The Princess Blog

As soon as I learned that yesterday's Ultimate Princess Celebration  came with a free ebook, I scoured the internet to find and read it. Tales of Courage and Kindness   contains 14 short stories that each feature a different official Disney Princess  and two bonus stories that about Queens Anna and Elsa that take place after  Frozen 2 . The book's illustrated novella format reminds me of a two-book series I found many years ago called Once Upon a Princess , which retold each princess's story from her point of view. This book differs from that format in that it is told in the third person narrative, but the compilation of different princess stories accompanied by beautiful illustrations is still similar. Each short story is written by a different author and illustrated by a variety of artists, each with their own unique and colorful style. There isn't much point in reviewing each short story individually when you can read them all for free online , so instead, I will ...

Just when I thought Disney Princesses were going out of style , Disney came out and announced a year-long celebration of their beloved heroines! The Global Ultimate Princess Celebration  will roll out the red carpet with music, merchandise, and events devoted to the everlasting Disney Princess brand . I am overwhelmed by all of these announcements and don't even know where to begin. On May 21st, we will have a new Disney Princess anthem called "Starting Now" to replace Auli'i Cravalho's "Live Your Story" music video from 2018. The new song will be performed by Brandy, whose 1997 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella  was recently revived on Disney Plus. "Starting Now" will also be featured in a Disney Channel special this august called Disney Princess Remixed - An Ultimate Princess Celebration . Does that sound like a royal title or what? The talented ladies  Broadway Princess Party have been licensed by Disney to perform in an...

The Time Princess app has been releasing an endless stream of new visual novels with no sign of slowing down. I've been impressed with the amount of well-known stories the game developers have adapted lately that aren't based on popular fairy tales. The latest one is no exception. Phantom of the Opera  is a beloved story among princess fans due to its similarities to "Beauty and the Beast"  as well as the beautifully haunting melodies of the famous Andrew Lloyd Webber musical . The innocent protagonist who performs various onstage arias in glittering costumes, best friend side character, and classic love triangle make it a prime choice for this game's traditional visual novel story dynamics. That is probably why it is one of the only stories in the game that is presented exactly as it is without any sort of modern twist such as gender-bending the characters like they did for several other adaptations . In this dress-up visual novel, players take on the role of...

This is the third part of my review for the massive Enchanted Kingdoms fairy tale anthology . You can find the first part here and the second part here  if you missed them. Today I am covering the first five books from the external file that is linked to at the end of the Amazon ebook. This was my favorite set of stories from this series so far. They stuck closer to the fantasy settings of original fairy tales than the previous books, which contained more sci-fi and horror. These are princess stories at their best, filled with more twists and turns than you would expect from a traditional fairy tale retelling, so let's dive right in! Crumbling Towers  by Anne Stryker This story is my favorite in this anthology so far. Not only is it the best "Rapunzel" adaptation I have ever read, but it is also one of the best fairy tale novels I have had the pleasure of experiencing. My only complaint is that it ended way too soon, which the author apologized for in her notes due to w...

When Disney released the trailer for their upcoming Cruella  movie a couple of months ago, the internet had a lot to say. I decided it would be best to stay in my own lane. After all,  101 Dalmatians  and its subsequent remakes are not Disney Princess movies . Then, it was announced last week  that a new movie featuring Cinderella's stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella, is in the works. Suddenly, Cruella  didn't seem so irrelevant after all. It looks like villain-centered remakes are the next step in Disney's ongoing trend of poor decision-making  and the general dearth of creativity in Hollywood . Don't get me wrong; I thought Maleficent  was an excellent movie in its own right and quite innovative for the time period, but I wasn't expecting it to be the mold for a series of cookie-cutter screenplays about sympathetic villains after Disney ran out of animated classics to convert into soulless live-action remakes . I've seen tons of backlash for...

The Faerie Prince  is the latest installment in the Fairytales of Folkshore series by Lucy Tempest . I have to say that this author's writing style has changed significantly since the original Thief of Cahraman trilogy . Her books used to overflow with lengthy and unnecessary exposition, and now they are succinct and to the point. This change was most noticeable in her "Cinderella" story, Princess of Midnight , which might be my favorite from this series. The Faerie Prince is the most simplistic book in the series to date, which might work a little to its detriment. It is an adaptation of "Snow White,"  but intentionally leaves out "and the Seven Dwarfs" from its marketing. It's just Snow White. I can only assume that Lucy cut these additional side characters to keep the story simple enough for a single book. but doing so turned a unique princess story into a generic fantasy romance adventure, albeit still a pretty good one. The Faerie Prince  te...

This is the second review in a four-part series. If you missed the first part, you can  find it here . I completed the next five books in the Enchanted Kingdoms anthology  and was pretty disappointed. Every single adaptation in this section went for the dark gritty reboot version of the fairy tale ala Fate: The Winx Saga  instead of a creative contemporary retelling. They include vampires, ghosts, or werewolves, making these five fairy tales feel like Halloween horror on steroids instead of an enchanted world, as the title of the anthology would suggest. These stories encompass the rest of the ebook that is provided when you order this set on Amazon . The other ten books in the series are included in a download link that is provided at the end. Hopefully, those books will be more optimistic because dang, I thought I had turned cynical toward fairy tales, but I had nothing on these writers. Rumple's Revenge  by Craig Halloran This retelling of "Rumpelstiltskin" ...

The Princess Vow  is the third book in the Kingdoms of Fable series by Erika Everest . It continues the story of the League of Princesses that began with Sienna in The Scarred Prince . Each book combines two seemingly unrelated fairy tales in a unique way. This one covers "Sleeping Beauty" and "Puss in Boots."  It is the second novel adaptation I have read of "Puss in Boots," but of course, I have read many adaptations of "Sleeping Beauty,"  which gives this one some big shoes to fill. I don't think I would have enjoyed this book as much if I hadn't read the first two books in Erika Everest's series. It does a good job of further developing the other princesses from the dream world and their relationships with each other but doesn't work well as a standalone due to a lack of conflict within the story. The Princess Vow  continues the theme of sisterhood from the Kingdoms of Fable series. It focuses on two princesses, who happen ...

The Enchanted Kingdoms box set  is a massive undertaking by the Enchanted Quill Press  to collect a large group of fairy tale authors to adapt 20 different fairy tales in an anthology to support an Puzzle Piece United , a children's autism charity. For a while, I was juggling with the idea of signing up to be one of the authors in this set, myself, and now I am kicking myself for not doing it. These 20 top tier books not only retell a multitude of beloved stories, but they do so in a unique and creative way that makes each one feel fresh and new. I haven't finished the entire set yet, so I decided that the best way to review it would be in chunks because I might forget the first few book by the time I get to the last one. Therefore, this will be the first post in a four-part series of mini reviews in which I summarize my thoughts on five books within this set. Before I begin, I have to say that it is absolutely worth the price for 20 full-length novels. Each one could easily t...