Book Review: How to Find a Princess (Runaway Royals #2) by Alyssa Cole

Cole has been doing really fun things with the trope of “contemporary royalty romance” in both this and her Reluctant Royals series by creating an entire network of invented kingdoms throughout Africa and the Mediterranean through which her Black protagonists can romp without having to dodge around the legacy of European royal history. Both series now have an f/f entry. In this novella, two complex and difficult personalities clash (and encounter an awkward attraction) around the possibility that one of them is the heir to the mysteriously-disappeared ruler of an island kingdom. If you’re here for all the tropes—bodyguard romance, forced proximity, fake relationship, missing heir, neurodivergent protagonist—then you need this book. The only thing that didn’t really work for me was the surprise twist at the end, but I can’t tell you why because: spoilers. And it might work better for you.