Score: 4/5 Bookmarks

Steam Rating: 🍆🍆🍆🍆/5

Talia Hibbert is an auto-buy author for me, and I’ve started working my way through her backlist. The Princess Trap came out in 2018 and is part of the Dirty British Romance series.

Cherry Nita is working in HR at Rosewood Academy when along comes Prince Ruben of Helgmøre, who is considering the Academy as part of a scholarship programme he runs. She doesn’t know he’s a prince though, just that he’s hot, hot, hot and she’d like a bit of fun. The press catches them and rather than have yet another scandal on the books Prince Ruben blurts out that they’re engaged. But will Cherry go along with the fake relationship?

I love a good fake relationship trope and it was great to watch each character get to know each other, unpack their baggage, and help each other heal. I will warn you that there are themes of emotional and physical abuse in the book.

Also, this book is steamy with a capital ‘OMG’. Am I blushing? Oh, I am? These two have some serious chemistry and their instant attraction only grows by the page. You’ve been warned.

With the whole ‘prince from a foreign country angle’ this book made me think of a Hallmark movie…if a Hallmark movie was really, really dirty. Basically I loved every second of it. It only lost a point from me for a few little things throughout the story. For example, I really wanted more deliberation before Cherry agreed to go along with the fake relationship. I don’t know many people who would leave their job, friends and family to move to a foreign country on a whim. But generally they were minor personal preference things.

I own both the physical book and the audiobook (sometimes I like to switch so I can keep reading while I fold laundry etc) and the audiobook is quite something. It’s narrated by Cornell Collins and the only way I can describe it without you having listened to it is to imagine David Attenborough reading something like this:

”Her orgasm was fast and hard and disorientating. The only constant as she was hit by wave after wave of ruthless pleasure was Ruben, covering her body with his, soothing her fevered skin with his kisses, whispering adoration into her ear.”

It shouldn’t work, it should be completely weird, having an older British man narrating these characters, but after I got over my initial giggling I realized that it was absolutely brilliant. He’s a fantastic narrator and does both the male and female parts so well, and really adds so much emotion and drama to the performance.

So if you’d like a physical copy of this book click here, but if you’d like to experience the audiobook, use the button below.

Synopsis:

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.