A Princess in Theory was my first book by Alyssa Cole. She’s an author I’ve been wanting to check out for a long time now. I’d heard great things about this series, Reluctant Royals.
Since getting back into the romance genre, I haven’t read a royal themed romance so A Princess in Theory seemed like a great place to begin! This book works for a couple of my 2021 reading goals as well since Alyssa Cole is both a new to me author and an author of color.
The Rundown
Orphaned at a young age, Naledi Smith is now a graduate student working multiple jobs to make ends meet. She doesn’t have time for the email scam targeting her with claims that she’s betrothed to an African prince and promptly deletes them.
Prince Thabiso is real though and the next King of Thesolo. With pressure from all sides for him to settle down and marry, he decides to search for his long lost bethrothed. All clues point to her living in New York City.
When the prince arrives at Naledi’s workplace, he’s shocked to find she has no idea who he is and more so no idea about her heritage. After she mistakes him for Jamal, a new hire, Prince Thabiso adopts the new identity. He’s eager to get to know her and experience life without the complication of his royal status.
Friendship quickly turns into something more with their attraction to one another, but multiple deceptions threaten to ruin everything.
Rating and Review
Rating: 3.5 stars
Steam Level: 2
Slow Start
I did not like the beginning of this book. The first part felt boring and really dragged for me. There was too much of the drudgery of Naledi’s day to day life.
I didn’t like how Naledi never stood up for herself and let people walk all over her. I understand that we need to see some of that to recognize how her character changes over the story, but it was a lot!
Her friend, Portia, was incredibly obnoxious. To the point that I’m not sure I’ll read the second book in the series because it’s her story. I also wasn’t a fan of Prince Thabiso pretending to be someone else. That deception was borderline unforgivable. It was refreshing to see his assistant, Likotsi, call him on it.
Story picks up in the second half
I’m glad I stuck with the story because I enjoyed the last half of the book a lot. Once they went to Thesolo things picked up for me. It almost felt like a different book. I actually laughed out loud at a few parts in the second half. The tone was just different. Both fun and intriguing.
Naledi maintained her boundaries, focused on career opportunities, and stood up for herself no matter how royal some of her critics were. Her quirky nature also became more lovable.
There were a couple of mysteries in the second half with the new illness popping up in Thesolo and Naledi wondering why her parents left in the first place. It was touching to see Naledi open herself up to the family members she still had remaining. I adored her cousin, Nya’s character.
Their connection became more believable in the last half too
I loved getting more insight into the connection between Naledi and Thabiso as toddlers. Their relationship really came through as a strong friendship with enough chemistry to also be lovers.
Some of the conflict in this book felt a little weak. I thought that improved with the second half of the story as well.
I may continue with this series. There’s a novella, Once Ghosted Twice Shy, sharing Likotsi’s story and the most recent book, A Prince on Paper, has Nya as the heroine! I’d also love to check out Alyssa Cole’s historical romance series set during the civil war. The first book appears to be available on Kindle Unlimited as of this writing.
What are your favorite royal romances? Have you read A Princess in Theory?
