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A review by rosseroo
A Princess of Roumania by Paul Park
2.0
Can't recall where I heard about this book, or what I heard that was compelling enough for me to seek it out. In any event, I did so, and by about halfway through, I strongly considered not finishing it. Had I realized it was the first in a quartet, I definitely would have stopped, because I basically slogged through 180 pages just to see how it would end, and it's basically a setup for future books.
The premise is that there's an adopted teenage girl in present-day Massachusetts who turns out to be the hidden princess of Roumania (aka Romania), or rather, the Roumanian Empire of an alternate 19th-century world in which England has sunk beneath the waves, and there is some kind of German plot to absorb Romania. The first bit of the book ably establishes the heroine and her two friends, before switching to this alternate world where various forces are seeking her.
The book's main problem is that much is made of the girl's importance, but it's awfully unclear why she's important, other than some kind of link to a legend. Similarly, the various machinations to find her feel completely ungrounded, and the geopolitical arrangements of this alternate world are confusing at best. It often has the feel of a book that's the second in a series and requires full and complete background from the first book -- but this is the first book, so it doesn't have that excuse.
As atmospheric as the book can be, and despite some compelling scenes here and there, the characters just weren't fleshed out enough for me to care -- especially their motivations. All in all, this was a dud for me -- although I could see that if you were committed to the whole series, it might be fine in that context.
The premise is that there's an adopted teenage girl in present-day Massachusetts who turns out to be the hidden princess of Roumania (aka Romania), or rather, the Roumanian Empire of an alternate 19th-century world in which England has sunk beneath the waves, and there is some kind of German plot to absorb Romania. The first bit of the book ably establishes the heroine and her two friends, before switching to this alternate world where various forces are seeking her.
The book's main problem is that much is made of the girl's importance, but it's awfully unclear why she's important, other than some kind of link to a legend. Similarly, the various machinations to find her feel completely ungrounded, and the geopolitical arrangements of this alternate world are confusing at best. It often has the feel of a book that's the second in a series and requires full and complete background from the first book -- but this is the first book, so it doesn't have that excuse.
As atmospheric as the book can be, and despite some compelling scenes here and there, the characters just weren't fleshed out enough for me to care -- especially their motivations. All in all, this was a dud for me -- although I could see that if you were committed to the whole series, it might be fine in that context.