I loved the multicultural aspects of this book, but the whole premise was a bit eh for me. I can’t believe in today’s day and age a prince could be so “undercover” as to be normal. And Emma seemed to be a character that was so wildly one way and then another about ideas and issues that it seemed unrealistic. Also definitely some “Mary Sue” tendencies in my opinion. I wanted to enjoy this book more but sadly it fell flat for me. The narrator was decent but the voice she chose to use for the MMC didn’t fit in my opinion.

Thanks to the publisher for the audio arc and to netgalley.

Thank you SMP Romance for my #gifted ARC and thank you Macmillan Audio for my #gifted listening copy of That Prince Is Mine! #MacAudio2024 #smpromance #SMPInfluencers #ThatPrinceIsMine #JayciLee

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐈𝐬 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐞
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐉𝐚𝐲𝐜𝐢 𝐋𝐞𝐞
𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫: 𝐎𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐠
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝟑𝟎, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

★★★★

I thought this was a super fun and engaging book! A prince in disguise meets a career-driven woman, who are quite opposite and they fall in love. It was entertaining and spicy and an overall fun one! While I’ve always wanted to read a book by Jayci Lee, this was my first book by her and I would definitely read another one. I loved reading about Korean culture and cuisine and thought it was just such a fun read! The chemistry between Emma and Michel was amazing and I don’t think I’ve read a book with a prince in disguise trope before and I really enjoyed this one! There was some matchmaking involved and some miscommunication too, but I thought it was done well! Overall, I thought it was a fun one!

⏲️Prince In Disguise
⏲️Opposites Attract
⏲️He Falls First
⏲️A Rom-Com for Foodies
⏲️Lots of Spice

🎧I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Olivia Song. I really loved my time listening to Song and felt like she was an excellent pick for this audiobook! This was my first time listening to an audiobook narrated by Song and I would definitely listen to her again. I highly recommend this one on audio!

Posted on Goodreads on July 23, 2024: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
**Posted on Instagram - Full Review- on or around July 24, 2024: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on July 30, 2024
**-will post on designated date

I was quite excited for the premise of this book - I love a good royal/commoner book, and I was super interested in the Korean food elements of the story. I mistakenly thought this book would be closed door, and was unimpressed by the language and spice I found throughout this book. Most of it felt like it was added in to make the book sell, and not to advance the plot. If you like spicy hallmark movies you will probably enjoy this book. I also found Emma to be somewhat immature and whiney about her take on love and relationships, and found her being in her upper twenties to be less than believable. I did enjoy many of the side characters in the book, and found the narration easy to listen to and understand, even at 2 times the normal speed.
I received a complementary advanced listening copy of this book, all thoughts are my own.

I truly enjoyed listening to this book in my free time. One of the reasons I love audiobooks is that they allow you to multitask while enjoying a great story. This book, in particular, was exceptionally well-written and brilliantly narrated. The narrator's performance added an extra layer of enjoyment, making the story come alive in a way that only a skilled narrator can achieve.

Overall, the book was amazing—both fun and engaging. I found myself eagerly anticipating each listening session. The humor woven throughout the narrative was delightful and added a lighthearted touch that made the experience even more enjoyable.

In summary, this book was a fantastic listen. It was not only entertaining but also provided moments of laughter and joy. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a well-crafted, entertaining audiobook.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the free audiobook.

Unfortunately, this is not one I would recommend.

What I liked:
- The culinary aspect of the story, especially the Korean royal court cuisine, which I’ve never heard of. I dare you to read this book and not immediately crave bulgogi.
- The author does a good job of bringing LA to life - they visit some landmarks, get stuck in traffic, etc etc.

What I didn't like:
- The FMC is annoying, closed minded, and immature. She’s obsessed with dating Michel so she can figure out how different and thus incompatible they are. It takes entirely too much of the story for her to realize this logic is flawed.
- The insta love from the MMC. I understand why talk of marriage happens quickly — in both Emma and Michel’s cultures, arranged marriages are common and they’ve both generally accepted the concept. But the love at first sight stuff I can do without.
- More generally speaking, the relationship between Michel and Emma lacks depth. I’m not really sure how since the book is 400+ pages/12+ hours, but it just all feels very one-dimensional. Speaking of the length, this book has so many scenes where nothing really advances the story and you just see them hanging around. It needs another edit!
- The only obstacle that SHOULD have been in Michel and Emma’s way, the fact that he’s a European prince and has to go back to lead his country, is given the least airtime. Rather, we suffer through Emma’s annoying and self aggrandizing takes on why her love life is so important to her godmother’s matchmaking business and how she needs to find someone just like herself to marry if they have any hope of working out. Like… what?

Audio: The entire audiobook is narrated by Olivia Song. Generally, I like her narration - she’s performed some of the Colleen Hoover books. In this book, she does a good job performing the narrative, but the voices she uses for some of the dialogue, particularly for male characters, is cringeworthy. I really think I would have enjoyed the book at least 25% more if I had read rather than listened.

Overall rating: 2.38 rounded to 2
Characters: 2.5
Atmosphere/Setting: 4
Writing Style: 3.5
Plot: 1.5
Intrigue: 1.5
Logic: 2
Enjoyment: 2

That Prince is Mine is a story of a prince hiding his identity and falling in love with a Korean-American. This has the feel of a hallmark movie, so if you love those (like I do), I think you will really enjoy the book. I thought it was a sweet story of wanting to be loved for who you are and family acceptance. I loved watching Emma and Michel try to figure out who they are outside of who they thought they would grow up to be and outside of what they believe their family would want.

I will be withholding my review of this book as it is under the St. Martin’s Press imprint. Book influencers are urging St. Martin’s Press for many months now to address 1. are influencers safe with SMP? 2. what are you doing to protect influencers? 3. who has access to influencer information? and 4. what happens when an SMP employee misuses that information? These questions follow an incident with a Wednesday Books employee back in October 2023 who posted anti-queer and anti-Palestinian hate online.

The premise sounded so cute for this and seemed like a book many patrons would like, but it got more spicy than I hoped. I’m tired of romance books being so filled with spice, not everyone wants that. Would have been exactly my type of book if it didn’t have that.

The parts of this book that I loved were: multicultural love interest, family connections, secret prince, and all of the food references.

That Prince is Mine is a story of a prince hiding his identity and falling in love with a Korean-American. This has the feel of a hallmark movie, so if you love those (like I do), I think you will really enjoy the book. I thought it was a sweet story of wanting to be loved for who you are and family acceptance. I loved watching Emma and Michel try to figure out who they are outside of who they thought they would grow up to be and outside of what they believe their family would want. I wasn't a huge fan of the ending because I thought it wrapped up a little too nicely and ignored the dreams they had before meeting each other and ignored the reality of a Korean-American marrying into a white royal family.

I was not a huge fan of the narration. At some points it felt a little forced or child-like, but overall I thought Olivia Song did a good job of differentiating between the MCs and the side characters' personalities.

The entire book is a miscommunication trope so if you hate that, this book is not for you. If you want a book that gives you happily ever after vibes this is definitely it!


Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Macmillan Audio for the free ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

That Prince is Mine by Jayci Lee was like a spicy Hallmark movie, and I'm not mad about it. Emma Yoon teaches others how to cook Korean royal court cuisine--and is currently being set up on dates by her godmother, an esteemed matchmaker, because she values compatibility over love. Michel Chevalier is a visiting professor--and prince in disguise--seeking his one true love before he's forced into an arranged marriage.

Drawn together like magnets, they decide to spend the time he has left in California with each other--but he has bigger goals. He knows this is true love, so he has to convince her to give him--and his country--a real chance.

I did want to shake Emma because I was like, "OPEN YOUR EYES WOMAN!" She was so committed to not repeating her parents' mistakes, but I was like "arghhhghghgh."

Olivia Song delivers a wonderful narration, bringing Michel's slightly British/slightly French accent to life. I love me a made up country--gives me Princess Diaries warm fuzzies.

That Prince is Mine was super cute. I love that it took place in Los Angeles. I really enjoyed the whole storyline and it honestly made me want to take a Korean cooking class- would have loved to have taken a class with Emma as my cooking instructor for sure.

Super cute! I loved the ending, but there was so much buildup throughout the whole book that the ending for me felt a little rushed. There was a lot of hesitation between both Emma and Michel on reasons why their relationship couldn't and wouldn't work and it just seems like in the end just overnight, they just decided to say screw it to all of their reasons for hesitating just decided to be happy together, which is great because all of the excuses, especially when it came to Emma, were not very strong reasons and were a little petty for me.

Another thing I didn't like was how rushed everything was by the time Michel and Emma started dating, Michel had already been in the states for a month and he had 2 months left so it was really just a 2 month-ish window of them dating and falling for each other and everything just seemed to really rushed for me.

I also had some issues listening to all of the chapters in the audiobook. Not sure if it was netgalley or the audiobook itself, but there were like four or five chapters that wouldn't play and I had to skip them and that kind of ruined things from me as well.

Overall it was just super cute romance book. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for an easy, fun romance book to read.

This was a cute story. I enjoyed the FMC and MMC a lot. Their interactions were romcom in the best way. Also the side characters were a lot of fun. You will be craving Korean food while reading so be warned. 🤣

This is probably the first and one of the only times I will say this but the narration on this book did it no favors. It made the main characters seem so young and childish that I honestly did not like this one. It didn’t help that the author made their dialogue little childish but the combination was just not good at all. Maybe this one would be better in print but based on the mediocre plot line and the cringy dialogue, I’d really advise you skip it altogether.

This was an enjoyable read. As a fan of Korean food, I often found myself getting hungry while reading this story. While I'm usually not a big fan of royal romances since many of them feel quite similar, I appreciated how this book stood out. It offered a fresh take on the genre by incorporating various aspects of Korean culture, which added depth and uniqueness to the story.

This was a very cheesy book, but in a way that some may become obsessed with. I personally think it lacked a certain special aspect that would make it fully stand out, but a fun quick read

Emma Yoon has a dream. She wants to run a culinary school. Her godmother is a matchmaker. The two of them are able to help each other. Her godmother find a woman who needs to learn how to cook. She sends them to Emma. But Emma is single and how can a matchmaker godmother be good at her job if her 29 year old goddaughter is single. Emma tries to find her match but while at the cafe she meets Michel.

Michel wants to find love and he sees it in Emma but he’s a prince and she’s a commoner. She lives in California and he lives in a different country. Can they make it work?

This story was not for me. It was well written for someone who likes this type of story but the MISCOMMUNICATION. I wanted to throw my phone so far multiple times. It was the entire story. Not just the 3rd act but the whole story. Also I love the prince and me or the Christmas prince or any of those movies it felt like this would be that type of story but I didn’t realized how much I disliked being in their head probably due to the miscommunication trope.

I did enjoy the side story characters. They were less problematic well until Emma decided to give her opinion. I am so glad she didn’t listen to Emma.

But I can’t be all upset, everything ends well and everyone got their happily ever after

Thank you NetGalley, The Publisher and the Author for the ARC of this book

I love the clash of cultures in this book and the way that they're embraced. I absolutely adored every moment of this book.

While I enjoyed the overall story and concept, I definitely struggled to stick with it until the end. There wasn't anything in particular that stands out, but I wasn't invented in the story until Emma and Michel were on the page together. It was a cute story, but the final 4 chapters were the best part for me, and that's saying a lot since I love audiobooks!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ a very sweet typical romance. Emma teaches Korean cuisine and dreams of opening a culinary school. Prince-in-disguise Michel wants to find true love instead of arranged marriage. Emma is actively participating in Korean upper middle class matchmaking. When they meet, sparks fly and they both need to rediscover what it means to fall in love and share their story.

For fans of Hallmark movies, this one is a pure romance. I loved the Emma/Michel couple. Fair warning; there is a bit of S M U T I had to skip through. I also got to learn more about Korean American culture and cuisine. I googled Korean restaurants and sadly I have none in Des Moines. It’s on my list for my next trip to LA. Easy dialogue and very readable. I did get a bit weepy at the end, it’s quite sweet.

I enjoyed the audiobook because the narrator is excellent, also I liked to hear proper Korean pronunciation. The book gives a little lesson at the beginning.

Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for the advance copy. Book to be published July 30, 2024.

I love the threads of Korean culture and food that are all through this book. You really can't go wrong with a royal romance and this read just like a Hallmark movie, but with steam! It was fun and easy but engaging and just right for doing chores. Like a Hallmark movie, it was good. But I found myself wanting a little more of something from the story...depth, connection, relationship, something.

The audio and narrator were fantastic!