The Princess Will Save You | ARC Review

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Summary

A PRINCESS
A STABLE BOY
A QUEST

When her father dies, Princess Amarande is given an ultimatum: Marry the leader of one of the four neighboring kingdoms, or lose her crown—and possibly her life. And to force her hand, her beloved, the stable boy Luca, is kidnapped.

But Amarande was raised to be a warrior, not a sacrifice.

And nothing will stop her from saving her true love and rescuing her kingdom.

The acclaimed author of Sea Witch turns the classic damsel-in-distress tale on its head with this story of adventure, identity, and love.

Review

I wanted to like this book sooooo bad! I mean, a ‘The Princess Bride’ retelling? That’s what dreams are made of! And, even better, it was a bit of a gender swap. Amazing! But, my excitement only lasted through the first few chapters. Let me tell you why.

The beginning was so good. It’s written in 3rd person so we get to hear the thoughts of lots of important characters. It got a little confusing sometimes because it almost felt like we were hearing a few characters’ thoughts at one time, but I let that slide. At first.

Princess Amarande and Luca both started out as strong characters. In fact, I was already half in love with Luca after one chapter. His love, dedication, and total faith in Amarande had me swooning. He never doubted her for a second. Amarande won me over a couple of chapters in when she came out, fists swinging, about how she should be treated as a woman and future ruler of the kingdom. It was such a good speech and I was like, “Yes! That is YOUR kingdom. You rule it, girl!”

Then things started going downhill. As I mentioned before, some of the chapters were a little confusing because we would hear the thoughts of multiple characters at once instead of just one. One of the benefits of 3rd person writing is that it’s easier to jump between characters, but it was just confusing when the jumping was happening in the middle of the chapter.

The biggest thing for me though was that it was boring. sigh I hate calling books that, but it was. There were a few action scenes that I thought would carry me through, but they didn’t. There’s usually even a bit of humor to break things up, but this was pretty serious the whole time.

And at the end, the characters began feeling a little wishy-washy. Like Luca, all of a sudden, felt weak and bland. And Amarande seemed like she didn’t even care about the most important things in her life. Her fire was gone. Maybe this is part of the character set up for the next book? I’m not sure. But whatever the case, it wasn’t translated over to me.

Overall, I expected so much more. This book really just fell flat, in my opinion. I’m really so disappointed that I have to give this a bad review, but it’s the truth.

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rating

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