The Princess Trap; Talia Hibbert

It's always a fascinating experience to go back through an author’s backlog once you’ve fallen in love with their recent work. I adore the Brown Sisters and their romance series, it’s secured Talia Hibbert as one of my favorite authors. So, of course, after finishing those books I went back. And in “The Princess Trap”, you can really see where Reuben walked so Red, Zaf, and Jacob could run. In this contemporary romance, you have the fake engagement trope in spades along with a very heavy case of insta-lust between Cherry and Reuben after he visits the Academy she works at. He’s a prince in disguise so of course he doesn’t tell her exactly who he is when he takes her out to lunch, and of course it doesn’t come up when they get a little frisky in the alley before getting to Cherry’s apartment. It’s not until a paparazzi catches them that Cherry really learns who Reuben is and agrees to the engagement scheme to protect him, herself, and also pay for her sister’s college expenses. Cherry is a wonderful example of how Hibbert keeps true to her strong, big, beautiful, and incredibly capable female lead characters. And while Reuben possess a lot of the characteristics that later MMC in Hibbert’s books posses much more strongly, I think were you really see Hibbert’s growth is how her romantic leads help each other grow in some capacity. Cherry certainly helps Reuben through his trauma, but there’s not much for Cherry to do growth wise.

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Outside of Reuben’s desire for semi-light BDSM play in the bedroom, it feels almost like he was the testing ground for Red, Zaf, and Jacob. Reuben has Red’s domestic violence trauma as well as the terrible ex-girlfriend, Zafirs’s family trauma with the loss of dearly loved family members along with some of Zaf’s grumpiness and sensitivity, not to mention Jacob’s sexual control and kind of needing things to be just so. In the Brown Sister’s books, those attributes are explored much more fully and I think suited the characters better, as there was just a LOT going on with Reuben that he needed to solve or overcome. He’s still a great character and very protective of Cherry, but he didn’t get up to the same level as those other love interests for me.

Then there’s Cherry, who is flirty and brilliant, and beautiful, and has a great family who love and support her. Outside of Cherry’s sister having an illness with high medical bills on top of her tuition, Cherry is excellent. She has no real problem to solve for (outside of paying her sister’s bills) and no real hang ups of trust to work through that, in Hibbert’s other books, always laid the foundation for incredibly strong relationships. We get a snippet of that foundation as Cherry helps Reuben stand up to his abusive royal family, but Reuben doesn’t offer Cherry anything on that scale in return, just wealth and a lot of incredible sex. Which, by the way, the steamy scenes in this book are excellent and done in a very tasteful way in regards to the dom and sub relationship, so no complaints on that front!

However, just because Reuben wasn’t my favorite, and I wish Cherry had something that the two of them could really bond over, didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy this book. I did! The banter is fun, I love Cherry’s attitude and how confident she is. Hibbert’s female characters are always such body positive and confident women that it’s always a comfort to see them on the page in all their glory. But, when compared to her more recent books, let’s just say it’s not going on my favorite shelves, but it’s still a solid romance. But because I wanted more of that trademark emotional connection you get with Hibbert’s books, this is a 3.5 star read for me and makes me yearn for my books in the Brown Sister’s universe!