A review by vwalklate
A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole

4.0

This book was recommended to me as a fan of the 'surprise, ordinary person - you're actually royalty!' trope and it did not disappoint. Naledi's parents died when she was young and she was raised in the American care system, oblivious to the fact she's actually betrothed to Thabiso, crown prince of the African country of Thesolo. He comes to find her in NYC, pretends he's a regular guy called Jamal, and all her carefully-built walls crumble in the resulting shenanigans.

There was tons to like about this book - the STEM aspect was fab and gave a fresh dimension to the plot, Ledi and Thabiso were likeable and well-rounded MCs and the sex was hot. There were some really funny scenes including Thabiso failing massively as a waiter, and being horrified by giant subway rats. I also loved Thabiso's assistant Likotsi, I'm hoping she gets her own book at some point.

The ending felt rather abrupt, I would've preferred for the bad guy get his comeuppance on the page rather than recounted in the last chapter like an epilogue. I'm not keen on the lying/fake identity trope and really didn't like

that Thabiso had sex with Ledi before revealing his true identity- that made me feel a bit uncomfortable

. And I found Ledi's best friend Portia irritating in places although I've now seen she's the MC in Book 2, which looks great, so hopefully I'll warm to her more in that one.

All in all a lovely romance and I'm pleased to have a new series to get my teeth into :-)