Reluctant Royals: A Prince on Paper, by Alyssa Cole

A Prince on Paper, by Alyssa Cole

I do love this series.

The first one is about a grad student in New York who turns out to be—unbeknownst to her—engaged to the prince of a small African kingdom.

The second one is about her best friend, a lovable disaster who goes to Scotland to learn the art of sword-making and falls for her instructor, who is—unbeknownst to him—a duke.

And A Prince on Paper is about Nya, a friend of both previous heroines, who is still processing her very complicated past, has never done any serious dating… and goes from zero to a gazillion when she agrees to get fake-engaged to the most bad-boy paparazzi-courting prince on the planet.

Like the other books in the series, it’s warm and smart and sexy.

And, like the others in the series, it’s FUNNY: Nya’s major dating experience is via virtual dating games, and her way of expressing herself—especially during sexytimes—reflects that:

“Your thing. . . ” It seemed she could still feel embarrassment even as pleasure tingled through her and her heart hammered in her chest. She couldn’t say the word she wanted to, but she kept talking. “You feel so good moving against me. Your. . . eggplant emoji is hot and hard and long.”

I howled. But within the context of the book and the characters and the situation, hilariously, it WORKS.

(Still giggling.)

Anyway, it features a satisfying arc about two people slowly opening up to one another; learning to trust each other and themselves; realizing that they’ve come to rely on one another’s support and affection. It deals with the longterm effects of unprocessed grief—how it is hugely damaging whether it’s turned inward or outward—it deals with some seriously complex family dynamics, and it shows two people finding their way towards the kind of confidence that will allow them to show their true selves to themselves, each other, and the world.