REVIEW: The A.I. Who Loved Me (book) by Alyssa Cole

The A.I. Who Loved Me is sci-fi romance. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Trinity Jordan is a data analyst for the Hive (a massive futuristic employer that also seems to have a company town kind of situation going on), on leave while she recovers from a traumatic incident that left her with a knee injury, a spotty memory, and occasional panic attacks. She keeps busy by acting as a HiveDrive conductor (a person who remotely drives seemingly driverless cars) and spending time with her two best friends, Ru and Yana. She has zero interest in getting into a relationship with anyone...or so she thinks, right up until she meets her neighbor Dr. Zhang's nephew, Li Wei, who's visiting while he recovers from a traumatic incident of his own.

Li Wei is hot, frequently shirtless, and has issues with social interaction. There's also something about him that Trinity finds oddly reassuring. When Dr. Zhang has a medical emergency, Trinity takes it upon herself to check up on Li Wei...who is not, actually, a flesh-and-blood human but rather a highly advanced AI.

REVIEW: When No One is Watching (audiobook) by Alyssa Cole, narrated by Susan Dalian and Jay Aaseng

When No One is Watching is a thriller, or at least it's marketed as one. I checked it out via one of my library Overdrive accounts.

This review includes slight spoilers.

Review:

This alternates between two POVs: Sydney, a black woman who was born and raised in Brooklyn, and Theo, a white guy who recently moved into the neighborhood with his wealthy girlfriend. Both of them are struggling with weights on their shoulders - Sydney has her mother's medical bills to worry about, and Theo was recently laid off and is being increasingly frozen out by his girlfriend.

Sydney's neighborhood is becoming unrecognizable - long-time neighbors leaving and shops she's gone to for years closing and getting replaced, sometimes practically overnight. As Sydney begins researching the area's history, with Theo's assistance, the two of them gradually realize there's something sinister going on.

REVIEW: A Prince on Paper (book) by Alyssa Cole

A Prince on Paper is contemporary romance, the third book in Cole's Reluctant Royals series.

Review:

Although you could potentially start the series with this book and manage okay, I'd recommend that folks at least read A Princess in Theory, which introduces Nya Jerami, the main character of this book, and shows readers the events that resulted in Nya's father being put in prison. I skipped A Duke by Default, Book 2, which, from what I could tell, resulted in me missing out on the introduction of Johan von Braustein, the hero of this book, but didn't otherwise interfere with my ability to understand what was going on.

Okay, so this book stars Nya, a shy royal who's trying to break away from her father's lingering toxic influence. Living in New York City for a while hasn't really accomplished much - she dated a bit but still feels like her same awkward self. She's now heading back to Thesolo for Ledi and Prince Thabiso's wedding, only to find herself face-to-face with Johan von Braustein, the sexy, womanizing step-prince of Liechtienbourg, the same guy that the character in the royalty-themed otome game she's currently playing in based on. As she spends time with him, she gradually realizes that the person the media sees is very different from the person he actually is in private.

I'm trying to review this after having finished it a couple months ago, and it's dawning on me how much of the story was focused on Nya and Johan just getting to know each other and become comfortable with each other, because I'm looking over my notes I can't figure out what else, if anything to add to my summary. I mean, Johan was also dealing with a Liechtienbourgian referendum to abolish the monarchy, and there was a fake engagement between him and Nya. And also some stuff related to Johan's suddenly strained relationship with his younger sibling, who was the reason why he constantly got himself into the tabloids - if they were speculating about him and who he was with, they weren't focused on Lukas.

REVIEW: A Princess in Theory (book) by Alyssa Cole

A Princess in Theory is contemporary romance.

Review:

Naledi (Ledi) Smith has been on her own for most of her life, bounced around in foster care after her parents were killed in a car crash. Now she's a grad student with multiple jobs and a supposedly upcoming epidemiology internship that she still hasn't been contacted about. The spam emails she keeps getting that say she's betrothed to a Prince Thabiso from some country called Thesolo do not amuse her.

As it turns out, the emails aren't spam. Prince Thabiso has been looking for his betrothed for years. He hopes to find her and either bring her back to Thesolo or finally convince himself that they aren't soulmates the way he'd been told as a child they were. His assistant, Likotsi, tracks her down, but their first meeting doesn't go anything like Thabiso expected it would. Ledi mistakes him for a new waiter named Jamal, and rather than clear up the misunderstanding, Thabiso decides to just go with it. He'll get to see how Ledi behaves around him when she's unaware that he's royalty, and being a waiter can't be that hard, right? (Ha!)