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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated How to Find a Princess in Books

Jul 15, 2021

How to Find a Princess

Alyssa Cole | 2021 | Erotica, Fiction & Poetry, Humor & Comedy, LGBTQ+, Romance

4.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

A repetitive and lackluster romance

Makeda Hicks loses her job and her girlfriend in the same day. Reeling, she's forced to move back with her grandmother and help out at her bed and breakfast. Being back with Grandmore means hearing more about when Grandmore supposedly had a passionate affair with the Prince of Ibarania--leading to Makeda's mother. Makeda has no patience for this story, as her mother's obsession with being a Princess dominated Makeda's entire childhood. When it never panned out, she disconnected from life (and Makeda), receding into alcoholism and forcing Makeda to grow up fast. When Beznaria Chetchevaliere, an investigator for the World Federation of Monarchies shows up at the B&B, claiming to be looking for Ibarania's missing heir, Makeda wants nothing to do with it. But the beautiful and chaotic investigator is surprisingly persuasive. Can she convince Makeda to go with her--and is Makeda indeed the heir to Ibarania?

"No adventures, no drama, and always there to lend a helping hand, even when her hands were full, that was Makeda."

This was one of my #Pride reads for June, and it sounded so cute. There were definitely funny and enjoyable moments, and I'm always glad to see queer romances in the world, but overall, this one didn't really work for me. I am a sucker for a good Hallmark movie, but even I couldn't get into this crazy idea--an unhinged royal investigator, a reluctant heir... and eventually a lot of fakedating and a cargo ship. It was all too much.

It's hard to believe the instachemistry between Bez and Makeda, especially as we do not get a lot of backstory on the two women. Makeda's "will I go with Bez or won't I" takes an inordinately long time--it was incredibly frustrating. Just decide already! Things are repeated over and over, making the story feel inordinately long. Being unable to get into the characters or their romance, it was just hard to really love this one. The pacing and timing always seemed off. I wound up skimming the last half just to find out what would happen, otherwise it would have been a DNF. 2 stars.

Kudos

Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated Tell Me It's Real (At First Sight, #1) in Books

Jan 12, 2021

This review and more can be found at my blog
https://aromancereadersreviews.blogspot.com
A Romance Reader's Reviews

Well, right from the start this had me laughing as Paul introduced himself. It was very frank and pretty much laugh-out-loud at times. He doesn't have the best opinion of himself, bless him, but he's so fun. And then he meets eyes with Vince while out at his friends drag queen performance at a bar/club and things go from there. Vince is not backing down about his intentions to date Paul, while Paul cannot believe that this younger, attractive, really nice if slightly dumb man, wants him and fights it tooth and nail.

They have a text conversation about a third of the way through the book that almost had me laughing like an idiot. The text faces that Vince was sending Paul were frigging hilarious. The Sex Face one is going to stick with me for a long time: >_<

And let's not forget Paul's parents. Oh. My. God! They are so funny it's not fair. I almost had tears streaming down my face at one point. They all go to nan's house for a meal and ignoring Johnny Depp, the homophobic parrot, they get into a conversation about how they met and it's stuff like this that has me crying with laughter at times. Vince, bless him. Not the smartest but he's a real sweetheart.
"He was choking to death in a restaurant," Vince explained
"I was not!" I said.
"On like a burrito or something."
"It was spinach."
"Anyway, he would have died had I not done the haemorrhoid manoeuvre."
"Heimlich. It's Heimlich."

There were so many conversations like this, with some crazy stuff being discussed and I LOVED it! They were such a cute couple and they gelled so well. It was so obvious they truly needed each other at the time that they found each other. Paul needed to let himself be loved and Vince needed someone to be there for him after a family issue. It was amazing!

I'm going to be keeping my eye out for other books in this series.