Alyssa Cole

An arranged marriage leads to unexpected desire, in the first book of Alyssa Cole's Runaway Royals series... When Shanti Mohapi weds the king of Njaza, her dream of becoming a queen finally comes true. But it's nothing like she imagined. Shanti and her husband may share an immediate and powerful attraction, but her subjects see her as an outsider, and everything she was taught about being the perfect wife goes disastrously wrong. A king must rule with an iron fist, and newly crowned King Sanyu was born perfectly fitted for the gauntlet, even if he wishes he weren't. He agrees to take a wife as is required of him, though he doesn't expect to actually fall in love. Even more vexing? His beguiling new queen seems to have the answers to his country's problems--except no one will listen to her. By day, they lead separate lives. By night, she wears the crown, and he bows to her demands in matters of politics and passion. When turmoil erupts in their kingdom and their marriage, Shanti goes on the run, and Sanyu must learn whether he has what it takes both to lead his people and to catch his queen.

Runaway Royals

How to Catch a Queen

An arranged marriage leads to unexpected desire, in the first book of Alyssa Cole’s Runaway Royals series… When Shanti Mohapi weds the king of Njaza, her dream of becoming a queen finally comes true. But it’s nothing like she imagined. Shanti and her husband may share an immediate and powerful attraction, but her subjects see her as an outsider, and everything she was taught about being the perfect wife goes disastrously wrong. A king must rule with an iron fist, and newly crowned King Sanyu was born perfectly fitted for the gauntlet, even if he wishes he weren’t. He agrees to take a wife as is required of him, though he doesn’t expect to actually fall in love. Even more vexing? His beguiling new queen seems to have the answers to his country’s problems—except no one will listen to her. By day, they lead separate lives. By night, she wears the crown, and he bows to her demands in matters of politics and passion. When turmoil erupts in their kingdom and their marriage, Shanti goes on the run, and Sanyu must learn whether he has what it takes both to lead his people and to catch his queen.

Joy Bush

I don't normally read romance books, maybe that's why I liked this one so much. A former colonized country tries to find a new path for it, an uprising group makes guillotine and boot licker jokes, mythological stories of gods and goddesses, and a queen and king navigating it all Together.

Lover of Romance 

This review was originally posted on Addicted To RomanceI received this book for free from Avon in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

  
    
  






How To Catch A Queen is the first book in a NEW spinoff series called "Runaway Royals" and I have to say when this cover was released months ago I just couldn't wait to get my hands on this book ....literally, I was leaping for joy. Because y'all know how the covers work me in all the good ways and this one.....dang ....did AVON did good or what? I know there was some criticism on the cover (I think due to the gal's hair)--which is relevant to the story, but I love it and I have no shame in that. Its very interesting to see Cole start a new series that is loosely connected to her "Reluctant Royals" series. 



How To Catch A Queen is a story that begins with our hero Prince Sanyu. Who has always rebelled against being the future king of Njaza. And in a way he has been running away from his destiny and much of it is due to the strict childhood he had with little love or affection like he envied in many others. But with his father on the death bed, his destiny to be king is about to become very real and another last request from his father...he needs to be wed at the same time and to a stranger, a woman they found on a royal dating app of all things. Shanti has always dreamed of becoming Queen. She was inspired by so many great women who served their countries diligently and she wanted to be just like them....making a difference in the world. So now that she is queen she is determined to do just that...but there is one problem....no one wants her in Njaza. They practically ignore her and shut her in the queen's chambers. But when a few months go by, Shanti speaks her mind more, and draws the attention of her husband, and together they begin anew and their passion for each other and for the country of Njaza will embolden them in ways they won't quite expect...



How To Catch A Queen is a story that I was so drawn into so very quickly and what a page turner, I read this in one morning because I was so hooked into this book here. I couldn't seem to get enough of this romance and what is revealed. Not to say I didn't have some issues with this story, because there was some but overall this was superb. First I adored the setting, set in a country in Africa, so we get to see a whole different culture and traditions which was unique and eye opening. Alyssa Cole really did a tremendous job in showcasing this side of the story. 



Now as for the characters....I loved them in unique ways and struggled with them at the same time. Don't get me wrong, I adored their depths and strengths and what they overcame. The hero didn't have the best childhood, and never saw "love" as being acceptable in a marriage. So he has to work his way out from the false education and realize that love is power and not weakness but it takes time and lots of pain on both sides because of it. Shanty....I liked her a LOT but I think she sometimes got too caught up in the title of "queen" and sometimes I felt that she viewed Sanya as a way to get the title and keep it and not a human being and a husband. They both have their flaws but its their journey in discovering what love and marriage is all about that is the real kicker. And while I was reading this the song "Love and Marriage" by the great Frank Sinatra was in my brain the WHOLE time. Like they needed to know that song LOL 



I did admire seeing their interactions together and seeing them learn to let go of what they thought to expect in a royal marriage, and find their way through the marriage and ruling the country as a partnership. They have their ups and downs but seeing them discover each other was the beauty of this book and realizing what true love is capable of is what made this book such a gem of a read!! I definitely couldn't get enough of seeing this romance develop in such vibrant ways. 



Overall I found How To Catch A Queen to be a story of delights, journeys, and gems to delight in the intricate layers that Alyssa Cole delivers in!

Sven Test

This was such a cute entertaining romance! I love the fierceness of the female MC. There’s one specific part where I was like, “We need more scenes like this in Romance novels!” I can’t say much without spoiling, but man, it was so refreshing to read. 

Shanti’s character was so empowering to read! Her brain, with all that knowledge, had me so eager to know more about the cultures represented and all the ideas she brought forth!

Sanyu and Shanti were complete sweethearts! The story-line was also pretty amazing and so fleshed out. I cannot wait for more books in this series and appearances of this fantastic couple!

Flavia Louise

Alyssa Cole writes great books. Thankfully we didn't continue that disaster that is the made up language from A Prince of Paper, although Liechtienbourg is mentioned again and reminded me of that annoyance of mine. I liked the dynamic in here. I do not understand why this is a new series when it still features the characters from the original series heavily. Then again other authors I read do that too. So why am I even saying that. Well I don't know. I'm super excited about the f/f sequel coming in May.

Grace O'Callaghan

This was so disappointing. I loved Alyssa Cole’s ‘Reluctant Royals’ series so thought this would be my cup of tea.


The one and only character I enjoyed reading about was Shanti. She had a clear goal to become queen and stopped at nothing to get what she wanted. I admire characters in books like her that are determined as it inspires me to make goals of my own.

Sanyu on the other hand felt a bit bland. I feel like he has character traits and motivations, but he never came together as a person for me. He gets anxious quite easily, feels pressure as king and finds it hard to display his emotions. I understand what his arc was supposed to be, I just didn’t care about him. Maybe it’s because I really sympathised with Shanti that I couldn’t understand why he couldn’t at least try to be friendly towards his own wife for the first three months of their marriage.

The rest of the characters were fine but nothing memorable. From the glimpses of characters from the other series, I’m glad they’re doing okay.

In terms of the romance, I felt zero chemistry between them. Which I find so odd because I’ve enjoyed all of the other Alyssa Cole romances. It seemed like it was trying to be slow burn but it was pretty much nonexistent for most of the book.

The thing I disliked the most was that this was not a romance, it was a contemporary royalty drama. I’d say most of the book is focused on politics and royalty which I just didn’t care about at all. Especially when the romance is barely even there. Even then the main plot of Sanyu becoming a better king was resolved very quickly at the end.

So overall, I was hoping to love this but it failed for me. Between this, Nordic King by Karina Halle and Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, I think I’m realising that contemporary royalty doesn’t appeal to me. I like what it does to cause tension and situations in romance but I don’t care about the politics of it. I may read the next book when it comes out, I guess we’ll see.

Makayla Reed

This book started off interesting, but it became boring pretty quickly. It was very slow and it felt like it wasn't even worth finishing. I did end up finishing it months later with the help of the audiobook. 

I still did not care enough about the characters and their journeys and the sex scenes were just very cringey. 

This was my first Alyssa Cole book, but I will pick up another one of her books because I think that her writing has potential, but this romance just wasn't for me. 

How to Catch a Queen Runaway Royals

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