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A review by lucyp21
Princess of Zamibia by Delaney Diamond
3.0
This book had been recced to me a little while ago as another adult romance book with the convenient marriage trope and since it was on KU, I decided to give it a try. And it was an enjoyable romance, though there were some parts which I wish could have been done differently.
Dahlia and Kofi had split up after Dahlia's boss had embezzled money from Prince Kofi's country and Dahlia had gotten her share of the blame. Only trouble was that Dahlia had been pregnant when they split and hadn't told Kofi about his son. Kofi showed up, said he was taking his son and Dahlia could stay in America without his son, or come with him back to Zamibia as his wife.
There were several things I liked about this book. It was an enjoyable read, very quick and I liked the main plot of the book apart from the romance, with the secrets and mistakes of the royal family impacting those living in the present. The made-up country of Zamibia had obviously had a lot of thought put into it, with a history, government and several laws all set in place.
Now the issue I had with this book was that I wanted more and not in a good way of 'I want more books about this couple' but more 'they glossed over this part of the book I was really looking forward to'. Like I mentioned above, I enjoyed the main plot of the book outside of the romance with the King's illegitimate son coming back to get revenge on his half-brother and father and I almost wish more attention had been paid to that.
The romance I think suffered a little bit - at the start of the book Kofi essentially blackmailed Dahlia into marrying him by holding her child over her head and she didn't have any choice in the matter. But this is never fully addressed, Kofi never experienced a moment of regret about how that is not how you treat someone, especially the mother of your child and your soon-to-be wife and Dahlia never brings him up to task about it. And we saw Dahlia struggling a little with her new life and responsibilities, none of which she particularly chose because of the aforementioned blackmail, but then Kofi does something sweet and all her issues magically disappear.
When I read a book which has the convenient marriage + hidden child tropes, I expect some conflict over how they married and how the outsider adjusts to their new life, but we didn't get to see any of that. All the conflict came from the subplot about Noel being in danger and how Dahlia, for a brief moment, blamed her husband when he promised they would always be safe. I shouldn't get to the end of the book and think, 'yes, Dahlia, take his offer to leave and run' because I should want them to be together. Their romance felt very unequal from the start and this is never really fully addressed. As for the subplot about the oil mining corporation - it got about four scenes in the book in total and seemed completely unnecessary. I would have preferred if the mine collapse had been an accident because we would have been able to see Kofi and the King handle this criticism as best they can.
I didn't dislike this book, it was very readable but it fell short to me several times along the way. I'm glad it was on Kindle Unlimited because I think I would have been a little frustrated if I had spent money on it but I didn't regret reading it and I have chosen the next book in the series on KU.
3 stars!
Dahlia and Kofi had split up after Dahlia's boss had embezzled money from Prince Kofi's country and Dahlia had gotten her share of the blame. Only trouble was that Dahlia had been pregnant when they split and hadn't told Kofi about his son. Kofi showed up, said he was taking his son and Dahlia could stay in America without his son, or come with him back to Zamibia as his wife.
There were several things I liked about this book. It was an enjoyable read, very quick and I liked the main plot of the book apart from the romance, with the secrets and mistakes of the royal family impacting those living in the present. The made-up country of Zamibia had obviously had a lot of thought put into it, with a history, government and several laws all set in place.
Now the issue I had with this book was that I wanted more and not in a good way of 'I want more books about this couple' but more 'they glossed over this part of the book I was really looking forward to'. Like I mentioned above, I enjoyed the main plot of the book outside of the romance with the King's illegitimate son coming back to get revenge on his half-brother and father and I almost wish more attention had been paid to that.
The romance I think suffered a little bit - at the start of the book Kofi essentially blackmailed Dahlia into marrying him by holding her child over her head and she didn't have any choice in the matter. But this is never fully addressed, Kofi never experienced a moment of regret about how that is not how you treat someone, especially the mother of your child and your soon-to-be wife and Dahlia never brings him up to task about it. And we saw Dahlia struggling a little with her new life and responsibilities, none of which she particularly chose because of the aforementioned blackmail, but then Kofi does something sweet and all her issues magically disappear.
When I read a book which has the convenient marriage + hidden child tropes, I expect some conflict over how they married and how the outsider adjusts to their new life, but we didn't get to see any of that. All the conflict came from the subplot about Noel being in danger and how Dahlia, for a brief moment, blamed her husband when he promised they would always be safe. I shouldn't get to the end of the book and think, 'yes, Dahlia, take his offer to leave and run' because I should want them to be together. Their romance felt very unequal from the start and this is never really fully addressed. As for the subplot about the oil mining corporation - it got about four scenes in the book in total and seemed completely unnecessary. I would have preferred if the mine collapse had been an accident because we would have been able to see Kofi and the King handle this criticism as best they can.
I didn't dislike this book, it was very readable but it fell short to me several times along the way. I'm glad it was on Kindle Unlimited because I think I would have been a little frustrated if I had spent money on it but I didn't regret reading it and I have chosen the next book in the series on KU.
3 stars!