How To Find A Princess by Alyssa Cole is the second in the Runaway Royals series. I am not sure if there’s more planned in the series – but this was the last book released and it came out in 2021. I thought this would be a great book to listen to as I catch up on my overextended Netgalley queue. This book follows Makeda Hicks who has lost her job at the grocery store due to layoffs. She’s been told that her grandmother had a summer fling with an Ibaranian prince. Now, Ibarania is looking for the long lost royal heir. Enter Beznaria Chetchevaliere. She’s the investigator for the case and is trying to convince Makeda to see if she’s the heir. Together, the two journey to Ibarania and fall in love along the way.

We love a sapphic royal romance! How To Find A Princess was such a compelling contemporary romance. I enjoyed that it features a young woman trying to figure her identity out and how to move forward after the whole grocery store thing doesn’t work out. I also liked how different Bez and Makeda were from each other. The parts on the high sea were interesting too — there’s definitely another story there with one of the side characters that would be fascinating to see play out. Plus, Bez and Makeda are Black. The audiobook is narrated by Karen Chilton and is 10 hours and 48 minutes long. It is an easy listen and highly recommended.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

Always always always always always impressed and stunned by Alyssa Cole's books, and this was obviously no exception to that rule.

I didn't think the ending was well explained but I did like the twist and how it honored each character's motivation and background. A perfectly suitable vacation read.

While I usually love this series, this one felt really oddly paced and out of character for the author, and I struggled to finish it. It did help me to understand the protagonists motivations and needs to be of help to others, but often their methods to do so were really upsetting to me and I kept having to take breaks.

Unfortunately I could not get in to this one. I think my reading tastes are changing. I will update my review if I try and read again.

As expected of Alyssa Cole, this is a super-cute romance with lots of winks to a genre-savvy audience and a strong theme of accepting how your own brain works rather than trying to conform to what’s “normal”. Despite the fact that both heroines are concealing important information from each other for a significant chunk of the book, I didn’t personally feel that the lying/miscommunication was egregious or that the plot was overly dependent on it. I was actually surprised by the twist at the end! There was less denouement than I would expect from a romance novel, but I’m sure we’ll encounter Bez and Makeda in another book in the series. I’m assuming AK’s book is next!

This book was not a complete win for me. I liked the characters, but the plot didn't fully come together for me. The pacing felt off and I just couldn't get into it as much as I wanted to.

Honestly I was a little disappointed in this read. I feel like there was a lot of pages with very little plot and limited character development. I will say, per usual, I did enjoy the writine, and Cole has a very strong authorial voice, but there wasn't actually much of a STORY here and it showed.

Alyssa Cole is one of my favorite writers and I know, going in, that I'm going to come out the other side a happy reader. And this sapphic retelling of Anastasia fed me for days.

Several of my favorite tropes are featured in this slow burn romance including opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine except grumpy is actually a disappointed idealist, which is it's own character trope. There's also fake romance and only one bed, which, yes, thank you.

Makeda is a bit of a people pleaser who loses her job and her girlfriend all on the same day. Her grandmother is pressuring her to claim her title as princess of a small kingdom, something she absolutely does not want. She gives and gives so much without receiving and she's tired of being emptied emotionally by everyone else. Bez is a detective sent to track down the missing heir. Fantastically energetic, full of flirtatious energy, Bez is the very definition of chaotic, a woman who does and says what she wants without the minimum concern for what other people think.

The interactions between Makeda and Bez are the best part of the book, the way their sniping covers up their attraction, snark becomes flirtation that leads, eventually (and very, very slowly) to love. The last 20% of the book really picks up speed and becomes a whirlwind of action, affecting the pace but otherwise, it was a fun, low-angst, entertaining read.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

Alyssa Cole can do no wrong in my book. This story was just so freaking good. I really love Alyssa's take on the modern royal trope.

I thought this book was a really cute spin on the "She is secretly a princess" trope. Really cute and queer. Also a tiny bit of enemies to lovers. I really liked it. Definitely a must buy for me. Thanks to Netgalley for giving me an ARC in return for my honest review.

I didn’t know Alyssa Cole could write a boring book, but I am very sad to be proven wrong with HOW TO BE A PRINCESS. Now, I love her, but no author is perfect, and this book just didn’t work for me – it might work for someone else! As always, Cole’s main characters were fun and easy to root for. Unfortunately, the plot was a total slog, and the ending made no sense.

An Anastasia reimagining, the book follows Makeda, a woman with unfortunate doormat, people-pleasing tendencies scraping by after another failed relationship. Her life is turned upside down when Beznaria, a sexy, blunt royal investigator, barges into her life, claiming Makeda is a long-lost princess who needs to go to Ibarania to claim her crown – something Makeda has no interest in doing.

It took me a while to warm up to Makeda, but I liked Beznaria right off the bat; she’s funny, determined, and way too blunt for her own good sometimes. Her Ibarania phrases and attitude were the highlights of the story. I thought Makeda and Beznaria had decent chemistry; it just wasn’t explored even a little bit until way too late in the book. By the time they actually start to develop and work through real feelings, the book’s plot is a mess, and I didn’t care about them as a couple like I wanted to.

So let’s get into the plot, Makeda meets Beznaria in New Jersey, and they spend a good amount of time going round and round about Makeda not wanting to take the trip to Ibarania – that’s all fine. When she is finally convinced to go, I thought, “oh good, the plot is finally going to get going.” But then they weirdly have to take a cargo boat to Ibarania where a whole new cast of characters is introduced, and then… nothing happens. Makeda and Beznaria are fake dating for a free passage, Makeda has minor personal revelations, and another royal is inexplicably on the boat with them (it felt like the start of another book/series but that also didn’t really go anywhere as a subplot). And that’s about it. I kept checking how far into the book I was and thinking, “they’re STILL on the boat??”

Makeda and Beznaria just sail slowly to Iberania, so there is about 10% left in the book when they get there. The excruciatingly slow plot we have been following is basically tossed out the window, there is a weird twist, and the book ends. It didn’t even feel like much of a happily ever after for Makeda and Beznaria because the odd plot twist completely took away from what little romance we had at the end.

Additionally, there were too many subplots that felt rushed and incomplete by the end of the book. While they were technically all tied up, it felt like many plot points were just glossed over within a page or two, which means they probably shouldn’t have been in the book to begin with.

Overall, I think this book tried to do too much. Makeda and Beznaria were strong characters, but I wanted more time developing their relationship and less time on the dang boat.

**I received a free copy of this book in order to provide an honest review**

4.5 stars that I rounded up to 5 because I just loved Makeda and Bez so much. Honestly the whole book felt like 5 stars the whole time until it ended so abruptly with some things that felt unresolved. It needed an epilogue. But seriously, Bez and Makeda are both fantastic characters; Cole does so well writing complex characters with flaws that you can’t help but love. The dialogue and banter were great, the steam was fantastic, and the story and settings were engaging. I hope this series gets another sequel-maybe with the mysterious prince of Druk? In the meantime I’ll have to check out some of Cole’s other works because I think I’m pretty much hooked now.

This was lackluster for me. I ended up DNFing out of boredom. Definitely not this author’s strongest work.

I really wanted to like this. But the plot and how it went just did not work for me. I liked the characters but otherwise it didnt work for me.

This was so fun and I can’t believe it took me this long to get into this royals series. I’m not often a romance reader but I’ve started dipping my toes in this year and this has been one of my favorites so far. I felt like it could’ve been a smidge longer, to be honest. But I loved the relationship and I found myself rooting for them from page one.

Alyssa Cole's books always pack a punch and the latest installment in the Runaway Royals series is no exception. Cole just gets the romance genre and she always delivers a realistic portrayal of a couple, complete with a satisfying happy ending. I loved that this series includes a sapphic couple and the cover is absolutely gorgeous. Readers of Sarah MacLean, Talia Hibbert, and Helen Hoang will love this series.

I'm a fan of this series, so it's not surprising I liked this one, too. However, I thought it was weaker than others, which is a shame because the romance is between two women and that's not as common in romances. I liked the characters but their chemistry just wasn't there and the story was a bit flat.

I had really high hopes for this one, and have enjoyed Alyssa Cole's other books. Unfortunately I just couldn't buy into the premise of this one, or the chemistry between the 2 main characters.