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aliciasrealm's review against another edition
3.0
This is very loosely inspired by "The Princess Bride", featuring a princess, a kidnapping, a scheming prince, and a stable boy who's in love with the princess (and whose catch phrase is, "Always"). If you are hoping for a fun, gender swapped version of The Princess Bride you will be disappointed. Beyond some similar plot lines, this in no way can be compared to Goldman's book. With a disappointing lack of humor, it felt like a generic adventure story. The most notable aspect is the gender swapping, but this day and age this is hardly a new or revolutionary twist.
mybooksarenovel's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars
YA
G rating
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Has it got any sports in it?"
"Are you kidding me? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles!"
"It doesn't sound too bad. I'll try and stay awake.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The book dust jacket describes this as a "Feminist Fantasy Adventure inspired by The Princess Bride."
A retelling of The Princess Bride? What a fantastic idea! The cult classic movie was an adaptation based on William Goldman's book of the same title. Rob Reiner did a fabulous job adapting it to film, but as most movies go, the book was better.
I have to give Sarah Henning credit for attempting to put this idea into action. An inverted retelling where the princess saves the stableboy. So here is my review of the good, the bad, and the struggle that was real.
The Good:
Cover illustration is by Charlie Bowater, hands down gorgeous.
I was pleased to find this book clean of profanity, sexual content, and very little violence. The story was very sweet and innocent and receives a G rating in my opinion. Good job!
The Bad:
Must we always feel the need to call every book that has a strong female lead with a mind of her own "feminist"? I like a good strong female lead but I don't enjoy the overt generalization if men in power. If you have a story to tell, if our leading lady is being oppressed by male dominance and unfair systems, it is the author's job to show and not tell. You may gently lead, but please let the reader come to their own opinions and conclusions and decide whether or not to drink the proverbial water. Also, our main man Luca in this one is a total sitting duck. Not once does he try to rescue himself with the exception of the presence of his "true love." He does little to endear himself, and with the revelation at the end, one would think he should.
The Struggle:
I was rooting for this book to be better. At every turn I found myself groaning instead of laughing. Instead of Wesley's famous line, "As you wish," we have our main man saying, "Always, Princess." While Buttercup says, "My Wesley will come for me," our guy is saying, "My Princess will save me." The battle of wits, the miracle worker, the torture chamber, the fire swamp; I kept finding myself rolling my eyes. All this I could maybe have forgiven had there been some semblance of repartee and witty banter, but no. And the sheer absence of the six fingered man and Inigo's quest for revenge...sigh.
The Princess Bride is my all-time favorite movie. When I discovered that it had been adapted from a book, then read it, I could have not been more delighted. The original book had me giggling into my hand constantly, and it was far more rich in detail of my already beloved characters and settings.
I believe that had I not read the original I may be able to be more accepting of this inverted retelling. I'm still looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy, and hope it will drop The Princess Bride storyline to evolve into its own.
YA
G rating
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Has it got any sports in it?"
"Are you kidding me? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles!"
"It doesn't sound too bad. I'll try and stay awake.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The book dust jacket describes this as a "Feminist Fantasy Adventure inspired by The Princess Bride."
A retelling of The Princess Bride? What a fantastic idea! The cult classic movie was an adaptation based on William Goldman's book of the same title. Rob Reiner did a fabulous job adapting it to film, but as most movies go, the book was better.
I have to give Sarah Henning credit for attempting to put this idea into action. An inverted retelling where the princess saves the stableboy. So here is my review of the good, the bad, and the struggle that was real.
The Good:
Cover illustration is by Charlie Bowater, hands down gorgeous.
I was pleased to find this book clean of profanity, sexual content, and very little violence. The story was very sweet and innocent and receives a G rating in my opinion. Good job!
The Bad:
Must we always feel the need to call every book that has a strong female lead with a mind of her own "feminist"? I like a good strong female lead but I don't enjoy the overt generalization if men in power. If you have a story to tell, if our leading lady is being oppressed by male dominance and unfair systems, it is the author's job to show and not tell. You may gently lead, but please let the reader come to their own opinions and conclusions and decide whether or not to drink the proverbial water. Also, our main man Luca in this one is a total sitting duck. Not once does he try to rescue himself with the exception of the presence of his "true love." He does little to endear himself, and with the revelation at the end, one would think he should.
The Struggle:
I was rooting for this book to be better. At every turn I found myself groaning instead of laughing. Instead of Wesley's famous line, "As you wish," we have our main man saying, "Always, Princess." While Buttercup says, "My Wesley will come for me," our guy is saying, "My Princess will save me." The battle of wits, the miracle worker, the torture chamber, the fire swamp; I kept finding myself rolling my eyes. All this I could maybe have forgiven had there been some semblance of repartee and witty banter, but no. And the sheer absence of the six fingered man and Inigo's quest for revenge...sigh.
The Princess Bride is my all-time favorite movie. When I discovered that it had been adapted from a book, then read it, I could have not been more delighted. The original book had me giggling into my hand constantly, and it was far more rich in detail of my already beloved characters and settings.
I believe that had I not read the original I may be able to be more accepting of this inverted retelling. I'm still looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy, and hope it will drop The Princess Bride storyline to evolve into its own.
hangngt_'s review against another edition
3.0
2.5/5
took me so long to complete this book. i wasn’t invested in the story and i didn’t connect well with the char. to be honest, for most of the story I just skimmed over it. I think it’s mostly because there’s such a long winded writing style that I just find it boring and hard to get into the world.
It’s not bad, but it’s not good either. In my opinion, it’s somewhere in the middle.
took me so long to complete this book. i wasn’t invested in the story and i didn’t connect well with the char. to be honest, for most of the story I just skimmed over it. I think it’s mostly because there’s such a long winded writing style that I just find it boring and hard to get into the world.
It’s not bad, but it’s not good either. In my opinion, it’s somewhere in the middle.
qooze's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
syl_val15's review against another edition
3.0
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.
daylemaree92's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
crimsoncor's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Mostly disappointed in this. So gender-swapped Princess Bride is an interesting idea, but not one I think the world was really crying out for. And the execution was not particularly good. The Princess Bride, the book and the movie, works because it is a fairy tale. The lack of development of the world, the lack of realism, the shameless embrace of tropes . . . all of that works because of the sort of story it is. This adaptation isn't a fairy-tale, but still operates like it is. The world-building is laughably simple: each country has one export, there are apparently no powerful nobles in any of the kingdoms who might have views, being crowned monarch of a country grants you immediate unquestioned power, commoners are just background extras in coronation scenes, etc. None of this matters in a fairy-tale because that isn't the point of the story. But this wants to be more of an actual fantasy novel and those a threadbare clothes to try and dress it in. And then you get these really weird moments where characters just start declaiming about true love, even though this isn't the sort of world where that sort of thing should happen. The two sides of this novel are constantly at war with each other.
It also suffers from a reoccurring issue in YA where an attempt is made to have a strong female character by having her be one who can make incredibly stupid choices and never suffer any consequences for them. Brings back very strong memories of Kate Elliot's Spiritwalker series which similarly drove me crazy. To quote from my review of the second book of that series, "She continues to make the most ludicrous decisions and yet never suffers any negative consequences for any of it. Nope, it always just happens to work out amazingly. And of course, with that sort of zero consequence environment, there isn't any character development or growth to speak of. Why bother if the universe is just going to smooth a path for you?" That all applies here too.
It is such a fascinating authorial choice to gender-swap the novel, but have all the suffering stay on the male side. In the original, Wesley is the one who suffers, is tortured, is almost (but not quite) dead. Here, the role of the hero has been given to the princess, but all the terrible things still happen to the male character. That suffering, those trials, that is what gives the original its pathos, what gives his character its struggle. When you take that away from that role (regardless of the gender) you lose so much of what makes that story work. Very strange story decision.
The less said about the attempt at writing fight scenes, the better.
All that said, it is still a reasonably pleasant read. I've finished far worse series than this, so I'm planning to see it through. I am interested to see where the trilogy goes from here, now that it has exceeded its source material.
It also suffers from a reoccurring issue in YA where an attempt is made to have a strong female character by having her be one who can make incredibly stupid choices and never suffer any consequences for them. Brings back very strong memories of Kate Elliot's Spiritwalker series which similarly drove me crazy. To quote from my review of the second book of that series, "She continues to make the most ludicrous decisions and yet never suffers any negative consequences for any of it. Nope, it always just happens to work out amazingly. And of course, with that sort of zero consequence environment, there isn't any character development or growth to speak of. Why bother if the universe is just going to smooth a path for you?" That all applies here too.
It is such a fascinating authorial choice to gender-swap the novel, but have all the suffering stay on the male side. In the original, Wesley is the one who suffers, is tortured, is almost (but not quite) dead. Here, the role of the hero has been given to the princess, but all the terrible things still happen to the male character. That suffering, those trials, that is what gives the original its pathos, what gives his character its struggle. When you take that away from that role (regardless of the gender) you lose so much of what makes that story work. Very strange story decision.
The less said about the attempt at writing fight scenes, the better.
All that said, it is still a reasonably pleasant read. I've finished far worse series than this, so I'm planning to see it through. I am interested to see where the trilogy goes from here, now that it has exceeded its source material.
crustytoed's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This book was a great find! The characters are so lovable and funny, even the “enemy’s”. The kingdom and terminology wasn’t at all confusing to learn and help immerse me into the book more!! 5 stars<3
huffvetica's review against another edition
2.0
My enjoyment of the book 1/5
The book itself 2.75/5
We'll call it an even 2 on terms of a final rating.
Ok here's the thing, I feel a little misled because the first couple of scenes are electric, fast paced, some much is happening its all so exciting. Then the tone shifts, it becomes about bureaucracy and is incredibly boring for a good 100 pages before things pick up again. Now the ending. Man. Its a good fuc*ing ending. It's been a while since I've felt truly surprised by the plot of a book and man does this one end with some punches. Though for how dynamic the last couple of chapters were, please apply that same energy to the lull in the middle.
What this book did well
- The side characters were great and I really enjoyed them both as individuals and what they had to offer to the book in a greater sense.
- The romance is cute and extremely akin to Princess bride
- The tone of the book is high fantasy in that Princess Bride way of everyone is referred to by their titles and the voice and tone of the narrator really gives that vibe consistently
- Narrator gave everyone their own really unique voice. Truly the only person's chapters I wasn't excited for was Koldo's and It was bc she was mostly removed from all the action.
What I didn't like
- I wanted to know more about our main girl's thoughts. There were kind of two notes, and everything about this situation is insane and I'm going to kill everybody. Hey, I get it. But it made her perspective quite narrow and plain compared to all the other characters pov's.
- I simply don't think this book is for me. I'll be honest I thought I was buying a different book. The Princess Bride vibe was extremely well done and successful, but Its not my favorite movie. And I didn't realize how heavy handed that tone would be.
- Its a successful book, but its just not my favorite
The book itself 2.75/5
We'll call it an even 2 on terms of a final rating.
Ok here's the thing, I feel a little misled because the first couple of scenes are electric, fast paced, some much is happening its all so exciting. Then the tone shifts, it becomes about bureaucracy and is incredibly boring for a good 100 pages before things pick up again. Now the ending. Man. Its a good fuc*ing ending. It's been a while since I've felt truly surprised by the plot of a book and man does this one end with some punches. Though for how dynamic the last couple of chapters were, please apply that same energy to the lull in the middle.
What this book did well
- The side characters were great and I really enjoyed them both as individuals and what they had to offer to the book in a greater sense.
- The romance is cute and extremely akin to Princess bride
- The tone of the book is high fantasy in that Princess Bride way of everyone is referred to by their titles and the voice and tone of the narrator really gives that vibe consistently
- Narrator gave everyone their own really unique voice. Truly the only person's chapters I wasn't excited for was Koldo's and It was bc she was mostly removed from all the action.
What I didn't like
- I wanted to know more about our main girl's thoughts. There were kind of two notes,
Spoiler
I miss Luca and need to get him back,- I simply don't think this book is for me. I'll be honest I thought I was buying a different book. The Princess Bride vibe was extremely well done and successful, but Its not my favorite movie. And I didn't realize how heavy handed that tone would be.
- Its a successful book, but its just not my favorite