this part" up against more of "oh, no, no, no... don't like this at all" but it teeter-tottered so much on the No-Please-No end because...it makes me genuinely wonder if Elias has real feelings for Kelsey or if this is all truly just to MAKE HER STAY HERE...because yeah, they are boyfriend/girlfriend and will marry...but I cannot get it out of my head he was so hardcore "protect the royal family" "live for the royal family" for so damn long...it really rote in his life to obey, obey, obey...I don't know. This concerns me greatly. I have the 2nd book and will be moving on...so we shall see...
It's a very straightforward story. Kelsey and Mallory are two closely bonded sisters attempting to live their lives together in a New York City apartment, but their budget is a bit on the tight side. I mean the whole conversation they have before the dreaded knock on the door is about pinching the pennies so they can eat or buy groceries...or decide to do one thing but not the other. Mallory is a few years older and Kelsey is still close in age but she's, maybe 24-25. They seem like they both left home and are kind of just barely scraping by. Mallory is going to be a teacher or work in a school and I think Kelsey works from home but she does a lot of tech-work on computers, where she may help out with web design and such. Anyway, neither sister feels they are spectacular but they love, admire and respect each other, which is sweet to have this situation right before the ceiling caves in...not literally.
They are just about to order dinner in their apartment, both are dressed down in comfy clothing, and then a knock sounds on their door. Kelsey is the one who runs to answer it and she looks through the peephole in the door and sees all these gorgeous tall, beefy men outside the long hallway. When she opens the door, she finds an even more handsome gent [and I mean a British-speaking guy] who asks who she is and tells Kelsey that he is here to take her back home to her own country. He manages to vomit out the whole entire "sounds-like-a-lie" backstory of how she was kidnapped at a very young age...she is actually a Princess...a Princess to a country she has never heard of to a race of people she has never heard of - I think it's described as neutral in politics somewhere near Austria or thereabouts. There was no map and I barely pay attention when countries sound made up and someone attempts to explain to me "Where in Europe?" this made-up country and people are located. I will, invariably, never retain this information. The huge man at the door, Elias, is actually a personal royal protector of her bio-brother, Christian, but kind of hoodwinked to come to pick her up in America, take her back home and be her "bodyguard"; he's part of the RPS - The Royal Protector Service...yada, yada...
Okay, now for my annoyed & frustrated bits. Royal stories are my catnip. Make them a "found" royal story...it's like catnip + cocaine = my enjoyment rises to 100. So this story is already my jam but I had a bunch of issues with this fairly straight and narrow "found princess" royal story... Kelsey will constantly want to go back home, to NYCity...to her hole-in-the-wall apartment...she wants to do normal, every day dumb things again. She wants to know purpose through having her silly hide-a-way job in tech...she never seems to want to be THERE and they are shoving her into preparing her for her royal coming out within a cram-session of TWO WEEKS, which then she must...MUST... make a decision on whether to stay or go.
By the end, I wished she had chosen to go...go back to NYCity so badly because I really don't feel like being a Princess is truly who she is. Her purpose is never going to be properly found amongst doing charity work and representing a country she had never been a whole part of from childhood years when it mattered. I'm sorry...I know the Author tried, there were several moments she gave Kelsey where she said "Ooo, Ah-ha! Yes, this is where I belong! This is me!" but I genuinely didn't feel she fit...or ever would. And the worst part about this is how not just her entire royal family, but the extended family just browbeat her...forcing her to cope when it was all too much...all too soon. They want her to be a Princess...to be a different person than who she is...they don't even want her to keep the name she's had for 25yrs. They want to call her the name she had as a baby, Valentina. And here is the clincher, Elias was the biggest culprit of forcing this...ramming this...down Kelsey's throat. I mean, Kelsey own bio-brother Christian - who grew up with Elias and they are BFFs - but he constantly sends Elias into Kelsey's pathway as she trying to learn to try to obey...trying to follow rules of royal life...and he tells him outright quite a number of times, "GET HER TO STAY! WHATEVER YOU DO...DO SOMETHING BUT GET HER TO STAY!"
O_O...uh, I'm sorry...what? So, this truly sours the romance Elias builds with Kelsey because...well, on the off-chance they have a great romance...They can't really be together as a proper couple. But he will continue to defy his own rules of conduct...even the rules of brotherhood [since he pretty much starts to have sex with his best friend's little sister]. This just...even in the last few chapters of the story... Christian is still begging Elias..."Oh, noes...you broke up with her? Why? Go back and makeup? Get her to stay! She MUST MUST MUST stay! She can't leave!" I'm mystified why no one genuinely cares about Kelsey and who she truly is....but mostly why it's so freakin' imperitive she stay and she can't leave...LIKE EVER?!
The only saving grace was that she got to have Mallory come along with her, although they really started treating her like shit. Don't get me wrong, Kelsey wasn't a pushover; she stood her ground when she needed to, but so many things were going to happen once she was announced as Lost Princess Valentina Come Back Home...and sure enough...Mallory got hurt in the process, which caused Kelsey to have a deeper consideration that she was a huge target, bringing more harm to her royal family, her own country.
Another thing that upset me was Kelsey/Valentina's own kidnapping story. It happened on a charity trip to South Africa. Weird Enough, but Kelsey's adopted parents [Mallory's bio-parents] were medical experts who were doing missionary work in the country and found themselves forced to take care of Kelsey as a small baby [mere months old]. Not only did this whole debauched kidnapping sound convoluted...it just never gets resolved. Kelsey's & Mallory's parents get detained by some serious government officials...and are forbidden to converse with Kelsey. It takes a minute for Elias to have second thoughts about how Kelsey's adopted parents have been treated...and he is pretty much a word vomiter of secrets around her...so he doesn't keep a lot from her. He feels too guilty.
There are a lot of intricacies deeper into this simple story...I even hated the way the family coldly tells Kelsey how her bio-mother... The Queen, Serena, died. It really just...I had so many moments of "Ooo, oh, I like this part" up against more of "oh, no, no, no... don't like this at all" but it teeter-tottered so much on the No-Please-No end because...it makes me genuinely wonder if Elias has real feelings for Kelsey or if this is all truly just to MAKE HER STAY HERE...because yeah, they are boyfriend/girlfriend and will marry...but I cannot get it out of my head he was so hardcore "protect the royal family" "live for the royal family" for so damn long...it really rote in his life to obey, obey, obey...I don't know. This concerns me greatly. I have the 2nd book and will be moving on...so we shall see...
lauramags's review
3.0
Okay was this unrealistic? Yes. Was it cliché? Yes. Has 2020 been a year for me reading romance as escapism from the chaotic climate we are in? YES.
I see why people compared this to a grown-up Princess Diaries in concept it is, in execution, it isn't. The greatest flaw of the Princess Problem is that some aspects seem underdeveloped. I wish we had seen more to Kelsey and Mallory's life in New York and established more of their relationship dynamic before they got whisked away. I also think it would have been interesting to see a sort of grieving process from Kelsey and Mallory finding out they are not biological sisters. I think this would have made this more grounded in reality. This book is apart of a series and I am sure some of the characters are developed further throughout. I think what I liked about this book is how it highlighted different kinds of love siblings, parent and child and romantic. Was this book perfect of course not but it was a really good time.
I see why people compared this to a grown-up Princess Diaries in concept it is, in execution, it isn't. The greatest flaw of the Princess Problem is that some aspects seem underdeveloped. I wish we had seen more to Kelsey and Mallory's life in New York and established more of their relationship dynamic before they got whisked away. I also think it would have been interesting to see a sort of grieving process from Kelsey and Mallory finding out they are not biological sisters. I think this would have made this more grounded in reality. This book is apart of a series and I am sure some of the characters are developed further throughout. I think what I liked about this book is how it highlighted different kinds of love siblings, parent and child and romantic. Was this book perfect of course not but it was a really good time.
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