dejreads's reviews
34 reviews

I usually don’t review books that I don’t finish, but all I’m going to say that I am taking Booktok recommendations and hype very loosely. The many grammatical errors and repetition threw me off (What is up with Persephone shivering so much?). Alongside the fact that I just couldn’t connect to Persephone as a female lead. I’m kinda fifty fifty when it comes to Greek Mythology retelling fiction stories and this one was not for me. Maybe better for a high schooler that want to take a step further from Wattpad stories.

I challenged myself to read one book a month this year. This book was just so amazing. This is the first book of Tia Williams I have read and I just want to say that this probably going to my favorite book of hers until I read the others. Although, the topics involved in the book can be a bit triggering for some people—you can see how these triggering things that has happened between Shane and Eva helps them grow as a character. One of the things that stuck to me in this book was the relationship between Eva and her mother. That relationship had me completely astonished and shocked. We never talk about the relationships between moms and daughters, especially the toxic ones. It broke my heart reading about what Ava’s mom did because for a lot of moms they do not want to see their daughters do better than what they had to offer when raising their daughters.

“Genevieve was a child. She hadn't even lived yet. Why did she get that kind of adoration, when Lizette had never experienced it? It wasn't the order of things. It wasn't fair.”


That quote sat with many through so many because I know in this world beyond fiction books that there are moms out there like Ava’s. There are moms who have children actually being the moms. There are moms who will choose loving a mom before ensuring their child’s safety.

Anyway, this book was just so damn good. I would recommend to anyone that don’t mind the triggering things that are mentioned in the book.

I rate this book a 3.5/5 (goodreads don't do half stars so I will probably rate it a 4/5 on there). Anyway, I have heard so many things about Talia's books and I'm not going to lie the smut promotion of the book was what piqued my interest in The Princess Trap. I really enjoyed Cherry's character. Her whole vibe and confidence were just so wonderful. I adore reading black women confident as hell—as if they own the damn room. I adored Cherry and Ruben's banter within the book. Their chemistry had my toes curling and I was giggling like a teenager. However, there are some things that made me scratch my head. One of them is the fact that many people promoted Ruben and Cherry's relationship as enemies to lovers trope and enemies to lovers literally lasted about 3 chapters. Then it also felt one-sided also. Another thing is that I feel like as a reader, we are introduced to the big bad of the book aka Ruben's brother and then we aren't really given that much of why he's the big bad other than closer to the ending of the book. I mean yeah, it's a hint that he made Ruben's life hell here and there. However, I just expected more since he's technically the book's antagonist.

Another thing I would say is the pacing of this book threw me off a little bit. Like, I just wanted more of Cherry and Ruben's dynamic outside of them being horny. I wanted more of them to engage in this fake engagement. I am assuming that I didn't get more of that due to the book being a pretty short read. If the book was longer, I do believe Talia would have been able to flesh out more of the plot. Cause there are so many things that happened in the book that I feel like could have been included more or mentioned more.

Overall, I get fun read vibes from Talia's book. If you're looking for something lighthearted, fun, and a lil spicy—I recommend this book and other books that Talia has written.