Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
3.5: There was a lot to like, and a few things that annoyed me. Specifically, the characters would be talking strategy but completely miss important aspects . There were a few examples of that, where you as the reader thought 'oh good, now they're all together they can start laying out the puzzle pieces and seeing the big picture - oh, no, nevermind we skipped all that and they're moving on'. The storyline is fun, the writing has great potential, it just needed an editor to tighten it up a bit and point out a couple places where it could have gone from 'ok, the characters have shared this information - now show us why they still can't have what they want or share what they know more broadly'.
Spoiler
like Osana, a character with great potential that had zero follow-up. Not a 'oh hey that guy you sent me to find, the prince murdered him' not 'I didn't tell you this important thing because I didn't know to trust you yet', just no follow-up at all other than 'she shows back up'
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am... torn.
As you may gather from the title, this book is not subtle. It's all about turning a popular narrative on its head, and that popular narrative is The Princess Bride.
I did not realize this until about sixty percent through the book. Up until that point, Amarande was just a sixteen-year-old princess in the process of figuring out just how unprepared she was for the job of taking her late father's throne. She's one of those "I'm ruthless, I'm a devastating warrior, I've been training from birth to sword-fight and throw knives and never trust anyone" heroines who also, somehow, has never hurt anyone in a real fight and seemingly never even been camping.
The stable boy, her childhood friend and crush, is kidnapped by three somewhat hapless ruffians in a plot by an evil prince to seize power. Since I clued you in beforehand, you can already see The Princess Bride shaping up, although I didn't quite yet. Amarande manages to race after the ruffians and rescue the stable boy, and this is where it gets really overt.
They run into the prince. "Marry me, and I promise not to hurt him."
She agrees. Obviously, it was a lie.
From here on out, we have the thinly-disguised outline of The Princess Bride itself:
There's some background intrigue with unknown identities and mysterious mothers and what, exactly, the late king had in mind in the first place that is honestly the most interesting part of the book. I assume that, along with some Dread Pirate Roberts action, awaits in part two of the duology. I'm hopeful that it will come off better than this one.
There is some subversion that I think is fun. The extent to which Luca is a fainting damsel with no personality except being unfailingly kind and handsome, and loving Amarande with stars in his eyes is nice. You can't help but like him, and I think he plays the part of Buttercup very well. It's too bad he had to get the torture side of the stick as WELL as the kidnapping side.
The problem is that Amarande is not nearly as good a Westley. She is a struggle, in general. The contrast between her hard-bitten thoughts and the way her mishaps actually turn out in real life is one that's hard to respect. She basically still is Buttercup as well, except for the fact that she will wave a sharp weapon at anyone nearby if given half an excuse, and more in a wearying "please stop and think about the consequences of your actions for ONCE" way rather than a fun action-hero way.
Still, more than halfway through this book I was still planning to give it three stars. Like, Amarande is annoying but she's not THAT annoying. It's still a fun story. Until... the pit of despair scene. There's "inspired by" and then there's whatever this is. The "fire swamp" shoutout could have been a fun wink-nudge reference, but not in the MIDDLE of a scene which LITERALLY copies dialogue from the original. The word-for-word was too much, way too heavy-handed, in a book that didn't offer much else of its own unique content to balance it out.
As you may gather from the title, this book is not subtle. It's all about turning a popular narrative on its head, and that popular narrative is The Princess Bride.
I did not realize this until about sixty percent through the book. Up until that point, Amarande was just a sixteen-year-old princess in the process of figuring out just how unprepared she was for the job of taking her late father's throne. She's one of those "I'm ruthless, I'm a devastating warrior, I've been training from birth to sword-fight and throw knives and never trust anyone" heroines who also, somehow, has never hurt anyone in a real fight and seemingly never even been camping.
The stable boy, her childhood friend and crush, is kidnapped by three somewhat hapless ruffians in a plot by an evil prince to seize power. Since I clued you in beforehand, you can already see The Princess Bride shaping up, although I didn't quite yet. Amarande manages to race after the ruffians and rescue the stable boy, and this is where it gets really overt.
They run into the prince. "Marry me, and I promise not to hurt him."
She agrees. Obviously, it was a lie.
From here on out, we have the thinly-disguised outline of The Princess Bride itself:
• A girl harangues Amarande about marrying another while her true love lives
• Both Luca and Amarande, who didn't even know if the other like-liked each other before the kidnapping, now can't stop talking about TRUUUUE LOOOVE
• A single dagger meant for the wedding night
• A poisonous drug named "fire swamp" (Ho! Ho! Get it?)
• "Mostly dead"
• A literal pit of despair where the "How does that make you feel?" scene is nearly word-for-word reenacted
• The two "good" ruffians hear Luca's tortured scream and instantly know it's him, coming to the rescue
• "If he dies, you die." (Okay, this one is actually from The Court Jester.)
There's some background intrigue with unknown identities and mysterious mothers and what, exactly, the late king had in mind in the first place that is honestly the most interesting part of the book. I assume that, along with some Dread Pirate Roberts action, awaits in part two of the duology. I'm hopeful that it will come off better than this one.
There is some subversion that I think is fun. The extent to which Luca is a fainting damsel with no personality except being unfailingly kind and handsome, and loving Amarande with stars in his eyes is nice. You can't help but like him, and I think he plays the part of Buttercup very well. It's too bad he had to get the torture side of the stick as WELL as the kidnapping side.
The problem is that Amarande is not nearly as good a Westley. She is a struggle, in general. The contrast between her hard-bitten thoughts and the way her mishaps actually turn out in real life is one that's hard to respect. She basically still is Buttercup as well, except for the fact that she will wave a sharp weapon at anyone nearby if given half an excuse, and more in a wearying "please stop and think about the consequences of your actions for ONCE" way rather than a fun action-hero way.
Still, more than halfway through this book I was still planning to give it three stars. Like, Amarande is annoying but she's not THAT annoying. It's still a fun story. Until... the pit of despair scene. There's "inspired by" and then there's whatever this is. The "fire swamp" shoutout could have been a fun wink-nudge reference, but not in the MIDDLE of a scene which LITERALLY copies dialogue from the original. The word-for-word was too much, way too heavy-handed, in a book that didn't offer much else of its own unique content to balance it out.
While this title is toted as an "inspired by" retelling of The Princess Bride, I did not want any of my bias for that beloved tale to influence my thoughts on this book - so I did my best to approach the story with a clean slate of expectations. . . and I am glad I did. Yes, there is a princess, a farm boy, and true love - but Sarah Henning took that inspiration and ran a different direction with it that I completely enjoyed. She throws the age-old damsel-in-distress trope on it's ear by giving us a strong leading lady in Amarande with hopes, dreams, and determination all her own. She is funny, intelligent, and definitely not in need of saving. Her loyalty to Luca is inspiring and their bond from childhood to current was lovely.
The pacing and word use was dynamic and witty. I never felt as if I were 'plowing through' just to get to the good parts of the story. It was a delight on every page. And Charlie Bowater's cover art is *chef's kiss*. I am very excited to read more by this author.
Recommended for fans of Mercedes Lackey, Melanie Dickerson, and Gail Carriger's Finishing School Series.
*I received an eARC for free from NetGalley and am leaving this review voluntarily.
The pacing and word use was dynamic and witty. I never felt as if I were 'plowing through' just to get to the good parts of the story. It was a delight on every page. And Charlie Bowater's cover art is *chef's kiss*. I am very excited to read more by this author.
Recommended for fans of Mercedes Lackey, Melanie Dickerson, and Gail Carriger's Finishing School Series.
*I received an eARC for free from NetGalley and am leaving this review voluntarily.
Who doesn't love a princess willing to bloody up a few fools to save her love? This story pays homage to The Princess Bride and gives you the strong character you wish Princess Buttercup COULD have been.
15 July 2021
Unrated because it's on my (newly minted!) picky in my old age shelf. DNF@17%.
1. Teenage princess deals with a succession crisis and the kidnapping of her more-than-crush.
2. Confession time: I'm not a big fan of The Princess Bride. I think there are some interesting elements and funny jokes in it, but the story is dragged down by Wesley and Buttercup who are the Absolute Worst. So I was kinda hoping this would be a story very loosely based on the movie/book. Good news: It was!
3. However it came with a few other problems. The author does try to bring in nuances and outside perspectives a little, but they are examined only in a cursory fashion before they are discarded in favor of what the protagonist thinks she really needs. Ama is hot headed and impulsive and not particularly calculating, and the books' attempt to portray her succession troubles primarily as a sexism problem is kinda unconvincing. You're telling me that this girl is the best ruler for the job? Really?
4. There's also a frankly unsettling degree of monarchy worship in here. And don't get me wrong- we get a ton of that in fantasy by default but this book is worse than usual. It's not, again, providing any reasons why X would be a good ruler. It just goes on and on about bloodlines and the tragedies of annihilated royal families.
5. Also, if your kingdom has a female general, regent and council head it's possible that your portrayal of sexism needs to be a bit more nuanced than "I'm not able to hold a position because of patriarchal laws!" Just a thought.
6. I've only read 17% of the book, so it's possible my complaints may be addressed later on in the story. However, I really don't have enough interest in the prose, themes or characters to keep reading. In other words, I'm picky in my old age and that's why this shelf exists.
7. Also. That cover? Mwah. Bellisimo. It's so fucking pretty I could stare at it for like an hour. 10/10.
Unrated because it's on my (newly minted!) picky in my old age shelf. DNF@17%.
1. Teenage princess deals with a succession crisis and the kidnapping of her more-than-crush.
2. Confession time: I'm not a big fan of The Princess Bride. I think there are some interesting elements and funny jokes in it, but the story is dragged down by Wesley and Buttercup who are the Absolute Worst. So I was kinda hoping this would be a story very loosely based on the movie/book. Good news: It was!
3. However it came with a few other problems. The author does try to bring in nuances and outside perspectives a little, but they are examined only in a cursory fashion before they are discarded in favor of what the protagonist thinks she really needs. Ama is hot headed and impulsive and not particularly calculating, and the books' attempt to portray her succession troubles primarily as a sexism problem is kinda unconvincing. You're telling me that this girl
Spoiler
who is incapable of making her own fairly loyal to kingdom councilpeople as well as her foster mother trust her with important matters, who lasts for all of half a night before throwing off her must be rational hat in favor of running away to do a rescue (...she could have just sent people she's the fucking princess jfc)4. There's also a frankly unsettling degree of monarchy worship in here. And don't get me wrong- we get a ton of that in fantasy by default but this book is worse than usual. It's not, again, providing any reasons why X would be a good ruler. It just goes on and on about bloodlines and the tragedies of annihilated royal families.
5. Also, if your kingdom has a female general, regent and council head it's possible that your portrayal of sexism needs to be a bit more nuanced than "I'm not able to hold a position because of patriarchal laws!" Just a thought.
6. I've only read 17% of the book, so it's possible my complaints may be addressed later on in the story. However, I really don't have enough interest in the prose, themes or characters to keep reading. In other words, I'm picky in my old age and that's why this shelf exists.
7. Also. That cover? Mwah. Bellisimo. It's so fucking pretty I could stare at it for like an hour. 10/10.
J’ai clairement craqué sur ce livre à cause de la couverture que je trouve sublime (celle du tome 2 aussi d’ailleurs). De plus, l’histoire était vendue comme un retelling de The Princess Bride et aimant beaucoup le film, je me suis laissé tenter. J’ai globalement apprécié cette lecture, Armande est badass à souhait et dès le départ elle assume ses choix et ne se laisse pas abattre. Luca, son plus-que-simple-ami, est intéressant mais un peu plat dans ce premier tome. J’espère plus de sa part dans la suite. Le world building est intéressant mais pas très poussé, ce n’est seulement que le premier tome donc j’attend beaucoup de la suite !
I feel like stuff happened but didn't happen at the same time... It was just okay.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
I know I'm posting this EXACTLY a month later than I was supposed to. But at least I didn't neglect it!! *patting myself on the shoulder*
Warning! This review can include spoilers.
I know this isloosely inspired by 'Thr Princess Bride' and that was actually one of the main reasons I found myself excited for this book. One of the other reason was the title. Ever since I was a little kid all the fairytales that I read were almost always the prince saves the princess or the knight in shining armor rescues the damsel in distress and live happily ever after. And I always wondered why there are rarely any stories that the girl saves the boy. (I know that trope exists too, even before but we can all agree that it was a rarity).
Alright, onto the real review:
The last time I watched The Princess Bride was proabably when I was 10 years old and I remember loving the movie so much that I bought the DVD and afterwards I found the book and read that, as well. Although I preferred the movie over the book. Shocking news, I know!
So, what I'm trying to say is that I don't have much recollection about neither the movie nor the books and because of that I can't be able to compare this to the real Princess Bride.
The writing style:
The way it was written and the way characters spoke to one another plus the dialogues felt too modern for me instead of historical. So, that threw me off a bit.
A little bit of a rant: Ama (the main character) I can't remember her full name, because we know how complicated and out of this world the names can be when it comes to fantasy books- She is the king's only daughter and while he let her train and know swormanship he didn't prepare her enough how to take actions and take control on the council or whatever when someday something bad happens to the king. (spoiler spoiler: we know something's GOTTA happen to the king, cuz everyone has their eyes to the throne).
The way the king ''suddenly'' died and that it was a heart attack (pfft yeah right) was definitely unture, and I wanted that topic to be more discussed in the book and no one really wanted to expoler about that. Hmmm very suspicious. I do hope his death wasn't just an ''accident'' and we would get to know more about it in the next book(s).
Alright, the rant-y part is over.
I loved the friendship/relationship between Ama and Luca; it was so pure and familiair. I loved how devoted they were to one another and how much trust they have towards each other. There are rarely pure loves writted in books, at least not anymore.
Now I'm going to talk about prince Taillefer aka the bad guy: He had an older brother but I don't remember his name, because he was very unmemoreble.
Taillefer was one of the most psychotic villains I’ve met in a YA literature. *flashbacks of Maven from Red Queen series*.
Back to earth; Taillefer was cunning, brutal, crazy and that made him really interestig I can't wait to see what his plans are in the future.
Last but not least -The Epilogue-:
The epilogue took me off guard in the most shocking way, despite in the back of my head I knew I was expecting something like that to happen. Therefore I upped my rating a little bit because of that. Originally, I was supposed to rate this from 3 to 3.25 instead it became 3.5 stars.
So applause to the epilogue for not making me think the book was blasé.
And scene.
I know I'm posting this EXACTLY a month later than I was supposed to. But at least I didn't neglect it!! *patting myself on the shoulder*
Warning! This review can include spoilers.
I know this is
Alright, onto the real review:
The last time I watched The Princess Bride was proabably when I was 10 years old and I remember loving the movie so much that I bought the DVD and afterwards I found the book and read that, as well. Although I preferred the movie over the book. Shocking news, I know!
So, what I'm trying to say is that I don't have much recollection about neither the movie nor the books and because of that I can't be able to compare this to the real Princess Bride.
The writing style:
The way it was written and the way characters spoke to one another plus the dialogues felt too modern for me instead of historical. So, that threw me off a bit.
A little bit of a rant: Ama (the main character) I can't remember her full name, because we know how complicated and out of this world the names can be when it comes to fantasy books- She is the king's only daughter and while he let her train and know swormanship he didn't prepare her enough how to take actions and take control on the council or whatever when someday something bad happens to the king. (spoiler spoiler: we know something's GOTTA happen to the king, cuz everyone has their eyes to the throne).
The way the king ''suddenly'' died and that it was a heart attack (pfft yeah right) was definitely unture, and I wanted that topic to be more discussed in the book and no one really wanted to expoler about that. Hmmm very suspicious. I do hope his death wasn't just an ''accident'' and we would get to know more about it in the next book(s).
Alright, the rant-y part is over.
I loved the friendship/relationship between Ama and Luca; it was so pure and familiair. I loved how devoted they were to one another and how much trust they have towards each other. There are rarely pure loves writted in books, at least not anymore.
Now I'm going to talk about prince Taillefer aka the bad guy: He had an older brother but I don't remember his name, because he was very unmemoreble.
Taillefer was one of the most psychotic villains I’ve met in a YA literature. *flashbacks of Maven from Red Queen series*.
Back to earth; Taillefer was cunning, brutal, crazy and that made him really interestig I can't wait to see what his plans are in the future.
Last but not least -The Epilogue-:
The epilogue took me off guard in the most shocking way, despite in the back of my head I knew I was expecting something like that to happen. Therefore I upped my rating a little bit because of that. Originally, I was supposed to rate this from 3 to 3.25 instead it became 3.5 stars.
So applause to the epilogue for not making me think the book was blasé.
And scene.
The twists and turns in this kept me reading. There are references to The Princess Bride but this is its own story. I'm looking forward to book two.