The Princess Blog

I've been living in my new castle for almost three weeks now, and it's been a lot of work. As promised, I'm ready to tell you all about the homebuying process. Before I begin, I would like to point out that buying a house is a personal process that varies with each individual. Something that worked out for me might not work so well for you, and that's perfectly fine. After all, a "dream" castle is entirely dependent on the dreams of the person living in it. For smaller spaces, please refer to my "How To Decorate Like a Princess"  post, which focuses on individual rooms or small apartments. I've realized that decorating a small space is a very different process from transforming an entire house into an enchanted home. For example, it's better to put up as many decorations as possible to make a smaller space feel larger, while houses are more about using little touches to show off the space you have. The first step in the home-buying process is...

From the game that brought interactive historical fiction about royal figures like  Marie Antoinette and Princess Sissi  and creative gender-swapped retellings of Swan Lake , Aladdin , and Romeo and Juliet  comes a story about a woman who finds an abandoned baby in the middle of the street. This latest visual novel from Time Princess  feels a little out of left field considering how much history, mythology, and fantasy the game has tackled in the past. Whispers of the Rain takes place in 1980s Japan, but the story is so universal that it could take place anywhere. It also contains some of my least favorite costumes in this series to date. Everything looks so plain and boring compared to the extravagant ensembles from other visual novels in this game. With two more new stories coming out just around the bend, it seems like they're phoning it in to release as much content as they can as quickly as possible. Whispers of the Rain follows Time Princess's recent trend of ...

I was going to take a longer hiatus from The Princess Blog while I adjust to life in my new castle and kingdom, but I recently found out about this atrocity and could not resist sharing my thoughts on it. As luck would have it, there is a new  fairy tale parody musical making its rounds to Broadway as if we don't already have enough of those with Into the Woods , Disenchanted The Musical , and Shrek The Musical . However, Into the Woods and Shrek at least put their own spin on the fairy tales of old instead of attempting to profit off the highly successful Disney versions. If the previews for Once Upon a One More Time are any indication, this new musical veers more in the direction of Disenchanted with blatant Party City Disney ripoff costumes mixded with the pop musical stylings of Britney Spears. Fairy tale and princess-themed musicals were once known for their beautiful and original songs performed by talented actresses . As princesses are introduced to the woke era, their m...

It's oddly fitting that my last post before moving from my cramped tower into a spacious castle is about an adaptation of  "Rapunzel."   Turret  is the latest book in Camille Peters' Kingdom Chronicles , a series that has improved exponentially  since its humble beginnings . Like the other books in this series, Turret  places the love story first and foremost with everything else as a subplot or setting. Fortunately, the setting is interesting enough to carry it along whenever the romance needs a breather. The princess in this version of "Rapunzel" does not possess the iconic magical hair that most adaptations do ( except the Barbie movie ), but there is still plenty of magic to behold within the walls of the tower. Turret  is technically a retelling of "Rapunzel," but I think it is actually a better version of "Beauty and the Beast"  than Enchantment , the other "Beauty and the Beast" adaptation from this series. Like Enchantme...

The latest visual novel in the Time Princess app  revolved around a real-life murderer and sparked so much controversy that the developers had to edit some of the story's features the very next day after it was launched! Have You Seen Claudia? takes place in Chicago during the year 1893 and is about a young woman who gets wrapped up in a scandal involving the famous serial killer  H.H. Holmes . It plays out a murder mystery that will keep you guessing right until the very end. Though it in no way condones Holmes' monstrous criminal acts, many players were offended that he was listed as a companion in the game's Lantern section. In a hot update the following day, the developers removed him and one other character from that section. They also changed the clothing names and descriptions so they no longer reflected other famous killers and victims. This story beats Dancing On Ice  by leaps and bounds as the darkest one in the game, but the mystery element makes it that much m...

Since I was feeling a little down this week, I decided to check out the final book in the Villain's Ever After series, Carabosse and the Spindle Spell . This book stood out to me because it sounded like such a drastic twist from the other books in the series. It's a high fantasy retelling of "Sleeping Beauty"  from the villain's perspective, but it's nothing like  Maleficent . The book turns the cold-hearted fairy into a bubbly and somewhat geeky princess whose kingdom gets caught up in a power struggle. It has shapeshifting dragons like the Love's Enchanted Tales series  and reads more like a high fantasy novella than a fairy tale retelling, which appears to be the common them among  author Sylvia Mercedes ' roster of books. No longer a scorned fairy who places a curse on a newborn princess at her Christening, Carabosse is now the princess of a magical kingdom that is protected by twelve dragon lords. Meanwhile, Aurora is the ruthless daughter of a ...

"The Serving Princess" Once upon a time, there was a small girl who was the sole survivor of a terrible war that devastated her village. Before her parents died, they told her to hide deep in the woods and find the fae that made their home there. The faeries would only come out for innocent maidens like herself, and they would protect her from the cruel outside world. She did as they said and wandered the dark forest scared, alone, and yet filled with hope. The fae were so charmed by her sweetness and innocence that they decided to make her their princess. As she grew older, they taught her to weave beautiful gowns and garlands from the enchanted flowers that grew in the forest. She learned to cook and clean for herself and always kept a positive disposition because she knew how much she was loved. In time, legends spread throughout the neighboring kingdoms of the beautiful fae princess that lived in the woods. One day, Princess Silverfae noticed that the flowers were losing ...

Today marks the two-year anniversary of Disney+ , Disney's premiere streaming service. To celebrate this joyous occasion, today has been coined Disney+ Day . This celebration includes a number of new releases and announcements about newly released and upcoming content. I wasn't particularly interested in this event at first because there didn't seem to be a lot of upcoming princess content on Disney's radar, but I am glad to have been proven wrong. Alongside the addition of Enchanted , a movie that many are surprised was not already on Disney+, Disney revealed a new title card for its sequel, Disenchanted , which is set for release in the Fall of 2022. However, the biggest reveal for me is this stunning piece of concept art from their upcoming animated series, Tiana. The image features a slightly older version of the beloved heroine from The Princess and the Frog  running across the top deck of a riverboat in historically fashionable business attire carrying an impo...

Dancing On Ice is the latest visual novel in my favorite smartphone app, Time Princess . Unlike most of the other visual novels in this game, it has no fantasy elements  or historical setting , which made it a hard sell for me. Still, I can understand why the developers chose to incorporate figure skating into a dress-up game. When I was younger, it was the only Olympic event that I cared to watch, and it was more because of the sparkly costumes than the athletic techniques. Figure skating incorporates some of the most beautiful and unique fashions that you will never see anywhere else with short flowing skirts, sparkly leotards, and rhinestones galore. Unfortunately, this story only included one outfit that reminded me of the ones that I enjoyed watching as a child. The rest are pretty modern and boring. I also thought it was the most depressing story in Time Princess so far. Dancing On Ice is about a fictitious Russian figure skater named Alina, who probably drew inspiration fro...