The Princess Blog

Deborah Grace White  is quite possibly my favorite modern author. She did an amazing job with her enchanting series of fairy tale retellings in  The Singer Tales , but I think I like her original fantasy romance stories even better. I was blown away by the magic, romance, and worldbuilding in her amazing mermaid tetralogy, The Vazula Chronicles . Since then she's done an excellent job of writing even more original romance stories about curious heroines living in controversial worlds. Her contribution to the Sacrificed Hearts series  takes place in the same magically enriched world as The Singer Tales as does her newest trilogy, Heartsong . To celebrate the completion of Heartsong, she offered an irresistible promotion to read the first book, A Splintered Land , for free. To her readers' delight,  A Splintered Land  contains many of the same elements that I loved from her other books. Marieke (pronounced muh-REE-kuh) is a recent graduate of the Academy of Song, ...

Song of Vines  is the thrilling finale of the Singer Tales series by Deborah Grace White . With an inspired gender-bent retelling of "Jack and the Beanstalk,"  a star-crossed romance, magical mishaps, and a big reunion of familiar faces, this book hits all the right notes to bring the series to an exciting crescendo. I enjoyed this book a lot more than its prequel, Song of Trails , which felt off compared to the other Singer Tales stories. The heroine in this book is particularly relatable to Millenials as a curious and hopeful young lady who has fallen on hard times financially.  Song of Vines  manages to bring together the events that took place in all the other books and wraps up the intricate world of elves, giants, and song magic that has been expertly woven into the DNA of the Singer Tales. Jacinta has fallen on hard times after her parents lost their esteemed jobs at the castle before her father's passing. Gone are the carefree days of her childhood when she w...

After reading Deborah Grace White 's Sacrificed Hearts book, Island of Secrets and Sacrifice , I decided to check out Haiden's origin story in the Singer Tales  after reading most of the other books in the series. Song of Trails  is a retelling of "Hansel and Gretel" set in the world of the Singer Tales. Though "Hansel and Gretel" has never been one of my favorites, this book featured Prince Otto as a love interest, who I had previously admired as Rosa's stepbrother in Song of Moonrise . With so many familiar characters, this book should have been the perfect storm to improve upon the original fairy tale. However, it follows a "road trip" format that drags on and on to the point where nothing interesting happens until close to the end. Gisela and Haiden are troubled children whose mother regularly tried to abandon them in the woods after an elf prophesized that Haiden would use his singer powers to take down a kingdom someday. Overly protecti...

Of all the Sacrificed Hearts books I've reviewed so far, Island of Secrets and Sacrifice by Deborah Grace White was the one I was looking forward to reading the most. She is the author of my favorite mermaid series, The Vazula Chronicles , and this book had a similar premise only without the mermaids. It takes place in the same world as the Singer Tales , one of my favorite fairy tale anthologies, and has a relatable protagonist and charming love story with undertones of "Beauty and the Beast." Suffice to say, this book had a lot of thought put into its setting, plot, and characters, and it shines through its strong worldbuilding, relatable themes, and compelling yet easy to follow narrative. Ember is a stubborn redhead who was raised in a dystopian society cut off from the rest of the world. She has a strong desire to be free from the confines of her island and learn the secrets of the outside world as well as the truth behind the maidens who are sacrificed from her...

To promote the final book in her Singer Tales series, Deborah Grace White released a free promotion for the third book in the series,  Song of Winds , her adaptation of "East of the Sun and West of the Moon."  Since I have always had issues with this fairy tale, I initially skipped over this book and went straight to Song of Moonrise . However, Song of Winds  is such a sweet love story addressing all my problems with "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" that it quickly joined the ranks of some of my favorite fairy tale adaptations. Like Tara Grayce's Elven Alliance series, Song of Winds tells the story of a couple falling madly in love after their unconventional marriage. Though it follows the basic story beats of "East of the Sun and West of the Moon," it does so in a way that makes the characters appealing and the story compelling. Adrienne is a sweet girl who comes from a troubled family. Her father's gambling addiction placed her entire fa...

I have thoroughly enjoyed what I've read so far of the Singer Tales by Deborah Grace White , which is a more innovative and cohesive series than  her previous collection of fairy tale retellings . For my next read, I picked Song of Moonrise  to explore her take on "Little Red Riding Hood," a story often misinterpreted in other adaptations. Ever since the Red Riding Hood  film came out in 2011, almost every new interpretation of this fairy tale turned it into a mystery story about a werewolf curse in the protagonist's family instead of an innocent coming-of-age story about learning who to trust. In fact, I got so frustrated by this trope that I wrote my own adaptation  of the fairy tale back in 2013. While the Singer Tales version of "Little Red Riding Hood" does incorporate werewolves, it does so in a way that stays true to the themes of the story along with a princess twist and a heated romance. Rosa was an adventurous girl living in the forest until her ...

Deborah Grace White  is the author of my current favorite mermaid series , The Vazula Chronicles . To say I was eager to read her new retelling of "The Little Mermaid"  would be an understatement, especially after having thoroughly enjoyed Song of Ebony , which was a fun and creative retelling of "Snow White"  and the prequel to this latest book. Though  Song of the Sea  did not contain any references to the Vazula Chronicles aside from a few similar themes, Deborah Grace White did what she does best and created an entirely new and fleshed out world of mermaids, magic, and romance. I'm really excited to read more books from this series, which focuses on magical singing. Song of the Sea  does an amazing job of bringing in elements from the original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale while adding just enough new ones to keep its readers guessing. I appreciate that it didn't include any blatant references to the Disney movie and instead created its ...

From the cover alone, it's clear that Song of Ebony  is a creative take on your average "Snow White" retelling. Instead of the traditional skin as white as snow and hair as black as ebony, this story presents a protagonist with skin as black and ebony and hair as white as snow. This rare combination insinuates innate supernatural abilities like Storm from the X-Men . The unique properties of this book go beyond mere aesthetics. Deborah Grace White 's earlier books were somewhat generic fantasy stories, which is why I never read past the first book in her Kingdoms series of fairy tale anthologies. Since then, she has really managed to hone her craft, especially with her top-notch mermaid series, The Vazula Chronicles  that I've been shamelessly recommending to anyone who likes mermaids. When I found out that Deborah was starting a new fairy tale anthology called The Singer Tales , I couldn't wait to find out what was in store. Song of Ebony  is the premiere b...