Bad Princess by Julianna Keyes – eARC Review

Publication Date:

November 27th 2017

Publisher:

Julianna Keyes

Notorious for leaping off roofs, maiming foreign royals, and that twerking incident, Brinley Cantrella of Estau is nobody’s definition of a good princess. She’s fearless and bold, not good and gracious. And after a lifetime of being told she’s unfit to be queen, wearing the crown and helping to usher Estau into a new era is the one dream she’s never dared chase.

But when her older sister abdicates the throne, all Brinley has to do to inherit the role is not twerk, not maim anybody, and definitely not get caught fooling around topless with Prince Finn, her childhood crush, the only man she’s ever loved…and her sister’s former future husband.

Finn embodies the definition of good. Tall and handsome, serious and honorable, he always does the right thing—including agreeing to marry his ex’s sister to cover up this latest scandal. Brinley has fallen down stairs, broken teeth and broken bones, but this is the first time her heart has ever been broken. She now has the crown and the prince, and on the surface, life is good—but is being married to a man everyone swears could never love her back good enough?

Review:

*I was provided a copy by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

This was a buddy read with Cristina @ My Tiny Obsessions so click HERE to read her thoughts about this book :).

Julianna Keyes is one of those authors which books I’ll either love or get a bit disappointed. Undecided was one of my favorite books last year and I also quite enjoyed My Roommate’s Girl but Undeclared was a huge disappointment for me. That’s why I was a little bit on the fence the first time I heard about Bad Princess. I really wanted to read it but I didn’t know if I would like it at all. I ended up enjoying it but in my opinion there were a few things missing. Here’s the thing, Bad Princess is a novella but it would have worked so much better as a full-length novel.

One thing I loved in this book were the characters. Brinley was such a great girl. Her life was far from perfect, especially because she grew up being a “bad princess”, but she really cared about other people and she knew what she wanted in her life. Finn was kind of a mystery. I liked him but I didn’t have the opportunity to connect with him or get to really know him. This book was told only from Brinley’s POV so what we know about Finn is what she knows and what he does when he’s with her. I can tell you that there was a point that I wasn’t happy with him, and I really wanted him to react in a different way, but deep down he was a good guy.

While I enjoyed the story I still think there was something missing. My biggest problem with Bad Princess is that it was too short. The characters and plot could have been more developed. Everything happened too fast and I would have loved it if it was a little bit slower and if could have seen the characters grow a little bit more. Also, it would have been great if Brinley and Finn’s relationship wasn’t so fast. I know those two had known each other their whole lives but it’s not like they were best friends.

Overall, I ended up enjoying this book a lot and it was a fast read. However, I would have loved if it was a little bit longer and more developed. I still recommend this one if you’re in need of a fast read.