GRR Reviews Isabelle (The Princesses of Silicon Valley) by Anita Claire

Isabelle is a contemporary romance in the author's "princesses of Silicon Valley" series. The author is well-versed with mixed cultures of California, and while the mood of this book is darker and thus not as fun or charming as the previous book, "Hita", I feel the character arc was developed quite well.

Isabelle was stuck in her life. She has a dysfunctional relationship with her on-again-off-again boyfriend Paul. They drive each other crazy, but after a little while she misses him and reconciles, until the next blow up, and the cycle repeats. She has a job that's soul-stealing, as her boss only cares about looking good than doing his job (and her master tracking project sparked an inter-departmental war, as engineers found out how much sales oversold the project). She had to live at home because housing in Silicon Valley cost too much, and her Chinese mother was really traditional ("young woman should not open doors"). Her friends were falling in love, making her feel lonely. A trip up to the mountains with friends mountain biking almost ended in disaster, but also allowed her to meet two hot brothers, Jordan and Jake, who saved her. She fell in love with one of them. Will this relationship be the one that broke her string of bad luck?

The cast of characters are interesting and Isabelle was able to learn who are her REAL friends and who are just leeches and how Isabelle learned to stand up for herself. There's a nitpick that we didn't see the MMC until near the end of the book, but this is Isabelle's story.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman has to learn to stand up for herself against evil boss, no-good boyfriend, and leech-y friends to find her love in Silicon Valley

Tropes: evil boss, triangle, fmaily pressure, coming of age

Overall Rating: 4/5