A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole
 My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 I picked this book up because everyone was talking about it and just look at that cover! The colours! It's got a STEM heroine and I was told that she was realistic.

I wasn't disappointed. Ledi is a very realistically represented grad student. She works ridiculous hours, is quite nerdy and is essentially being bullied by the sexist git post-doc. I loved the various microbiology references (and epidemiology stuff) and was delighted that she had pet rats called Gram P and Gram N! In general, I liked Ledi. A lot.

Thabiso is a prince and I liked how he started off being all high handed and bossy. Because we can see his point of view, we understand that he's not being a bossy alpha-hole, he's just behaving as he is expected to behave. Of course, Ledi doesn't know that and thinks he's being a jerk. Since she has no idea who he is, Thabiso decides to get to know her by going undercover as a waiter called Jamal and complications ensue.

I love the idea that what appeared to be spam emails were actually real. 

I really enjoyed this story. The writing is glorious. There were a couple of places where I got pulled out of the story (once when Ledi misquotes Star Trek and once when there was a highly contrived donkey ride), but for the most part I loved it. 
I noticed that Likotsi, Thabiso's assistant, was getting her own story, so I bought that too, because I loved Likotsi. 

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Buy link US