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wanderlustqueen's review against another edition
4.0
Good palate cleanser after 'You'. Funny, but a little on the nose at times.
loganslovelylibrary's review against another edition
4.0
The Princess Beard was a great conclusion to the Tales of Pell series. Funny and entertaining, it once again throws fairytale and fantasy references at you left and right. It featured well written characters, but the plot was a little all over the place in the beginning. The group felt a bit disjointed until over halfway through; it was a wild ride but still an enjoyable one. I loved seeing the characters from the other books sprinkled in here and there, and everything wrapped up beautifully. Such a refreshing and funny read! A great series that I highly recommend!
katreniah's review against another edition
4.0
I've enjoyed every book in the series, but I think this one is my favorite - although I'm struggling to come up with specific reasons why. As in the first two books, the characters each have their own challenges to overcome and need to work together toward a common goal. However, it felt like this group became closer, more tight-knit than the groups in the previous books. I know I'm not explaining it well, because I'm still trying to work it out in my mind. But if you like Monty Pythonesque humor where you have to read words out loud to fully get the humor, this series is totally up your alley and absolutely worth it.
hidekisohma's review against another edition
2.0
The biggest thing I can say about this book was that it tried too hard. I found this in the library in the new section, and as i don't normally read books that JUST came out, I decided to give it a read. The first few pages looked interesting and i like fantasies that treat themselves differently than the normal Tolkien fare. However, this book... well... the best way to describe it, is that it GRAZED the marks, but didn't really hit any of them.
So the first and most glaring problem with this book are the out of place, cultural references and anachronisms. The authors of this book don't seem to understand that a reference in and of itself, is not funny.
Here is a short list of "quirky" references
- they meet a guy named robin and they introduce him to his son as robin's son crusoe.
- one of the characters for really no reason goes "life uh, finds a way"
- their cannon is called the "tampoon" named aunt flo' and is fired by a pirate named Mo Tryn
- a pirate's name is Quort Quobain.
These things..they're not jokes. they're not funny. they're literally just references. they're references to things that don't even exist in this universe so that makes it even stranger. One of the main plot points is even that there's a chain of restaurants called "Dinny's."
The best way i can describe these references is like you're driving in a car, going about 40 but every few blocks you have to hit the brakes because a red light pops out of nowhere.
You're reading a relatively decent fun story about pirates and magic and then it comes to a SCREECHING halt because they feel the need to make a 3 page joke about how hogwarts is silly. Yes i'm dead serious.
There are other problems too. The other biggest one is the pacing. It's hard to describe but it's both rushed and very slow at the same time. There's 5 main characters all with different motivations and story arcs to go through. So they're trying to introduce these characters, have us feel for them, send them on a journey of self discovery, and wrap all their storylines up in 360 pages. That's not nearly enough time.
And therein lies the problem. While the characters were somewhat interesting to START, I didn't care enough about their journeys because i didn't get to know enough about THEM. This needed to be at LEAST another book for me to actually care about any of them.
I didn't really get ANYBODY'S inner workings or their motivations, or anything like that. I just kind of..guessed what they wanted as their motivations were very...simple and boring.
Intersperced throughout the story there were also very juvenile jokes. the afformentioned period joke, jokes about butts, balls, poop, etc were abound in this book. Which really left me the question of WHO this was written for. I don't understand the target audience for this book. It was trying to be risque yet childish at the same time with no real direction. it was written by two people and it really feels like it. Everything really seems haphazard about the writing and it just doesn't work.
It makes me sad because i liked the idea and the characters were cute as well at first, but they don't really develop or grow, they get stale, and i don't feel like they're ALIVE. Like, i couldn't get into any of their heads and everything seemed very quickly resolved and yet boring. When you use the word "Swole" to describe your medieval centaur for the 37th time, it gets very frustrating. I wish i had kept track on how many times they called him Swole. needless to say, if i got a dollar for every time they said it, i could have bought this book several times over.
Overall, i SEE what they were trying to do, but the execution just wasn't there. it needed more time to flesh out the characters, give some of them more likable or at least DEEP personalities, and for the love of GOD drop the references. they're NOT FUNNY. I wanted to give this book a 2.5/5 but since Goodreads doesn't do 1/2 stars i have to round it down. it doesn't deserve a 3 to be honest. 2.5/5 rounded down to a 2.
So the first and most glaring problem with this book are the out of place, cultural references and anachronisms. The authors of this book don't seem to understand that a reference in and of itself, is not funny.
Here is a short list of "quirky" references
- they meet a guy named robin and they introduce him to his son as robin's son crusoe.
- one of the characters for really no reason goes "life uh, finds a way"
- their cannon is called the "tampoon" named aunt flo' and is fired by a pirate named Mo Tryn
- a pirate's name is Quort Quobain.
These things..they're not jokes. they're not funny. they're literally just references. they're references to things that don't even exist in this universe so that makes it even stranger. One of the main plot points is even that there's a chain of restaurants called "Dinny's."
The best way i can describe these references is like you're driving in a car, going about 40 but every few blocks you have to hit the brakes because a red light pops out of nowhere.
You're reading a relatively decent fun story about pirates and magic and then it comes to a SCREECHING halt because they feel the need to make a 3 page joke about how hogwarts is silly. Yes i'm dead serious.
There are other problems too. The other biggest one is the pacing. It's hard to describe but it's both rushed and very slow at the same time. There's 5 main characters all with different motivations and story arcs to go through. So they're trying to introduce these characters, have us feel for them, send them on a journey of self discovery, and wrap all their storylines up in 360 pages. That's not nearly enough time.
And therein lies the problem. While the characters were somewhat interesting to START, I didn't care enough about their journeys because i didn't get to know enough about THEM. This needed to be at LEAST another book for me to actually care about any of them.
I didn't really get ANYBODY'S inner workings or their motivations, or anything like that. I just kind of..guessed what they wanted as their motivations were very...simple and boring.
Intersperced throughout the story there were also very juvenile jokes. the afformentioned period joke, jokes about butts, balls, poop, etc were abound in this book. Which really left me the question of WHO this was written for. I don't understand the target audience for this book. It was trying to be risque yet childish at the same time with no real direction. it was written by two people and it really feels like it. Everything really seems haphazard about the writing and it just doesn't work.
It makes me sad because i liked the idea and the characters were cute as well at first, but they don't really develop or grow, they get stale, and i don't feel like they're ALIVE. Like, i couldn't get into any of their heads and everything seemed very quickly resolved and yet boring. When you use the word "Swole" to describe your medieval centaur for the 37th time, it gets very frustrating. I wish i had kept track on how many times they called him Swole. needless to say, if i got a dollar for every time they said it, i could have bought this book several times over.
Overall, i SEE what they were trying to do, but the execution just wasn't there. it needed more time to flesh out the characters, give some of them more likable or at least DEEP personalities, and for the love of GOD drop the references. they're NOT FUNNY. I wanted to give this book a 2.5/5 but since Goodreads doesn't do 1/2 stars i have to round it down. it doesn't deserve a 3 to be honest. 2.5/5 rounded down to a 2.
lammerman's review against another edition
1.0
1.5 stars
What the hell did I just read? It was like a 350 page dad joke... mixed with the potty humor of a 10 year old. It felt like a rip off of many other beloved stories, only with way too many poorly developed characters added, and kind of a Shrek inspired medieval/modern tale, all put together preschool arts and crafts style. If 2020 was a book...
What the hell did I just read? It was like a 350 page dad joke... mixed with the potty humor of a 10 year old. It felt like a rip off of many other beloved stories, only with way too many poorly developed characters added, and kind of a Shrek inspired medieval/modern tale, all put together preschool arts and crafts style. If 2020 was a book...
coriandercake's review against another edition
2.0
The jokes didn’t quite land and there was too much crass humor for my taste. The audiobook was well done and the only reason i finished
inmyhumbleopinion's review against another edition
5.0
The Princess Beard is a puntastic laugh out loud gigglesnort of a good time read. This adventure of self-discovery is not without the occasional mishap but what doesn’t kill you … This tale is filled with epic wordplay and the occasional shout out to various adventurers past, present and future. I heartily recommend.
mksiggy75's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
katiebirdreads's review against another edition
5.0
The Princess Beard is the first book of this series that I have encountered and it is 100% readable on its own. I don't know how many books I've read that the publisher says is a standalone book which has some bit that is completely incomprehensible to people who haven't read the series. However, this third installment in the Tales of Pell includes an engaging story, a cast of compelling characters, and a comprehensible (if tongue-in-cheek) world.
I was fully wrapped into this book, I listened to the audiobook in two days. Speaking of which, I cannot recommend the audiobook enough. The voice talent Luke Daniels is impeccable. His voices for each character were distinct and interesting, and he routinely read lines in such a way that I had to pause my audiobook to suppress my laughter.
For readers who may be concerned about its dirty humor, I will say that though a good 50% of the names are dick jokes, the book is remarkably clean. There is no sex or swearing (if some cartoony violence)-- in fact there aren't even any forced romances. This is a tale of friendship and self discovery after all. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is getting back into reading or who is a fan of some good old fashioned puns. Older audiences will likely get more of the references, but there are some references for younger audiences (Harry Potter gets a good nod as well as Divergent and Hunger Games). Teens and young adults will have a blast reading this story.
I was fully wrapped into this book, I listened to the audiobook in two days. Speaking of which, I cannot recommend the audiobook enough. The voice talent Luke Daniels is impeccable. His voices for each character were distinct and interesting, and he routinely read lines in such a way that I had to pause my audiobook to suppress my laughter.
For readers who may be concerned about its dirty humor, I will say that though a good 50% of the names are dick jokes, the book is remarkably clean. There is no sex or swearing (if some cartoony violence)-- in fact there aren't even any forced romances. This is a tale of friendship and self discovery after all. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is getting back into reading or who is a fan of some good old fashioned puns. Older audiences will likely get more of the references, but there are some references for younger audiences (Harry Potter gets a good nod as well as Divergent and Hunger Games). Teens and young adults will have a blast reading this story.