REVIEW: The Impossible Princess (book) by Keira Dominguez

The Impossible Princess is a royal romance set in the fictional country of Sondmark. It's the first in a series. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Princess Clara is the youngest of the Queen of Sondmark's children, and she's desperate to get her mother to trust her with real work, something more worthwhile than the minor events with pre-written speeches that are all she's currently allowed to do. Unfortunately, while she was away at college in the United States, she assumed she had a little more freedom to behave as she wished and ended up with the nickname "Party Princess." In order to get past that, she knows she has to behave perfectly.

Which doesn't mean she can't nurse a little crush on Lieutenant Commander Max Andersen of Her Majesty's Royal Navy. When an accident lands the two of them in the tabloids, Clara knows she should do her best to put distance between the two of them, but she can't resist the chance to get to know him a little better. They agree to just be friends, but can they keep to that agreement as the attraction between the two of them grows?

I picked this one up because the cover art is cute and I enjoy occasionally reading royal romances. This featured a believable royal family and good world-building, with lots of details about Sondmark and its relationships with other fictional countries (the United States existed but none of the real-world European countries did). The author laid the groundwork for future books for Alma, Clara's eldest sister, and Noah, the heir - Alma was the perfect princess engaged to someone who barely paid any attention to her, and Noah was the playboy prince who had a surprising interest in Caroline, her mother's drab and professional private secretary.

For the most part, the romance between Clara and Max was just okay. Very nice and comfortable. In order to keep Clara from constantly having the press in her face, Max suggested that they mostly meet at his home, which struck me as at least as risky for both their reputations as meeting in public places, but whatever. They had dinner, watched movies, painted his house, etc. - it was all very nice. 

The last 60 or so pages were much more emotional and riveting, and I really enjoyed how things worked out, from the way Clara resolved things with her mother to the way to the way Max's knowledge about his ship was worked into his part of the story. 

Weirdly, the next book in the series appears to be Princess Freja's. She was mentioned a few times in this book, but her story didn't get nearly as much setup as Alma's or Noah's. Since I'd like to try more of this series, I'll probably read it, but I'm not nearly as interested in Freja's story as I am in Alma's or Noah's.