This was such a cute book. I've only read one of this author's books before and I have to say I really enjoy this author's writing style as well as their characters. I loved the characters and I think their love story was adorable.

The slow burn romance in THAT PRINCE IS MINE makes the characters earn their HEA. I loved every bit of the Korean influence and discussion of cuisine. The heroine and her extended family is fascinating and authentic. I am a sucker for a good prince-themed romance. But there was a a lot of chitchat and cute date moments without a lot of action in the first 60% of the book. The hero was almost too kind with moments of jealousy that felt forced as if trying to spice up the feelings more between the characters. I was sad the plot line fell a bit flat for me with him as a generic "crown prince" from a made-up small European country who wants to find his own love and not accept the marriage arranged for him. That part of the story with a prince whose identity is incognito in the USA and falls in love with a "normal girl" was cliche. Their final conflict was tough to swallow since, I mean, who really knows if they want to give up their life and marry a prince after 3 months of knowing him? Then again, who says no to that kind of adventure with the buildup of so much chemistry between the characters?

Overall a sweet weekend read that moves slow as we expect with any slow burn contemporary and eventually a rewarding HEA.

Oh my goodness, what a fun story! I absolutely loved Emma and Michel, their humor, and journey together. They both seem like truly wonderful people and compliment each other wonderfully. I loved the dynamics between Sophie and Gabriel as well, and just loved Emma’s family. A great story of opposites attract!

that prince in mine follows emma, a korean cuisine instructor, and michel, a price, in this light fluffy romance.

i just don’t think this book is for me, for how long it is i don’t think there’s any sort of depth to any of the characters, the love was extremely one dimensional with absolutely no connection between the characters.

i will say i did love the incorporation of food, and the shout-out to h-mart <3 but besides that i think this brings up my new discovery of hating books set in the city i live in. i think this story-line had a lot of potential because i liked emma but in the end this turned out to be extremely boring and incredibly forgettable.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I truly could not put this book down, I stayed up wayyyyy too late to get as far as I could in each go. Michel and Emma are both lovable characters who are in touch with their guiding values (my therapist knows I could *NEVER* be that honest and confident in mine), and have to wrestle with balancing those, attraction, and family responsibilities. As always there is a beautiful tie in of food at the center of this book, because would it be a Jayci Lee novel withOUT a central through line of food being relevant? Did it make me want to book a cooking class immediately? Absolutely.

3 stars!
Thank you to NetGalley for sending me this book!!


I've never read a fiction book that made me this hungry before but the food descriptions in here were next level and clearly a passion of the author's. It was lovely being able to step into Emma and Michel's world, even if their constant miscommunication left me far more stressed than I was when I began reading!

"You're the best decision I've ever made."

-royal court cuisine artist meets professor/prince in disguise 👩‍🍳🫅
-loved learning about the Korean culture and appreciated the representation
-Michel and Emma had such instant chemistry! Really enjoyed their dates and them getting to know one another 🩷
-thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC ✨

"What. Were. You. Thinking?" she shouted with such outrage that he cringed away from her.
"I... about which part?" He'd made so many mistakes, he couldn't figure out which one she was angry about. Maybe all of them?

(they can be so funny sometimes)

The romance itself holds up well and was sweet, but if you take that aspect away, there's not much to this book. It's really however many pages of sweet moments/thoughts between the two characters and nothing else. The plot was an interesting idea, but it wasn't fleshed out enough to have as much depth as it could have. Michel never communicated with his dad about what he wanted (and I'm still a little salty we never actually saw that conversation like come on it would have been fascinating to read, especially since Michel makes such a big deal about it)

I love a good story where the big fight leads to an emotional sucker punch, but this sort of dropped the ball. In fact, I didn't feel that connected to the characters. With the conflict, Emma has several complicated feelings but she cycles through them so quickly I couldn't quite connect with them. Plus, it wasn't really hurt or pain or anything like that, just masks for some other emotion. And with Michel, sure, he felt bad, but by the time we got to his pov Emma had already made up her mind, so his perspective was lackluster.

The whole book was more of a "meh" kind of good - up until the last 4%. The characters were suddenly much funnier than they were before?

The idea is cute and the characters have a sweet romance, but I think there could have been more depth to both the plotline and to the characters.

thank you Netgalley for the free arc

I liked this book a lot and couldn't stop reading it! It was occasionally difficult to tell the perspective of the book but after a few sentences i could normally catch on. It had the perfect amount of characters to keep the story interesting but not confusing.

Read this in one sitting bc it was just that good!! I loved Emma - she's my new favorite Jayci Lee heroine. And thank you for not making Michael some super jerk alpha male. I liked that he was kinda dorky and a little nerdy. And the insta-love was perfect.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Emma's dream is getting closer to reality. Emma decides to find the perfect guy. When she meets a college professor, doarks fly. A nice quick read.

I liked the premise of the book but this was just —simply put— not it. I love insta-love, i truly do, but this just wasn’t executed correctly. It felt more like insta-lust! I’m really sad I didn’t like it more since it actually started off pretty decent.

I loved this book!! It was fabulous and well done. The characters were on point and I thought the plot was well developed. I would recommend this book to others.

While this is not a new trope, the incognito prince needing a wife and the commoner that catches his eye, I relished the way the author made his character a shy, responsive and generally decent person who didn't throw his weight around to get what he wanted.Michel was so unassuming and lovable , unlike his entertaining but mysterious firecracker of a bodyguard who I hope will get her own story soon. Emma's character was also a gentle and warmhearted one that took great pains in not intentionally hurting anyone, and went beyond her obligations to take care of others feelings and validate their worth.The depth of these two main characters made them an almost perfect fit and the delightful interactions between the couple and the supporting cast of characters made this an easy ,quick and absorbing read while learning more about the asian cuisine. Netgalley provided this ARC for an honest review,

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's for providing an eARC for my honest review.

This was a really fun story straight out of a Kdrama! Again, I love Jayci's focus on Korean American culture and identity but it does seem kind of forced sometimes in this story. I definitely enjoy reading about the concepts and the food and words but I think it could be better integrated into the story arch. It seemed unnecessarily focused on when other points of the plot could have been developed more - such the royal family and Emma's transition into that.

Thank you Netgalley (and Jayci Lee) for the opportunity to read this ARC. I thought it was a sweet story that followed two people who simply wanted to find the love of their life. Another review said it best that this was the perfect Hallmark movie storyline (with a little spice added in). Emma was a Korean baker who was going on different dates sent up by her matchmaking godmother while Michel was a prince who wanted to be a "normal" guy looking for the right girl to capture his heart. I loved the chemistry between the two characters and how Jayci wrote all the romance scenes between them. I also loved the addition of the Korean words integrated into the cooking scenes because it allows me to learn new vocabulary words. I also loved the side love story between Gabriel and Sophie and watching their second chance romance grow throughout the story. (If it hadn't happened in the book, I was definitely hoping for a partner book that centered around them.) Overall, it was such a sweet story that I cannot wait for others to read it and see for themselves!

Did anyone else love “The Prince and Me” in 2004? Imagine that, but the prince is a golden retriever romantic.

🧁Cinnamon roll hero
🧁Awkward hero/confident heroine
🧁Class difference
🧁Arranged marriage vs love match
🧁Strong family ties
🧁Female body guard

BLURB: Emma Yoon dreams of opening her very own culinary school in Los Angeles. She’s saving up for it by teaching young ladies the art of Korean royal court cuisine, a prerequisite to marrying into the exclusive upper crust Korean families. Thanks to her godmother, a renowned Korean matchmaker, business is booming, and Emma doesn’t have the time, nor the desire, to settle down herself. But when rival matchmakers come after her godmother by taking issue with Emma’s single status, her godmother’s reputation and Emma’s dreams face potential ruin. To save them both, Emma sets out on a series of arranged first dates to find the perfect-on-paper husband—even if she’s not ready for love. But after several disastrous first dates, she meets the gorgeous and irresistible Michel Aubert, a professor at USC and most definitely not her ideal match.

Prince Michel Aubert is bound by duty and responsibility to his country, but he refuses to marry a woman handpicked by his elders. If he must spend the rest of his life in service of his people, he wants to do it with someone he loves and trusts by his side. He only has one chance of evading the arranged marriage—by finding a bride he does love in a few short weeks before the engagement is formally announced. Michel escapes to Los Angeles and assumes the role of an ordinary professor to find the love of his life.
🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁

I LOVED this book. I think one of the selling points for me was the adult responses each of the characters had. Specifically Emma, she handled the “secret identity” in a believable and mature way. The couples romance felt real, and developed. In addition, it was refreshing to read about an “awkward” hero. Sometimes I feel like every hero in every romance is this “suave sophisticated man”.

Thank you NetGalley!

Heat: 🔥🔥🔥
Release: July 30, 2024

this was so cute but not my favorite type of book. the 3rd pov often made me feel disconnected and bored. I do think the writng was solid though.

Fun and fast paced. I enjoyed the different cultures and how the characters responded. It was a light read.

“[Jeongseong] means putting your heart - your very best - into something… Didn’t I tell you? It’s my life philosophy. Everything worthwhile and beautiful in life requires jeongseong.”

As a Korean American myself, there was something that felt like home when I read That Prince is Mine by Jayci Lee. From the moment she began the description of jeongseong, I was hooked. There really is no English equivalent to such a beautiful word, but Lee shows the true meaning of the word through the book.

Emma Yoon is a Korean culinary instructor who agrees to matchmaking dates to help her matchmaker godmother thwart the meddling claws of rival matchmakers, the Crones. Although she has never believed in true love herself, Emma finds herself instantly attracted to prince Michel Aubert, who she believed is a visiting professor. A true romantic, Michel is determined to find his true love in Los Angeles to avoid an engagement that was set for him at his birth.

If you loved the 2004 movie, The Prince and Me with Julia Stiles and Luke Mably, you will be sure to enjoy this delicious romantic comedy with a Korean twist. I really enjoyed the moments when Lee talks about the different traditional Korean royal cooking and dishes, which really shows her love for food and Korean culture. The story does rely heavily on the tropes of different worlds colliding, secret identity, and, the most frustrating of all, miscommunication. When I reached the halfway point of this novel, I did wonder how their relationship would develop as there was a lot of focus on Emma’s Korean side of the family and not much about Michel’s royal side. As a reader, the reaction of Emma’s Korean-American side of the family had way more focus and attention than Michel’s royal family or even his country.

The open-door spice of this book helped to move the story and the romance between the two characters along. Their chemistry was undeniably electrifying. I would also recommend this book to those who enjoyed Casey McQuinston’s Red White and Royal Blue.

I did wish the book spent more time on Emma’s journey to become a princess. The ARC really glossed over this potentially very interesting development, which I thought was a shame. I thought it would have been entertaining to see Emma infuse her own identity as a princess and eventual queen. (Sequel anyone?) The focus of the book is really on the building up of the romance to its ultimate climax (no pun intended).

Overall, I think this book was a cute romance that kept me hungry the entire time with all its descriptive and mouthwatering descriptions of food. It is not a quick read at 400 pages, but I thought this book was like watching a k-drama with its cute main couple and fun secondary characters. Also, I loved seeing how a character that looks like me could also marry a chivalrous prince.