Of Princes and Promises

Back to St. Rosetta’s Academy we go! Of Princes and Promises is the fun followup to Of Curses and Kisses, and introduces us to Caterina LaValle and Rahul Chopra as they become entangled in a Frog Prince situation complete with magical hair gel, a Bugatti, a scheming new girl, and questions of authenticity. It’s a great dual POV romance set at a beautiful Aspen boarding school, and while I didn’t LOVE it as much as OCAK, it was still a fun read!

At the end of OCAK, Caterina LaValle, basically an Italian princess raised by a single dad, was heartbroken to find that her long-time boyfriend Alaric was cheating on her with Daphne Elizabeth. At the end of the book, at the fancy dance, she finds solace in the arms of nerdy, blunt Rahul Chopra, who immediately realizes she’s the girl of his dreams. One problem: he’s hardly the prince Caterina deserves. When Alaric announces he’s bringing an Australian model to the Hindman event, Caterina panics and announces she’s bringing a hot date as well. Well, she looks around, and all she can find is Rahul, who becomes her pet project to teach him etiquette. Throw in a good tux and some fancy hair gel, and Rahul becomes RC, a sauve, handsome stranger who looks great on Caterina’s arm. But as the facade progresses, Rahul starts to lose himself in RC, Caterina wants to bring back more of Rahul, and Rahul’s friends are growing more concerned about who he has become, and if he can get out again.

I liked both Caterina and Rahul as characters because they are so different but both feel overwhelmed by the reality of their worlds at times and struggle to be the people they know they are in regards to expectations of others. Revisiting St. Rosetta’s was fun, and I loved seeing Caterina and Rahul interacting in Ms. Rivard’s AP Psych class. The balance between the POVs was interesting—though it switched FAST sometimes, rather than in large chunks or scenes. I realized I’m not THAT familiar with the Frog Prince fairy tale, so I didn’t have HUGE expectations for this plot, other than a HEA, which you know we got, so yay!

I really love what Menon is doing in this series–it’s a fun place to be, the fairy tales make it feel familiar but the diverse cast adds some freshness, and I can’t wait to read book 3!

Of Princes and Promises is on sale everywhere June 8, 2021.