A Princess In Theory by Alyssa Cole

Hello, book lovers!

February is officially over and I feel really good about the progress I made with my reading that month. Despite my list of arcs getting a little bit out of control I was able to get a decent amount of reading done. I read 8.5 books during February and I believe March will be another great reading month.

So I discussed in a recent post how I'm terrible at audiobooks. Well I finally listened to one where I didn't catch myself zoning in and out. I've been wanting to read A Princess in Theory since 2018 and this Audible free trial was the perfect opportunity.

I must admit I was a little nervous because it involves a fictional African prince. Sometimes portrayals of African from non African people can come across a little cringe and mocking. And I'm so worn over Wakanda. The narrator does put on her Africanish voice for the characters from Thesolo at one point did pronounce jollof incorrectly which made me side eye. And an African review did describe this as an African cultural soup that borrowed elements from different cultures. The Prince in this story is from the fictional kingdom of Thesolo (an anagram of Lesotho). Don't go into this book with expectations of an African romance because you will be greatly disappointed. Instead go into this expecting a Black woman in STEM to find her fairytale love story. 

I had some reservations about the relationship starting on a lie. Prince Thabiso poses as a server named Jamal hired to work at the restaurant where Naledi works after paying the young man off. He proceeds to stay in the apartment across the hall across from her after he paid for a getaway to Puerto Rico for her elderly neighbor. He was a little stalkerish at the beginning of the romance and I wondered how that would be turned around. 

I love how Naledi's life as a foster kid was addressed. Because I feel like we constantly hear about adoption being a choice but choose to ignore the innocent children who suffer in the system. Naledi lost her parents in a bad accident and since then has not felt like she had a permanent family. She never found that loving family to adopt her. Part of this story is her getting over her fear of being abandoned. 

This was a modern day Cinderella story with complete with the mice but without the mean stepmother and stepsisters. It was nice to get caught up in the fairytale for a few days.