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A review by heyitsife
A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole
5.0
Rating: 5
First thing, I think readers will enjoy the book more if it’s experienced through the audiobook, especially with the use of a language that is part German part French. That can be a little bit complicated if they’re just reading that instead of hearing it. It would force the reader to be more focused on the pronunciation of the words than just experiencing the story.
The beginning was a little slow for me. I kept starting and stopping for the first third of the book. But when it started to ramp up, the romance aspect of the novel, I really enjoyed it. I loved how the main character was African and the voice actor had an African accent. The way Nya’s character was represented I think truly impacted the way I experienced the book. I think often times with romance novels I feel kind of a anxious waiting for the other shoe to drop or for something incredibly pointless to destroy the relationship. I feel like with this novel that anxiety isn’t as high. That comes down to the honesty of Nya’s character. She is honest with herself and with Johan which doesn’t force the reader to read about unnecessary conflict to push the plot.
The way Alyssa expressed Lukas‘s identity was so simple and I really enjoyed that. It was great to see the way their family fully accepted who they were as a person without the need to argue with them about it. Johan’s character has to be in my opinion the most annoying character throughout the novel because his need to protect himself stunted the growth of his relationship with Nya and ultimately caused the largest conflict in their relationship. It was a noticeable contrast between the way Nya was willing to be vulnerable but Johan wasn’t. I don’t think it was a bad thing because the contrast was necessary and realistic. If he wasn’t that way the book would’ve ended in five chapters.
The incorporation of the folktale at the end was the icing on the cake. Only at the end does the reader really understand her nickname for him, Phokojoe, and what it’s meant for her to have been calling him that since the beginning of the story.
I really love the book. I was able to really resonate with the female protagonist and her background. The more and more I think about all the different things that this book has the more I realize how much I loved it. There was just so much to the book, the father-son relationship between Johan and his stepfather, the relationship between Lukas and Johan, the relationship between Nya and her father and her realizing her independence and power away from him. The one thing I will say that was annoying was the fact that Johan gave Nya the benefit of the doubt for so many things except the one thing that caused conflict in the relationship. I thought that was unfair to her especially with the way she was so honest with him about her feelings and what she wanted from him when he wasn’t willing to do the same for her. Overall, I think this book had everything and more, and did a good job in having all these different facets to the novel.
First thing, I think readers will enjoy the book more if it’s experienced through the audiobook, especially with the use of a language that is part German part French. That can be a little bit complicated if they’re just reading that instead of hearing it. It would force the reader to be more focused on the pronunciation of the words than just experiencing the story.
The beginning was a little slow for me. I kept starting and stopping for the first third of the book. But when it started to ramp up, the romance aspect of the novel, I really enjoyed it. I loved how the main character was African and the voice actor had an African accent. The way Nya’s character was represented I think truly impacted the way I experienced the book. I think often times with romance novels I feel kind of a anxious waiting for the other shoe to drop or for something incredibly pointless to destroy the relationship. I feel like with this novel that anxiety isn’t as high. That comes down to the honesty of Nya’s character. She is honest with herself and with Johan which doesn’t force the reader to read about unnecessary conflict to push the plot.
The way Alyssa expressed Lukas‘s identity was so simple and I really enjoyed that. It was great to see the way their family fully accepted who they were as a person without the need to argue with them about it. Johan’s character has to be in my opinion the most annoying character throughout the novel because his need to protect himself stunted the growth of his relationship with Nya and ultimately caused the largest conflict in their relationship. It was a noticeable contrast between the way Nya was willing to be vulnerable but Johan wasn’t. I don’t think it was a bad thing because the contrast was necessary and realistic. If he wasn’t that way the book would’ve ended in five chapters.
The incorporation of the folktale at the end was the icing on the cake. Only at the end does the reader really understand her nickname for him, Phokojoe, and what it’s meant for her to have been calling him that since the beginning of the story.
I really love the book. I was able to really resonate with the female protagonist and her background. The more and more I think about all the different things that this book has the more I realize how much I loved it. There was just so much to the book, the father-son relationship between Johan and his stepfather, the relationship between Lukas and Johan, the relationship between Nya and her father and her realizing her independence and power away from him. The one thing I will say that was annoying was the fact that Johan gave Nya the benefit of the doubt for so many things except the one thing that caused conflict in the relationship. I thought that was unfair to her especially with the way she was so honest with him about her feelings and what she wanted from him when he wasn’t willing to do the same for her. Overall, I think this book had everything and more, and did a good job in having all these different facets to the novel.