Book Review: A Princess in Theory

A Princess in Theory
Alyssa Cole

“He’d been a thorn in her side the entire night and she had given him cupcakes and a gonorrhea anecdote and support.”

I first heard about this novel thanks to an article about the origin of clinch covers over on BookRiot, and it’s well worth the read if you haven’t seen it already. I especially loved how they used A Princess in Theory to describe the evolution of the clinch cover. That being said, I knew what to expect going into this genre, but I was given so much more. Cole has created a novel with well-rounded believable characters and, of course, some wonderfully erotic scenes.

Raised in the foster care system, Naledi has learned time and again that keeping barriers around herself is the one way to stave off the hurt she has inevitably felt being passed from home to home. It’s done her a lot of good as she’s progressed to grad school and studying her preferred field: epidemiology. Now if only she could get these spammers to stop telling her about her betrothal to a Thesolonian prince…

A simple case of mistaken identity has landed Prince Thabiso, sole heir to the crown of Thesolo, now Jamal, a job working next to his unknowingly betrothed Naledi. Flames, quite literally, spark between them, and Thabiso is falling hard for Naledi. And Naledi is falling for Jamal, not Thabiso. What’s a royal to do?

The struggles of grad school and being poor while also being a woman of color in a STEM field of study are quite realistic, and were incredibly relateable (with the exception that, as a white woman I can understand but not directly relate to that last experience) which made Naledi such a compelling heroine. Thabiso, despite being royal, was characterized with dignity and complexity, making him more than just a delivery vessel for some spectacular sex. Naledi is no “receiving” vessel either. But beyond that, A Princess in Theory is a lot of fantasy. Not just that the sex is great (on the first try) and that she has an orgasm before her partner, but also the nation of Thesolo seems too perfect to be real and comes off as too fairytale-ish, despite Cole’s attempt at seeding political intrigue into the plot. That being said, I do wish Thesolo is real, and the escapism it provides to a citizen of America right now is incredibly appealing. A nation that actually cares about its citizens well being and the environmental impact of policy decisions? That was almost toe curling.

Fairytales are a recurring motif during the novel, more often from Naledi’s reaction to the events happening to her rather than in atmospheric writing.  It’s definitely more than once that Thabiso’s eyes are described as “Disney-fied” or “Disney prince eyes,” and I started mentally superimposing Prince Eric’s eyes over what was, before that, a very fine looking gentleman. I definitely imagined a cross between Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger character from Black Panther, and Michael Colter’s bearded Luke Cage. But then it got a little Judge Doom-y for me with all those cartoonish descriptions of his eyes. Pinterest has no shortage of hot men that fit the description (without the crazy eyes), so it wasn’t hard to get back on track.

 

Despite the unrealistic nature of those things, I also knew that was what I was getting into by picking up a romance novel. The chemistry that Cole has crafted between Naledi and Thabiso is initially stereoytpically cheese, but becomes organic once both characters get over themselves and their respective baggage. In the end, it isn’t just the fantastic sex that keeps readers coming back for these novels, it’s the stories of people being completely open about what they want and how they want it and then, if they’re the good guy (like we all imagine ourselves to be), they get that happy ending. Which is a heady feeling that, even if lived vicariously, still stems from a place of longing not just confined to the loins.

Cole does an excellent job of capitalizing on those emotions and crafting a story that fits neatly between all the sex, and she even intersperses some humor while at it. Overall, this is definitely one of the better romance novels I’ve read because the characters are introspective and grow with each other. So while it’s not a massive snog fest, there are meaningful emotional exchanges and internal monologues, as well as consent and safe sex practices established between the characters that modernize in important ways the genre that used to be wrought with heaving bosoms, ripped bodices, and overly athletic and terror/cringe-inducing descriptions of genitals.

The only things that were downers for me about the book were, especially later in the novel, awkward sentence structures and poor editing that interrupted the flow of the read. Sort of like an annoying popup ad interrupting your adult film viewing experience. But inattention to details like that seem to have become common in most novels I read these days and I don’t fault Cole at all. Someone at the publishing house dropped the ball.

I definitely wouldn’t hand this to any of my kids, but if I saw them with it I would rest a little easier knowing they were reading some quality smut with ethical values interlaced with it. I’m looking forward to picking up the second in the “Reluctant Royals” series, A Duke by Default, and the third novel is due out later this year on April 30th, A Prince on Paper, each following a side (but loveable) character from A Princess in Theory who deserve a happy ending and all that phrase implies.