Of Princes and Promises Book Review

From Goodreads: Caterina LaValle is determined to show she’s still the queen of St. Rosetta’s Academy. Sure, her crown may be slightly askew after her ex-boyfriend, Alaric, cheated on her, but she’s a LaValle. She’ll find a way to march right back in there, her hands clutching the strings to the whole puppet show. This time, she’s going to be untouchable.

Rahul Chopra knows that moment he shared with Caterina LaValle at the winter formal meant something. Surely she feels it, too. He’s a little uncertain how someone like him (socially inept to a point way past “adorkable”) could fit into her world, but he’s loved Caterina for years. He knows they’ll find a way.

When Caterina finds out Alaric is taking a supermodel to the upcoming gala, she knows she cannot arrive without the perfect date. But the thought of taking another superficial St. R’s boy exhausts her. The solution? Sweet-but-clueless Rahul Chopra and a mysterious pot of hair gel with the power to alter the wearer into whatever his heart desires.

When Rahul tries it, he transforms instantly into RC—debonair, handsome, and charming. But transformation comes with a price: As Rahul enjoys his new social standing, the line between his two personas begins to blur. Will he give up everything, including Caterina, to remain RC? Or will this unlikely pair find their way back to each other? 

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to say thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC of this book. I wasn’t entirely sure how I’d feel about it going into it, because Menon books tend to be hit or miss for me. I somehow skipped over the first book in the series, which is unusual for me, so I missed some of the context of the book, but fortunately since they’re a series which follows a new main character with each story, it wasn’t like I was entering into the story halfway through.

Caterina was an interesting character. She came across as one of those people who appears very confident on the outside, but doesn’t always feel it in her own head. It was kind of nice to see her being so bossy and arrogant at the start of the book, only to begin to get all of these more complex layers of her character after she starts to talk to Rahul. Rahul was my favourite though. He seemed very kind and sweet, and he did some silly things but was ultimately a nice guy. I didn’t get too much of a sense of the other characters, besides one or two who play a major role in the story. Again, this could potentially be because a lot of their development comes in the first book, but they did feel a little bit meh to me.

The hair gel thing was initially a bit weird for me. I’m so used to reading Menon books which are contemporary YA novels, and this book really does read that way in everything but the inclusion of the magical hair gel. Even though I’d read the synopsis before requesting the book, it did still feel a little… out of place almost? I know there are books out there which are either magical realism or have some elements of that in there, but this didn’t really feel like that for me, possibly because there were no other magical elements to the story at all. It was one of those things that was okay, and I kind of ended up just giving it the benefit of the doubt and just moved past it, but if you are looking for something a bit more fantasy from Menon, this probably won’t go far enough down that road for you.

The plot was reasonably okay. It was a quick paced read, and there were moments of the story that I really enjoyed, but it also felt a little predictable towards the end, and maybe a little bit soap-opera-y. I think my main disappointment with the plot was that it touched upon some interesting themes- particularly the idea of celebrity and transformation, and how self-esteem can be linked to your appearance, but it just didn’t feel like it lived up to the premise there. The R.C. storyline started out very promising, and I hoped it would be a good door into some of these discussions, but then the ending to the R.C. stuff didn’t give me that satisfaction that I expected and left a lot of those big, interesting ideas only really explored at a surface level. The ending to the R.C. character stuff also felt a little sudden and rushed, which didn’t help matters, and ultimately it just felt kind of cliche. It was a quick read, so I didn’t mind as much as I would have if it was a 500 page book or something, but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations of the story going in. Which is a bit of a shame as the book was quite cute and sweet. I think, if you’re looking for a novel which is light and breezy, it might be a nice one to pick up, as it is pretty fluffy and not dark or edge of your seat tense.

Overall, I’m giving Of Princes and Promises:

I had some uncertainties going into this one, and it didn’t quite live up to my hopes. The characters were interesting and I enjoyed learning more about them, and the plot was quick, but it didn’t explore some of its themes in as much detail as I’d have liked, and the ending was very predictable, and a little too melodramatic for me.

Has anyone else read this book yet or plans to? What did you think of it?