Review: How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole (light spoilers)

Hello! Its Alyssa Cole hour on NJB, otherwise known as every 2nd tuesday (a being can dream right?) and we’re here to talk about her newest book in the Reluctant Royals series.

But first, as always, content warnings and trigger warnings:

Deceit between main characters, difficulties with boundaries, unreliable families, ableism, family secrets, some complexities around consent due to deceit.

Whew! There’s a lot here. For those who fell in love with Beznaria (like me) in How to Catch a Queen, this book is chock full of her fabulousness. She’s gutsy, determined and sort of difficult to stop in a good and problematic way.

Bez comes from a long line of guards of the Royal guards of the Royal family of Ibarania. However, the royal family has been struggling for years due to the loss of its heir. Bez’s grandmother has been taking the blame for years and she’s determined to clear the family name and find the lost heir.

There’s just one teensy weensy problem: her boss at the World Federation of Monarchies definitely didn’t approve her doing this. And doesn’t like her a lot. And seems to be actively sabotaging her or something.

However, Bez is not deterred by simple things like job security and people not getting her methods. ( I wish I was so bold sometimes). She’s got a lead and she’s going to follow it like a bloodhound.

Enter Makeda Hicks. Makeda has spent the last decade of her life trying to forget anything about royalty after her mother went on a wild goose chase trying to prove she was the last Ibranian heir. Now, she works hard at a grocery store, trying to make ends meet and show people how useful she can be.

Til the boss’s favorite who can’t seem to do their job at all pushes her out of her job and she finds herself jobless and girlfriendless. Its back to her grandmother’s B and B to lick her wounds and try to figure out where it all went wrong.

Bez shows up in her traditional whirlwind to try to take her all away from this to her royal destiny. But is it really as simple as she makes it sound?

I enjoyed the heck out of huge chunks of this book but often struggled with Bez’s tendency to gloss over things or justify means to an end. I totally got that it was partially part of her neurodivergence and loved that about her, but it occasionally made things in the romance department harder. I loved them getting to know everyone on the ship however and in some ways, would have been happy if they had just decided to say screw it and live there forever. It would have been charming.

The ending, which I won’t spoil, left me a little confused. I think it needed a bit more lead up and set up to make it work. I liked it in a lot of ways but the pacing felt a little off. I did appreciate that it felt true to the characters and what they wanted however.

All in all, a good book and a fitting addition to the series. I can’t wait to see more of what Alyssa makes!

Until next time,

NJB

*I received an arc of this book for an honest review and learned so much about cargo ships.

Review: The Devil Comes Courting By Courtney Milan (Light spoilers)

***Disclaimer: I worked with Courtney on Romancing the Runoff. So I know her a bit. However, I also love her work, so I signed up for her ARC team. So, take that as you will. I was given an arc in exchange for an honest review. ***

Its a beautiful week where I am going to have the worst book hangover cause oh my god, its another amazing book and its in the Worth saga. AAHHHHH!!

First, content warnings and trigger warnings: Discussion of death of siblings in past, grief, loss, colonialism, family secrets, racism, the impacts of oppression, discussion of past conflicts, abduction of MC off page.

Ok, so I wrote most of this and realized I should like, actually tell you a bit of what the book is about instead of just my feelings. Ugh. Feelings.

Courtney’s work always devastates me in the best way. I’ve been waiting for Grayson’s book for an age, because I have a super huge soft spot for grumpy folks who’ve lost people.

So Grayson, who is Adrian’s brother from the previous Worth book, is working on a worldwide telegraph line. This may sound boring but its actually not cause Courtney is clearly magic but also cause its totally a metaphor in some ways. Connection and longing and all that good stuff.

Amelia is an adopted Chinese woman living with her English mother who really really doesn’t want to get married off to some rando who wants a wife to cook clean and ahem other things.

When Grayson shows up with a job offer and a lot of positive reinforcement, Amelia finds a way to jump on board. But its all a lot more than they thought it would be and lot more attraction than they signed up for.

There’s pining, hijinx, some cameos from other previous characters, one incredibly sulky Consular, some very incompetent sleuthing and a decent dollop of angst. Its just perfect.

This book had me holding my eyes so I wouldn’t cry, nearly gasping aloud and desperately wanting to knock sense into both MC’s cause they were so obviously right for each other and so obviously ludicrously oblivious.

This book has so much. Great mental health rep (which Courtney always does well), amazing discussion of colonialism and racism, the impacts of oppression and the complexities of and the world her characters live in. Adoption and all the complexities that come with it, the loss of language, outsider vibes.The detail always makes me so happy. And then the emotions all over. There’s just so much.

How people who say they love you can hurt you. How one person’s tears can be a weapon at the same time. How misunderstandings can be so huge and vast. How sometimes, simple words can mean the world and open everything.

How even with all the hope and love in the world, you cannot reach someone who will not be reached.

How desperately the fear of not being enough can cripple you. How being an outsider can hold you back, but also make you forget that you can find ways to step in.

This one feels…I don’t know, particularly poignant to me. Being a diaspora baby as well as the grandchild of those who lost everything to the British and colonialism, this book hits in an intense and amazing way. Being a 2nd generation immigrant who feels the intense shame of not being able to pronounce things the way I should… I felt all of that to the core of my bones.

Its amazing to watch Courtney throw off the shackles of what some folks think historical romance has to be and instead, write what fills her heart and soul. It fills mine too. I can see myself and others in her work and it makes me feel less other, all at the same time.

If you, like me, have been dying on tenterhooks for more of the Worths, this book will not disappoint.

If you need a book that will make you feel a little less like someone on the outside looking in, this may do the trick.

If you just want a really damn good romance with some great grumpy sunshine bits that makes you want to hug the hero and also give him a noogie simultaneously, this may be the perfect book for you.

Until next time,

NJB

*I received an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review and I did not expect all these feels.

Review: Can’t Escape Love (Spoilers!)

A black woman with natural hair, wearing jeans and a yellow top, sits in a wheelchair at a table holding a spoon up. An East Asian man sits next to her with his arm around her, with his spoon in the sundae they appear to be sharing. They are looking at each other and smiling.

So I was going to try to do a spoiler free review of this one, but there’s too much to squee about and I need to do specifics. So those who hate spoilers, you’ve been warned.

First, content and trigger warnings. Examples and discussion of past experiences of ableism. Family conflict and difficulty accepting diagnoses. Parents who split their children on good and bad axis and have to be schooled to stop. Boundary problems among family members.

Ok, so, first. What rates this being on this blog, besides being written by Alyssa Cole, who is one of our queens of diverse romance (we’re not worthy…we’re not worthy). First, the main character is a black woman in a wheelchair, the lovely twin sister of Portia (from a Duke by Default). Her name is Regina (but she goes by Reggie) and she is hysterical, lovely and unapologetic. She also has the coolest wheels ever.

The love interest for the story is an autistically coded Vietnamese-American man named Gustave (who goes by Gus) and to be frank, I just wanted to cuddle him so much. Both of them actually. Blanket forts. I had a lot of feelings.

Ok, so Reggie and Gus go way back on the internet, when he used to do puzzles and stream and she was his only subscriber. Its like the 21st century meet cute and I love it. His voice used to lull her to sleep but at some point, he stopped doing the streams and deleted all the recordings.

And now Reggie can’t sleep. So she does the totally irrational but sort of logical thing and seeks him out via the internet (with help from Portia) and emails him to ask if she can pay him to speak so she can go to sleep.

Right after I died laughing from this part and resurrected, I dived back in. Gus takes this all with stride and they manage to work things out so that Reggie can get some sleep and Gus can…hang out? He’s not getting a ton from the arrangement in the beginning but that doesn’t seem to bug him much.

But of course, inevitably, the pants feelings start. And its so funny. They make so much sense together, but they’re also so lovingly awkward. Not like Ben Stiller, where you wish you could poke your eyeballs out to stop watching this, but more like Chandler Bing on a good day, trying to do something nice and failing to not be weird about it.

That’s oddly specific. Anyhow! So they’re cute and they’re getting interested and the inevitable twists come, which I will leave to you.

But they watch anime together and talk about OTP’s and Reggie is a total fangirl and Gus loves puzzles and they don’t infantilize each other and its just so cute and pure.

Why are you still reading me? Go read this. You won’t regret it. My only regret is that its a novella and not a full length book cause I would read that so fast.

4.75 stars, cause my heart wanted more of these two and I still keep looking back to see if I actually got to the end.

Until next time,

Not Just a Buzzword

*I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review and I desperately hope they keep giving them to me cause I kind of have a book problem and this is a decent solution.