The Princess Blog

As  Disney Princess - The Concert continues its national tour, there are smaller venues making their own special magic across the nation. I was pleased to learn via Facebook  that my new castle  is located within driving distance of one such venue.  Cedar Park High School  is performing a show called  Princess Tea  this weekend, which they have apparently been doing for the past fifteen years . What a magical tradition! The show features high school choir students performing as various princesses, princes, and sidekicks from animated movies that are not entirely limited to Disney. This year's cast included Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, Megara, Rapunzel, Anna, Elsa, Anastasia, and Fiona on the girls' side and Prince Charming, Jaq, Gus, Flounder, Prince Adam (the unofficial fan name for the transformed version of the Beast), Flynn Rider, Dimitri, Donkey, and Olaf for the boys. Considering that this was a local show, I was extremely impressed with the p...

It might be a little late for Halloween, but that didn't stop Time Princess from adding a new visual novel about a haunted house. Ghost Manor draws some inspiration from the new TV series Ghosts , as both stories are about a young woman who inherited an old mansion from a dead relative that finds out there are a bunch of ghosts living there. The visual novel is a little heavier than the show since much of the plot revolves around the protagonist trying expand her business to pay off a ridiculous inheritance tax. Ghost Manor is probably the most challenging visual novel in Time Princess to date. There are many possible endings and other events that don't show up on the story's flowchart, which makes it nearly impossible to complete at 100% without asking for help. As much as I love the gorgeous new song with English lyrics that plays on the story map for Ghost Manor, I started to get sick of it after replaying the same levels 20 or so times hoping I would unlock something n...

The next book on my "Sleeping Beauty" recommendation list  was The Enchanted Rose  by R.M. ArceJaeger . This book is an adaptation of both "Sleeping Beauty" and "Beauty and the Beast" in equal parts. After reading the description, I wondered how Beauty could fall in love with the Beast if she was asleep, but the book wisely saved her sleeping curse until the end. While "Beauty and the Beast" adaptation overpowers much of the middle section of the book, the author still manages to expand on the "Sleeping Beauty" elements by making a good chunk of the opening section about the lives of the fairies, how the princess and prince were cursed as babies, and the kings and queens' reactions to the curse. I must also commend this book for being extremely thorough. It doesn't waste a single page dragging out an individual character's storyline. Instead, it fleshes out the emotional arc of everyone involved equally. Like most "Sle...

The fourth season of Disenchantment  is one of several princess surprises  that were released on Netflix over the past couple of months. The new season even contained a reference to another recent princess release on Netflix called The Royal Treatment . I'm not sure if this reference was intentional, but it sure seemed that way since both projects are produced by the same popular streaming service. I had low expectations for Disenchantment after a disappointing third season last year , but I was pleasantly surprised this time. It seemed like the writers either learned from their mistakes or read a lot of reviews that were similar to mine. Either way, this season had much stronger continuity and character development, and felt less disjointed than the previous releases. It's probably the best season of Disenchantment so far. The season begins with Bean, who is now Queen of Dreamland, being forced by her wicked mother to marry the devil. The troubled royal teen takes the show ba...

Update:  I just received confirmation from Christy Altomare (Wow!) that she will be attending the fall leg of the Disney Princess concert tour and was unable to attend the first few months because she is performing in a new musical at the Paper Mill Playhouse  and that Anneliese has always been part of the concert. If you attend this concert in the fall, you will have the good fortunate of seeing her live! It's been ten months since Disney launched the Ultimate Princess Celebration  when they announced that they had acquired the Broadway Princess Party  and retooled it into Disney Princess - The Concert . After several cast changes  and  the cancellation of the entire 2021 leg of the tour, I was fortunate enough to attend one of the first successful performances at the Bass Concert Hall . Initially, I was excited to see Anastasia's Christy Altomare , but she was replaced with Disney Channel's Anneliese van der Pol , who played Chelsea Daniels in That'...

A Kiss in Time  by Alex Flinn is one of several "Sleeping Beauty" adaptations that was recommended to me from  the last adaptation I reviewed before moving into my new castle . You might say I was "sleeping" on the recommendations (queue the crickets). This book stood out to me because it sounded similar to the  Fae Bloodlines duology that I just completed and loved. Both books are about a princess from a magical medieval world who falls in love with a modern-day teenage boy from our world. Fae Away  is a better book overall with a deeper and more fulfilling love story. Still, A Kiss in Time  is not without its charm. It's a fun and easy read that would appeal to younger readers than most of the other books I review and would be perfect for middle schoolers who want to get an early start on YA fiction. This book begins just like "Sleeping Beauty." A princess named Talia is cursed to prick her finger on a spindle before she turns 16 and take the ent...