The Princess Curse

The Princess Curse By:   Merrie Haskell

Rating: Incredibly AWESOME

Age Group: 12+

Summary (from Amazon.com):  Twelve princesses suffer from a puzzling (if silly) curse, and anyone who ends it will win a reward. Reveka, a sharp-witted and irreverent apprentice herbalist, wants that reward. But her investigations lead to deeper mysteries and a daunting choice—will she break the curse at the peril of her own soul?

My Thoughts:  Oh my goodness, this book was so good!  This was a very well written and interesting retelling of the fairytale “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”.  I loved the other cultural elements Mrs. Haskell put into this book, including the Romanian and Greek histories.  I’m no expert on history, mind, but I still liked the complexity of the environment.  And the characters!  They were very well rounded, and I particularly liked Reveka.  She was a strong and interesting character, and I like that she wasn’t perfect.  She does kind things very often but it’s not ALWAYS for kindnesses sake.  While it’s nice to have main characters that aren’t tempted to do the bad thing, it’s also nice to see a character seriously consider doing to wrong thing.  There is a part in this book were Reveka knows that she should stay to help solve the curse, but she had been given a lot of money to leave and so she seriously considers the option.  She was a very down to earth and intelligent character, too.  I don’t know, they’re small details that make her character all the more complex and real.  And I very much liked Frumos, and the bits of his story we get to learn.  I also really liked Mihas, for all he was annoying, because he was an interesting character even with his flaws.  And the Princesses.  There are, well, twelve of them so we don’t get to know them all, but we did get a good range of characteristics for most of them.  I really liked that the way they had such different personalities, and I like that not all of them were awful.  Though the one that was awful?  I wanted to smack her, stinking brat. Ehem. And the plot!  I love the way this book is written, and I love the twist the story took.  I particularly like that we don’t hear this story form the Princess’s or the Soldier’s view point as is so often with retellings of this fairytale.  This is a book I would DEFINITLY recommend.  I am so excited for the next book in this series!     

Book Recommendations:  A Tale of Two Castles By: Gail Carson Levine