The Princess Blog

For the final day of 2023, let's review one more mermaid book before branching out to other fairy tales in the New Year. Seaspoken  by Sarah Delena White was part of a previous holiday promotion. I was drawn to the title and beautiful cover illustration of two elves swathed in white embracing in front of a stormy sea. Since  Fierce Heart  by Tara Grayce  had a charming interracial elven love story, I hoped this one might be similar. As an added bonus, the female protagonist in Seaspoken  comes from a race that can transform into mermaids while underwater, so what's not to love? The book introduces a strong Romeo and Juliet-style relationship between two warring races , but it lacks the stakes or compelling emotional core of many other similar stories. Seaspoken  includes many traditional princess tropes including arranged marriages , forbidden love , and magical transformations . It contains elements of "The Little Mermaid,"  including an underwater ...

There's been a lot of big news for The Little Mermaid  this year. Not only did the live-action movie come out, but we also got a new stage show  of the classic Disney musical with another one on the way for Disney's Hollywood Studios . With that in mind, I was excited to review a gender-bent version of the story from the Once Upon a Prince series, The Silent Prince , a few weeks ago. On that review, I was recommended another gender-bent adaptation called The Heart of the Sea  by Chesney Infalt . In the spirit of the holiday season, I decided to treat myself to it. This book takes place in a more complex world than The Silent Prince  but does not flesh out the details enough to make it an easy read. It relies on the same hit-or-miss storytelling technique as  ABC's Once Upon a Time  in which the timeline constantly shifts between the past and the present with no rhyme or reason. Still, the book presents a touching love story that stays true to the themes ...

Infinite Shimmer is the latest visual novel in Time Princess . It was released in two parts and was well worth the wait. This is easily my favorite new visual novel this year. A great deal of time and effort went into making this an engaging story for long-time players of the app like myself. Infinite Shimmer is unique, beautiful, and insightful. It turns the science fiction genre, which is typically male-oriented, into something feminine and aesthetically pleasing, something that had never been done before except for the Barbie movie, Starlight Adventure , which was mediocre at best. When most people think of cyberpunk, they picture a bunch of depressed people walking around the remains of destroyed buildings carrying deadly weapons to pull on a dime wearing ripped leather and robotic limbs. Though this story takes place in a similar setting, it features an optimistic daydreamer who lives under the safety of a dome and dresses in glamorous pastel iridescent gowns that shift colors in...

I had seen some Facebook ads in the past for Mazarine , a mermaid fairytale romance by Cece Louise , so when it came up in a recent holiday promotion, I decided to check it out. Though it is not exactly a retelling of "The Little Mermaid,"  this book has a strong love story with lots of fantasy and adventure. It is part of the Forest Tales series , which contains many fairytale-inspired stories set in the same world. Even though this was the only book I've read so far, I saw several references to characters who were clearly from earlier books. Mazarine  is not named after the main character, but after the Mazarine Sea, which is the area the two protagonists travel through for most of the story. Unlike most mermaid stories, this book follows the "road trip" archetype in which two unlikely heroes must go on a long journey and get to know each other intimately along the way. I did not care much for the male protagonist at first, but like in  Tangled , the heroine s...

One of my favorite series that I have had the pleasure to review is the Fairy Tale Adventures series by AG Marshall . Throughout these books, the author builds a unique fantasy world that breathes new life into many old stories, tying them together in unexpected ways. Princess of Shadows  introduced a new version of "The Princess and the Pea" featuring a legendary shadow warrior who is anything but delicate. Princess of Secrets  gave a fresh take on "The Frog Prince"  in which the princess was a spy who used her selfishness and extravagance as a cover to hide her true intentions. It has been a long wait, but the fifth book in the series, Princess of Mirrors , AG Marchall's take on "Cinderella," is finally here. Like the others, the heroine in this book is not a typical Cinderella and has many secrets of her own, ones that a certain prince is dying to uncover. When her father was on his deathbed, he told Gabriella two things: to guard the magic mirror...

The Silent Prince   by C.J. Brightley  was one of my most eagerly anticipated books from the Once Upon a Prince series . I've read many other retellings of "The Little Mermaid,"  but never one about a merman. Doing a gender-bent adaptation  for this assignment instead of going the easy route of retelling the same story from the prince's perspective  really breathed new life into a classic tale. Though the story is simple and direct for what it is, the portrayal of a merman in the role of the little mermaid comes off as fresh and original. It has a cute romance, plenty of action, and a healthy dose of comedy. All in all, it is a fun read and an exemplary addition to the series. Kaerius is a confident merman prince who is proud of his incredible singing voice. One day, he rescues a human princess from drowning. From that moment on, he becomes obsessed with her. He swims to the surface frequently and learns that her name is Princess Marin, that she is lonely, an...

For my next book review, I was planning to cover The Silent Prince  by C.J. Brightly , a gender-bent retelling of "The Little Mermaid" that was released on Black Friday, but I unexpectedly received an ARC for The Awakened Prince  by Alora Carter , another book from the Once Upon a Prince series that I had not read yet. Based on the title, I was hoping this would be a gender-bent adaptation of "Sleeping Beauty."  Instead, it was a direct retelling of the Disney movie from the prince's perspective that adds very little to the original story. Though some of the names and lore were altered to avoid copyright issues, I could see that the author was inspired mainly by the most popular version of the story and took very little liberty with the many other fairy tale adaptations out there. The book provides everything a reader would expect from a fairy tale retelling--romance, fantasy, and a bit of medieval history with nothing new or insightful to offer. Though Prince...

In recent years, it has become trendy for everyone to criticize the Walt Disney Company as much as humanly possible. In many cases, it  is justified , but  these criticisms  are unfounded regarding Wish , Disney's tribute film to their 100-year animation legacy. This is a movie that provides Disney fans with everything they have been asking, begging, and wishing of the studio for years. It is a beautifully animated original story that is all heart with no pandering and is neither a sequel nor a remake . Since the movie is also an homage to the Disney animation of the past, it is packed with subtle Easter eggs that only true Disney fans will notice and are not obnoxiously in your face like some of their previous attempts with Wreck-It Ralph 2  or Chip'n Dale: Rescue Rangers . In fact, this movie was so entertaining that it got me thinking about the characters on a deeper level than the writers may have even intended long after I left the theater. As previewed i...

It seems like every interest has an official holiday each year, but for the longest time, there wasn't any day to celebrate our love of princesses. In 2017, the newly retired Swan Princess series  declared the film's anniversary date of November 18th to be National Princess Day . Since the date was coined by one of the few princess franchises that was not bought out by Disney , the Mouse House does very little to celebrate and instead started its own World Princess Week  at the end of each August beginning in 2021. However, the rest of us can still get together to celebrate our love of princesses for National Princess Day on November 18th. This is a significant time period for not just The Swan Princess , but many other animated princess movies which  historically always come out right before Thanksgiving to generate optimal sales. The next Disney Princess movie to follow this tradition will be Wish , which comes to theaters on Wednesday. In honor of all these princess ...

Two new Broadway musicals featured Cinderella as a leading lady this year, and neither of them lasted for even four months on the Great White Way.  The first was Bad Cinderella , adapted from Andrew Lloyd Webber's short-lived Cinderella musical on the West End. The other was the Britney Spears jukebox musical, Once Upon a One More Time , which sounded like a bad idea from its inception. Both shows suffered from poor ticket sales, backstage drama, and criticism over the long-running trend of modernizing old fairy tales . Yet, the problem is not with the character of Cinderella herself , who has been a long-standing icon of fortune, romance, and glamour, but rather with the media's obsession of correcting popular stories to fit a standardized feminist narrative. After all, the most famous Cinderella musical, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella , has enjoyed great success for many decades with numerous adaptations and revivals, one of which is allegedly still on the way . Be...

As soon as I saw the previews for Netflix's new animated series, Unicorn Academy , I couldn't get over how similar it looked to Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders . Teenagers forming magical bonds with unicorns to save the world from evil? Yes, please! With a Jewel Riders graphic novel on the horizon, this is the perfect time to revisit that premise. Unicorn Academy is loosely based on a book series of the same name  that got picked up by Netflix and recently aired its first season. The premiere movie and successive eight episodes follow six unicorns and their riders on their quest to protect the magical realm from the evil Ravenzella, who performed reprehensible acts to previous generations, including the father of the main character, Sophia. The show contains a lot of teen angst and drama as well as rainbows, sparkles, and magic. Although Unicorn Academy features an entire school full of unicorn riders training to be protectors, it only focuses on the six students liv...

It's no secret that Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders was my absolute favorite cartoon as a kid. There are few others who share this passion with me as the show is still obscure even in an era of countless nostalgic reboots , so when I first heard that Mad Cave Studios  was partnering with 41 Entertainment to make a series of Jewel Riders graphic novels , I was skeptical. A few days ago, my cynicism  was laid to rest when a press release revealed the cover art and release date for the novel. It's really happening! On May 28, 2024, the first issue of the brand new YA Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders graphic novel will be available wherever graphic novels are sold. It's even available to pre-order on Amazon right now! Take a gander at the gorgeous new official cover art below that stays true to show's color palette and art style while adding a modern manga-inspired flare. I am absolutely in love with this new Magic Girl anime-style cover art that features...