The Princess Trap

3.5/5

The Princess Trap by Talia Hibbert starts with Prince Ruben on a business trip when he meets Cherry Neita at the school that she works for HR at. She's confident and knows how to get what she wants, but Prince Ruben gets under her skin. To keep her out of the press, Ruben lies to the paparazzi and says she's his fiancée while out on a date, so to keep up appearances, he takes her to his home country of HelgmØre where his brother is king and abusive to everyone. Cherry is bitter about the relationship at first, even though it's earning her a lot of money to take care of her sick sister at college in the United States. The couple that plots together stays together though as Ruben and Cherry work to free Ruben's sister-in-law and his two nieces from the King.

The Princess Trap is a cute book and exactly what I expected from it. I expected smut and that's exactly what I got. It was easy to like the characters and feel for them when their life wasn't going the way it's supposed to.

Favorite Quotes:

The men in this place responded to a pretty face like babies to a bottle. And she was supposed to respect them. Sigh.  (2%)

"Cherry." She looked up, the bulldog in one hand. "What?" Ruben looked at the ornament warily. "Could you put that down?" "Why?" "Please?" She watched his jaw clench. And said, "No." "Fine," he sighed. "Okay, here's the thing. I told the photographer that you were my fiancée - Jesus fucking Christ, woman!" He leapt aside as she launched the bulldog at his head. (20%) You get him Cherry!

"I swear to fucking God, shut the fuck up or I will gag you with your own fucking dick." Had she screamed that last part? She rather thought she might have. (21%)

This was probably the fastest he'd ever fucked something up. Dragging Cherry into his life felt like dragging a princess of to his lair. He was almost certainly the dragon in this fairytale. (29%)

They may be in Scandinavia, but the imposing grey-bricked mansion looming in the distance seemed as English as steak and kidney pie. Or classism. Or fish and chips. (30%)

You dragged her into your issues to save your delicate fucking feelings, and she's doing it for her sick sister. You are a fucking Disney villain. (45%)

Sometimes, people were meant to be in each other's lives, and nothing else really mattered. (51%)

People are many things at once; that's the beauty of humanity. (54%)

Some people like to say that all's fair in love and war. Those people cannot be trusted with power. (55%)

Maybe it was counterintuitive, but Ruben had only ever wanted the submission of women who didn't need him. Women who could live just fine without him, but didn't want to. Women for whom handing over the reins was both a relief and a sacrifice. He wanted to own Cherry, because she already owned him. And she didn't even know it. (56%)