Oh my goodness, I loved this book so much!!! I've been craving royal romances in recent weeks and JEM just delivered a whopper. For me, royal romances mean opulence and duty and they're typically rife with longing and impossibility and secrecy. The Controversial Princess has it ALL. This new romance by Jodi Ellen Malpas packs so much into these pages, family scandal, secrecy and deceit, the most sensual romance, a forbidden love story, impossibility and heartache, all rounded out in the most JAW DROPPING ending that I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT SEE COMING. The Controversial Princess is utterly fantastic.
Josh Jamison is an American movie star. But when the woman in his crosshairs is the Princess of England, he might as well be a mailman, for she's as unattainable to him as she is to everyone else. She's a caged bird, albeit a rebellious one, but caged nonetheless. Her future is clearly mapped out for her, her royal obligations clear. So it's unsurprising that her inconvenient attraction to the Hollywood actor is absolutely forbidden.
The Controversial Princess is SMOKING HOT. This is the story of a princess who's been told who to be her entire life, a woman who only begins to discover her true self as she submits to a man she can never have. Their encounters are steamy and kinky and forbidden. And as the fierce attraction between Princess Adeline and Josh Jameson evolves from sexual and elicit to so much more, the impossibility of their relationship becomes all the more apparent. The feels in this book are epic. The heartache, the jealousy, the longing, the infuriating injustice, the hope and the hopelessness, I felt so much. But what stands out most starkly is the sweet romance, the deliciously giddy feels I got in the most tender moments, hearing the most lush declarations amidst so much impossibility and uncertainty. This was just everything.
This story is decadent and delicious, what with the clandestine dynamic between two people in the public eye. But there's something so much BIGGER at play when you throw in a royal family. I'm fascinated by the real life monarchy and in my anticipation of the impending nuptials between a British royal and an American celebrity, I was so unbelievably anxious to sink my teeth into this fictional world Jodi Ellen Malpas crafts between characters that seemed to mirror real life. However this story couldn't be more different than anything we've ever seen before. The Controversial Princess is forbidden and improper and it breaks every rule. And I couldn't get enough of it.
The Controversial Princess has it all: forbidden romance, royal duty, familial obligation, paparazzi fodder, pomp and grandeur and power that all come together to create the most lush backdrop for a scintillating love story between a rebellious princess and an alpha Hollywood movie star. All that evolves in this book, the secrecy and the deceit, the steamy sensuality, the fierce attraction, it makes for a delicious royal romance and I couldn't put it down. But throw in Josh Jameson's own brand of celebrity, and you have the added element of angst and jealousy that come with any good Hollywood romance: celebrity gossip rags, paparazzi photos depicting salacious deeds, and career obligations that will undoubtedly separate the pair even more. Jodi Ellen Malpas crafts the most impossible romance, a story of characters who can only truly be themselves with each other because the whole world is watching them. It's so good. So so good. And it twists and turns in way that you'll never see coming. His True Queen just became my most anticipated sequel of the year, I can not wait for more of this royally delicious story!