The Princess Trap by Talia Hibbert Series: Dirty British Romance #1
Series Rating:
Published by Nixon House on February 8, 2018
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 352
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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Introducing a steamy duet of complete standalones set in the Dirty British Romance world.
He’s reckless, dominant, and deliciously dirty. This prince is no fairytale.
Prince Ruben of Helgmøre is his family’s greatest scandal, but the defiant royal won’t change for anyone. He always takes what he wants, and his current obsession is Cherry Neita. The feisty beauty has no idea she’s being seduced by royalty—until they’re caught together in a compromising position. Oops.
All Cherry wanted was a night or two with the hottest man she’d ever seen. Turns out, that man is actually a prince, and now he needs her to play princess. Well, princess-to-be. The deal seems straightforward enough: one year as Ruben’s fake fiancée, and he’ll make all her problems disappear.
But the passion between Cherry and Ruben feels anything but fake, and their connection unearths devastating secrets. Can true love bloom from false beginnings? Or will this fairytale end in a happy-never-after?
The Princess Trap is a steamy, standalone BWWM royal romance. Warning: this book is 70,000+ words of extreme pleasure and intense romance, ending in a HEA. NO cliffhangers and NO cheating. Enjoy responsibly! Please be aware: this story contains scenes of abuse that could potentially trigger certain audiences.
You know when you buy yourself a box of your favorite chocolates, or whatever your treat of choice is, and you eat one immediately, but then you start doling them out to yourself? You want to eat them all at once, but you force yourself to eat them slowly, parceling them out over time so they last as long as possible?
That’s how I feel about Talia Hibbert novels. I buy them as soon as they come out, but I don’t read them. I hoard them until I’m having a really shit day or a week that’s really beating me down, and then I find one to read. This is good and bad. It’s good because I never feel that sense of longing the rest of you do when you have a dearth of unread Talia Hibbert books. But it’s bad because I’m always so far behind in her backlist. But there IS a backlist, so I’ve got that going for me.
Cherry Neita is just your average woman, working in a job that’s fine but that she doesn’t love, but also doesn’t hate, and just marking time the way the rest of us do. She’s doing just fine until HRH Prince Magnus Ruben Ambjørn Octavian Gyldenstierne of Helgmøre shows up and wrecks her perfectly ordered, if slightly boring, life. They end up being caught in a compromising position by a random paparazzi photographer, and the only way to get them out of the predicament is to pretend to be engaged. Naturally. How else do you fix problems?
As part of their agreement, Cherry has to spend most of the year in Helgmøre, which is where most of the story takes place. I really love a fish-out-of-water story, and when that fish lands in royal waters, it’s even better. Cherry is more familiar with the traditions of a monarchy than I would be, since she’s British, but she still doesn’t actually know how to be a part of a royal family.
And what a royal family it is. Ruben’s brother, the king, is an abusive prat. His wife and children seem lovely, though we didn’t really spend much time with them.
In fact, if I had one complaint about this book, it would be that. It was a quick read, and I don’t think we got to know everyone as much as I would have liked to. I came away from the story feeling that I had a pretty good grasp of Ruben, but not as much of an idea who Cherry was and where she came from. We do learn a bit about her family, and it’s clear that they have a good relationship right now, but we don’t get a lot of her history, and I don’t know much about how she grew up, or who she is as a person. For example, she gets through life by actively charming everyone she meets, no matter how she feels about them. She smiles, and lets them think she’s an idiot, or that she can’t manage to tie her own shoes. I want to know how she got to a place in her life where that’s her only option. Why is she ok with it? How is that the only way she can communicate with everyone?
I also wanted a little bit more of a slow burn. When the shit hits the fan and Ruben and Cherry come up with this plan to fake an engagement, she’s very clear that what he did to get them into this predicament isn’t ok. She’s very clear that they are not going to be together, and of course they were going to actually get together, but I wanted it to take a little longer. She was right to be mad, and he had really fucked up her life with his ridiculous actions, and he did it while hiding his real identity from her.
I also thought the ending was a little rushed. And there were a bunch of loose ends left dangling, which is frustrating. I don’t feel like I got the whole story.
This didn’t end up being my favorite Talia Hibbert book, but as usual, it was a fun story, with characters I liked. Even my not-favorite Talia Hibbert book is so well-written and such a joy to read that I would still recommend them before almost anything else out there.
About Talia Hibbert
Talia Hibbert is a writer and educator from the U.K., by way of both the West Indies and West Africa. She wrote her first romance aged 12, and was promptly scolded by a teacher because her story of love in the jungle wasn’t ‘proper’.
Since then, Talia’s stories have improved in quality and hugely increased in heat. She now writes steamy, diverse romance set in the U.K., and while her work still isn’t proper, it is a lot of fun. She self-publishes via Nixon House, and is represented by Courtney Miller-Callihan at Handspun Literary
Talia’s interests include beauty, junk food, and devouring all forms of media. She lives in a small English town that doesn’t even get Deliveroo, and kisses her high school sweetheart every day. Y’know; for luck.
And, as Talia would say… that’s all, folks. Love and biscuits!
