A review by mehsi
The Princess in Black and the Perfect Princess Party by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale

5.0

4.5 stars! I am delighted that this is a series, I just love our Princess in Black and she is just a great heroine, and I just want more and more books about this princess.

Because while I love princesses, I do love a kick-ass princess even more! A princess who next to looking nice, wearing cute clothes, also loves kicking monster's butts! And doing that in fashionable black clothes. Her attacks have wonderful and interesting names like; Tiara Trip, Tentacle Tangle, Sceptre Spank, Twinkle Twinkle Little Smash. And you kind of feel sorry for the monsters, just a tiny bit, they shouldn't have gone up to nom on goats in the first place. :)

And in this book our dear princess is celebrating... well actually the better term would be, tries to celebrate her birthday with all her princess friends. Sadly, the monsters are particularly active today, and the poor princess has to keep going in and out, all the while trying to distract her guests from the fact that she keeps disappearing. I just felt sorry for the girl. Finally it is her birthday, everything is perfect, she got great guests, presents that need unwrapping, and then you have the monsters who just don't get the freaking hint that this princess just wants to celebrate her birthday.

I loved the games, the birthday, and I was cheering for our princess. I do wonder if the other princesses are also secretly monster butt kicking princesses, or if our princess is the only one. You would think there may be others just like her.

I didn't like Princess Sneezewort, not at all. I found her annoying, nosy and frustrating, and very depressing. She is also a big reason for the -0.5 star. I think if she wasn't added, or didn't poke her nose around, or acted all depressing, I would have given the book 5 stars. But as it is, I just couldn't give it a 5 star rating. It is a shame, the rest of the book is just amazing, and so much fun that I was sad when it ended.

The illustrations are gorgeous yet again, and I love all the clothes that the girls wore, they were so vibrant and pretty. The decorations, the castle, the presents, everything was just so colourful and fun, I wish I could have joined the party it looked so much fun!
I liked that not only did the story tell us how tired the princess got, how worn out she was, but that we also could see it in the illustrations. How she went from perky and happy, to sad and tired.

The ending? I just loved it, that poor monster, but he had it coming. It was sweet what he did though, it is good to see the monsters aren't all goat-eating-baddies, but instead can also be nice.

Would I recommend this book? Yes! Definitely yes!

Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/