A review by liralen
Undercover Princess, by Connie Glynn
2.0
Untagged spoilers below the fold!
The princess most definitely does not save herself in this one.
Well, that was...disappointing. It starts with fairytale-retelling potential, as it's sort of a cross between a Cinderella retelling and a Princess and the Pauper story: when Lottie wins a scholarship to Rosewood Hall, she's ecstatic. She's always loved the idea of princesses (she literally wears a tiara around the house)...so when it transpires that her roommate, Ellie, is a real-live princess, it's like her dreams have come true. But Ellie doesn't want to be in the limelight, and when a rumour starts going around that Lottie is the princess, Lottie takes on a more formal role as a fake princess.
Now. There are some problems here.
First: Lottie is at Rosewood on a scholarship because she's poor but also very, very special. She's so special, in fact, that she's the first student in twelve years to be offered an 'exceptional circumstances' scholarship (which seems to translate as 'you're too poor for us but you're so smart that we'll let you in anyway). But, like...guys, this says pretty lousy things about Rosewood. They're really not into equal opportunity, are they? They're more into collecting a very steep tuition from their very wealthy students. And if Lottie's supposed to be so special and smart, she should probably be doing better in her classes. (She doesn't do badly: when her marks come back, she's between the top 5 and the top 15 for her classes, but that's not the same as being the Best Student Ever, you know? And Ellie, who doesn't like school or studying, is within the top 20, which suggests that the academics aren't actually all that.)
Second: How dumb are the other students? Lottie (who is from Cornwall) presumably has an English accent, and she's there on scholarship...while Ellie is from Maradova, is not on a scholarship, and presumably has a Maradovan accent. Which of the two of these would you expect to be a Maradovan princess...? Obviously the student body all assumes that it's Lottie, because it makes so much more sense to think that 'Lottie Pumpkin' is secretly 'Eleanor Wolfson' than to think that 'Ellie Wolf' is actually 'Eleanor Wolfson'.
Third: What kind of school doesn't mind or notice when three students randomly take an overnight trip by private plane to another country? What kind of adults (in this case, Ellie's parents) agree that it's a great idea for an underage stranger (Lottie) to sign her life over to protect the monarchy of a country she's barely even heard of, all without any kind of permission from her guardians? Wouldn't this whole story make even a little more sense if it took place in Maradova (wherever that is) instead of England, and Lottie and Ellie were both Maradovan and at least sort of looked alike? Oh, and what kind of parents are like, 'Well, our kid doesn't want to go to state events, so over fifteen years she'll only be allowed to meet twenty people'?
Fourth: Who is the audience supposed to be here? Age-wise (Lottie is fourteen, I think, and Ellie fifteen), this could be YA, but Lottie is naïve enough that this reads as middle grade to me...except when there are creepy-as-all-get-out romance novel elements. But let's come back to that.
Fifth: There seems to be a male love interest for Lottie, but there are some weird Sapphic undertones. Now, I am all for Sapphic undertones, although frankly I would prefer Sapphic overtones. But given the middle-grade feel to the book, it's a little uncomfortable that those Sapphic undertones include things like Lottie rinsing Ellie's hair while Ellie is clad in nothing but underwear (when they've just met), and...it's not outrageous, but it's weird.
Sixth: Jamie. Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh. Jamie is the aforementioned male love interest. He shows up midway through the book as a teenaged bodyguard. This pretty much translates to 'shouts at the girls a lot and tells them that they can't do things'. It's very reminiscent of heterosexual romance novels in which the (adult) hero is a bodyguard or otherwise takes on responsibility for the heroine, whether she likes it or not. There are literally no reasons for Jamie to exist in this book beyond there being 1) somebody to brood over Lottie and 2) a big strong male to take charge. Ugh.
Seventh: Lottie has no agency here. None. She's whisked off to Maradova and convinced to be a stand-in princess without knowing what's going on. Every time she wants to blow her nose, she has to ask Jamie if it's okay. (Every time she does something he doesn't think a princess should be doing, he yells at her.) When she's kidnapped, does she save herself? No. Does Ellie save her? No. The big strong (angry, shouting, jerkface) boy swoops in and takes charge and saves them both.
NOPE.
The princess most definitely does not save herself in this one.
Well, that was...disappointing. It starts with fairytale-retelling potential, as it's sort of a cross between a Cinderella retelling and a Princess and the Pauper story: when Lottie wins a scholarship to Rosewood Hall, she's ecstatic. She's always loved the idea of princesses (she literally wears a tiara around the house)...so when it transpires that her roommate, Ellie, is a real-live princess, it's like her dreams have come true. But Ellie doesn't want to be in the limelight, and when a rumour starts going around that Lottie is the princess, Lottie takes on a more formal role as a fake princess.
Now. There are some problems here.
First: Lottie is at Rosewood on a scholarship because she's poor but also very, very special. She's so special, in fact, that she's the first student in twelve years to be offered an 'exceptional circumstances' scholarship (which seems to translate as 'you're too poor for us but you're so smart that we'll let you in anyway). But, like...guys, this says pretty lousy things about Rosewood. They're really not into equal opportunity, are they? They're more into collecting a very steep tuition from their very wealthy students. And if Lottie's supposed to be so special and smart, she should probably be doing better in her classes. (She doesn't do badly: when her marks come back, she's between the top 5 and the top 15 for her classes, but that's not the same as being the Best Student Ever, you know? And Ellie, who doesn't like school or studying, is within the top 20, which suggests that the academics aren't actually all that.)
Second: How dumb are the other students? Lottie (who is from Cornwall) presumably has an English accent, and she's there on scholarship...while Ellie is from Maradova, is not on a scholarship, and presumably has a Maradovan accent. Which of the two of these would you expect to be a Maradovan princess...? Obviously the student body all assumes that it's Lottie, because it makes so much more sense to think that 'Lottie Pumpkin' is secretly 'Eleanor Wolfson' than to think that 'Ellie Wolf' is actually 'Eleanor Wolfson'.
Third: What kind of school doesn't mind or notice when three students randomly take an overnight trip by private plane to another country? What kind of adults (in this case, Ellie's parents) agree that it's a great idea for an underage stranger (Lottie) to sign her life over to protect the monarchy of a country she's barely even heard of, all without any kind of permission from her guardians? Wouldn't this whole story make even a little more sense if it took place in Maradova (wherever that is) instead of England, and Lottie and Ellie were both Maradovan and at least sort of looked alike? Oh, and what kind of parents are like, 'Well, our kid doesn't want to go to state events, so over fifteen years she'll only be allowed to meet twenty people'?
Fourth: Who is the audience supposed to be here? Age-wise (Lottie is fourteen, I think, and Ellie fifteen), this could be YA, but Lottie is naïve enough that this reads as middle grade to me...except when there are creepy-as-all-get-out romance novel elements. But let's come back to that.
Fifth: There seems to be a male love interest for Lottie, but there are some weird Sapphic undertones. Now, I am all for Sapphic undertones, although frankly I would prefer Sapphic overtones. But given the middle-grade feel to the book, it's a little uncomfortable that those Sapphic undertones include things like Lottie rinsing Ellie's hair while Ellie is clad in nothing but underwear (when they've just met), and...it's not outrageous, but it's weird.
Sixth: Jamie. Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh. Jamie is the aforementioned male love interest. He shows up midway through the book as a teenaged bodyguard. This pretty much translates to 'shouts at the girls a lot and tells them that they can't do things'. It's very reminiscent of heterosexual romance novels in which the (adult) hero is a bodyguard or otherwise takes on responsibility for the heroine, whether she likes it or not. There are literally no reasons for Jamie to exist in this book beyond there being 1) somebody to brood over Lottie and 2) a big strong male to take charge. Ugh.
Seventh: Lottie has no agency here. None. She's whisked off to Maradova and convinced to be a stand-in princess without knowing what's going on. Every time she wants to blow her nose, she has to ask Jamie if it's okay. (Every time she does something he doesn't think a princess should be doing, he yells at her.) When she's kidnapped, does she save herself? No. Does Ellie save her? No. The big strong (angry, shouting, jerkface) boy swoops in and takes charge and saves them both.
NOPE.