The Princess Blog

I was excited to receive an ARC of Dance of the Nutcracker  by Ashley Mendoza because I haven't read many adaptations of "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King."  Though this was not an exact  adaptation of the E.T.A. Hoffman story , it stays true to the spirit of the fairy tale and incorporates fun winter and Christmas lore. The book reminded me a little of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland  since it follows a girl and a boy traveling through a magical land to rescue her love. It was a light-hearted and whimsical adventure that ended in a twist that I didn't see coming. Princess Clara lives in a magical fae kingdom and is eager to form a marriage alliance with Prince Nicholas, who plays the dual role of the Nutcracker Prince and St. Nicholas, known to us as Santa Claus. She expresses her disdain for his twin brother, Jack, when she learns that Nicholas has been kidnapped, and she must work with Jack to save him. The duo embarks on a journey together through a winter wonde...

I've made some posts in this blog about live-action princess movies , but I failed to mention a newer collection of princess-themed films that has grown exponentially within the past decade. Owned by everyone's favorite greeting card company, the  Hallmark Channel  is famous for fluffy feel-good low-budget films that usually take place around Christmastime . Hallmark has released a dozen or so princess movies over the past decade, most of which are Christmas or winter-themed. The two I have seen are  A Princess for Christmas  in 2011 and  A Winter Princess , which came out in early 2019. Both of these movies were similar in tone and plot to the 2017 Netflix original, A Christmas Prince . Aside from the lack of creativity when it comes to titles, all of these movies are have predictable storylines and are not terribly memorable, but don't worry. If you forget one, there are plenty more to take its place. A Princess for Christmas  stars Katie McGrath ,...

December is here, which means there's no fighting the holiday spirit. Lights are twinkling, Christmas songs are invading all the radio stations, and princesses are spreading their holiday cheer. Holiday specials that feature our favorite princesses usually come in the form of cheaply produced sequels , but there are other forms of media as well. For instance, there was a Disney Princess  DVD called "A Christmas of Enchantment" released in 2005 that contained mash-ups of clips and shorts from various Disney productions, but it quickly fell in the same direction as the Disney Princess Enchanted Tales series . There was also a Disney Princess Christmas Album released in 2009 with new holiday songs performed in many of the original  voices of the Disney Princesses  in which they harmonize beautifully about their excitement for the holiday season along. The album contains a few covers of classic Christmas songs as well. The newest holiday princess special is the 21-minute...