The Princess Blog

Yesterday, the Starz network  released the series finale of The Spanish Princess , concluding  The White Queen  trilogy of miniseries that began in 2013. Based on a book series called The Cousins' War  by Phillippa Gregory , the trilogy covers the women who stood behind the men in power in the English monarchy from 1464 to the 1530s, preceding the first two sovereign queens, Mary and Elizabeth. The White Queen , The White Princess , and The Spanish Princess  grant us a rare opportunity to see what life was like for medieval monarchs. Watching them reminded me of why I prefer the fairy tale versions of royalty. Those stories do not contain the gory deaths, gruesome births, and invasive politics that historical dramatizations like these exemplify. In fact, I had very little interest in watching the second season of The Spanish Princess until I watched some historical videos and learned that the king that Catherine of Aragon was married to was none other than King...

When you love a book series as much as I love A.G. Marshall's Fairy Tale Adventures , you are bound to come upon a book that you don't love quite as much as the rest. The first three books in this series  were just about perfect in terms of creative retellings , relatable characters , and playful references to other adaptations . I cannot recommend them enough. The latest Fairy Tale Adventures release is Princess of Roses , a retelling of the beloved classic  "Beauty and the Beast."  On its own, this book is a perfectly fine adaptation that expands upon the universe of the series and adds ample backstory to both main characters. However, after being spoiled by the overwhelmingly magical other books in this series, I found this one to be a tad bit lacking. It downplays much of the magic and mystery that I love about the original fairy tale by devoting an extensive section to the realistic and mundane elements of the main characters' lives before they were touched b...

It's difficult to find things to be thankful for this year. There have been numerous cancellations and delays of highly anticipated princess movies throughout the year due to the pandemic. That's why we should give thanks when a movie actually arrives on schedule, which appears to be the case for Godmothered , an original movie streaming on Disney+ for this year's holiday season. Godmothered  is scheduled to come to Disney+ next Friday, December 4th. It isn't the only movie we have to look forward to on Disney's newest streaming service, though. Princess fans can anticipate a wealth of long-awaited content this holiday season to make up for all the delays during the rest of the year. Check out the trailer for Godmothered  below. When this movie was first announced as Frills  early this year , many fans were hoping for a Cinderella  prequel about the backstory of the Fairy Godmother. Instead, we are getting something that looks like a poor man's Enchanted . Jil...

Rebel Rose  is the first book in a new series of official fanfiction  called The Queen's Council , which is about the Disney Princesses growing into queens  of historically accurate kingdoms  that incorporate their fictional movies as a jumping-off point. I generally avoid fanfiction, official or otherwise, but the concept behind this series sounded intriguing. After all, I recently completed a visual novel about Marie Antoinette , so it seemed like a logical next step to read about Belle experiencing the French Revolution as well. I found many similarities between the two stories. Both are about powerful women who are concerned about the wellbeing of their people and the way they are perceived. The Marie Antoinette visual novel in Dress Up! Time Princess  is a bit more educational because it doesn't try to blend a magical fairy tale into the darkly realistic setting. Still, I thought Rebel Rose  was pretty good overall for what it was trying to do. B...

I was going to conclude my Dress Up! Time Princess  reviews with Magic Lamp  since that was the last princess-related visual novel in the game, but it looks my addiction isn't over yet. While spending a few weeks idly collecting materials, I finally decided to play Gotham Memoirs, the last story I had left to complete, at least until the new one comes out the end of this month. Dress Up! Time Princess is celebrating  National Princess Day  today, an event that was original created to commemorate  the anniversary of the animated classic The Swan Princess , so here is a bonus review of the game as my way of joining the celebration. Initially, I was not eager to play Gotham Memoirs because of the lack of fairy tales or royalty, but I soon came to appreciate the glamorous fashions of the 1920s as well as the extremely dynamic story paths within the book that are far more intense than of the other stories. Gotham Memoirs is thematically divergent from the other visu...

When I first saw an ad for the novel Tangled in Time: The Portal , I assumed that it was part of Disney's poorly rated Twisted Tales series  of alternate universe fanfic retellings  of their classic movies due to a portion of the title being shared with a popular Disney movie of the same name . Having little to interest in that series, I ignored the book entirely. Fortunately for me, it popped up again recently on a short list of princess book recommendations , and I realized that it had nothing to do with either Disney or the story of "Rapunzel."  Instead, it is a juvenile historical fiction that incorporates  time travel  to the days when the most famous Queen Elizabeth was still a princess. If I had known that from the beginning, I would have picked it up much sooner than I did. The duology is written by Kathryn Lasky , who is known for her other historical fiction series including Dear America  and The Royal Diaries . The book fell into my lap dur...

For those of you who aren't savvy in the world of underground Hollywood, there is a studio called The Asylum , whose sole purpose is to create low-budget imitations of popular movies in the hopes that an old granny will forget her glasses while shopping and buy one on DVD for her grandkids, thinking it's that big blockbuster movie they're always yapping on about. When they set their sights on an upcoming release from a major studio, they rush to get their imitation out before or around the same time as the one they're mimicking so they can pretend that they came up with the idea first. The Princess Twins of Legendale  was not produced by The Asylum, but it feels like it easily could have been. In actuality, it was produced by a modern toy company called MGA Entertainment , which is famous for making Bratz and  L.O.L. Surprise dolls. You would think that a toy company producing a low-budget movie would only do so with the intention of selling toys, but surprisingly, my...

I was so pleased to be selected as an advance reader for Aya Ling's upcoming fantasy novel, Power Born . I've been a huge fan of Aya Ling ever since reading her Unfinished Fairy Tales series about a time traveler who ends up in the world of "Cinderella"  and falls for the prince.  Power Born  is a spin-off of Aya's  Reversed Retellings series  that takes place in the same world but does not follow the same format of gender-bending popular fairy tales. Instead, it focuses on what she does best by  challenging gender stereotypes in a unique fantasy setting. Similar to the Entwined Tales series  that Aya participated in  about a bumbling fairy godfather who messed up everyone's magical gifts, Power Born  is about two siblings whose magical gifts are accidentally reversed. Chiara, who was supposed to receive the gift of beauty, got the supernatural strength that her brother, Cristian, was supposed to receive instead. What follows is a Jessic...

When I first heard that Andrew Lloyd Webber was bringing yet another musical based on "Cinderella" into the world, I met the news with a healthy dose of skepticism . Now that there are two full songs from this upcoming show available online, I have never been more pleased to be wrong. Just a few days ago, Webber released the show-stopping number "Bad Cinderella" on both YouTube and Spotify. This song was teased in a very early preview video for the show, but hearing it in full gave deeper clarity into the context of the lyrics and who this new Cinderella is. My growing excitement for the show led me to a Twitter post  from last month in which the extraordinarily talented Carrie Hope Fletcher  performed another song from the show entitled "Far Too Late," which is a complementary opposite to "Bad Cinderella" in terms of tone. Hearing both of these songs gave me a more complete image of what to expect when the theater doors will open again to ...