The Princess Blog

Falling for the Huntsman  is the final book in To Win a Dark Heart and the last ARC I have left to review in the series. After being introduced to Leialoha Humpherys 's heartfelt writing in Transformed Tail , I had a feeling they were saving the best for last. This book has everything you could possibly want in a fairy tale retelling, from surprising twists on familiar characters to swoony romance with just a touch of magic. This book combines "Snow White" with "Hansel and Gretel"  in a new and creative way, bringing back the characters from both for an unexpected epilogue to their tales. Alaric is not the typical forest-dwelling huntsman. Instead, he is a whaler who spends most of his time at sea. When he is rescued from a near-death experience by a healer named Malia, he begins to question his life choices as her kindness guides him onto a new path. Malia is not without secrets of her own. The townsfolk view her as a witch who tried to eat two innocent child...

Falling for the Enchantress  by Lyndsey Hall is the latest ARC I completed from the To Win a Dark Heart multi-author series of villainous retellings. This book combines the legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood , a combination that I have seen in another book I reviewed recently . These stories complement each other well because both take place in medieval England, and both were famously adapted by Howard Pyle in the late 19th century. This book stands apart from The Arrow and the Sword  in many ways, primarily that it focuses on different villains instead of heroes. Morgan Le Fay is known here as Morgraine, who must win over Stefano, the sheriff/witch hunter for Prince John. The dark romance in this book begins with an accidental magical binding spell that would have fit in well with last year's Tethered Hearts series . Stefano is a witch hunter, which fits well with this time period and setting, and Morgraine is in hiding to protect herself and her coven. When an accident...

Falling for the Crystal Fae  by Anabelle Raven  is the most recent ARC I read from To Win a Dark Heart , placing me about halfway through this multi-author series. So far, every book has been a completely different experience, even though they all follow the same format of combining villains from two different fairy tales. This book combines the villains from "Aladdin" and "The Snow Queen" in an original fae fantasy realm. It takes place after their classic tales have completed, making it an original story about two villains on a quest for revenge against the heroes who took away their happy endings. The story begins similarly to Once Upon a Time in Wonderland , in which the female lead, Khiona, finds a lamp with a handsome genie inside, who offers her anything her heart desires. She agrees to free Andar, the genie, in exchange for a chance at revenge against the people who overthrew her. Andar has experience with overthrowing those in power since he once tried to...

Falling for the Trickster  by Lucy Tempest was the seventh or eighth ARC I received from To Win a Dark Heart , a multi-author series of villainous fairy tale retellings. When I realized it was the first in the series and released this weekend, I bumped it up on my list. This is the perfect book to kick off the series since it directly follows the premise of combining two fairy tales and bringing two villains together without overcomplicating it by adding  additional layers . The book is a retelling of "Rumpelstiltskin" and "The Goose Girl" with a heavier focus on "Rumpelstiltskin." It is a swoony fairy tale romance with relatable characters that takes place in a whimsical world of humans and fae . Ottoline was frustrated by her life of servitude to the spoiled Princess Gertrude, who mistreated her so badly that a fae noble took pity on her. Roderick granted Ottoline the power to impersonate Princess Gertrude just in time to meet her betrothed, a prince ...

Among the ARCs I've read so far in To Win a Dark Heart , Falling for the Pirate  by Nicki Chapelway was the most surprising. This book subverted all my expectations of this multi-author series of dual villainous fairy tale retellings and gave me something I rarely see in this genre. It reads like a modern isekai show , in which the protagonists are regular people who are reborn as fictitious characters in a story they are somewhat familiar with. In this case, it happens to be a story that one of them wrote. This is a plot frequently used in anime, most recently with last season's The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess , but I don't see it as often in fairy tale retellings , and especially wasn't expecting it from this series, which already contains several unique features. Vera is a struggling screenwriter who just sold an edgy version of "The Little Mermaid"  that crosses over with Peter Pan  in the trend-setting style of  Once Upon a Time . Vera...

I have now received ARCs for just about every book in To Win a Dark Heart , a multi-author series of villainous fairy tale retellings. Among the ones I've read so far, Falling for the Mad King  by Sydney Winward is my favorite. This book does an excellent job of bringing two troubled souls together to improve each other's lives for the better with a touch of whimsy and magic. The book combines Alice in Wonderland  with "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," two stories that often lack clearly defined villains, allowing the author to create her own protagonists. Parts of it resembled Once Upon a Time in Wonderland , one of my favorite romantic TV shows of all time, but it is very much an original story. Falling for the Mad King  takes place primarily in Wonderland and introduces a villainous incarnation of Alice. The book follows the story of Rylan, the Mad King, an original character whose personality is a mix between the Mad Hatter and Queen of Hearts, leaning more towa...

Falling for the Sorcerer  by Jes Drew  is the first of many ARCs I received last week from the new multi-author series of villainous retellings, To Win a Dark Heart . I will be reviewing these books in the order they were received, so expect to see a lot of reviews from this series on here in the coming weeks. Each book in To Win a Dark Heart contains a romance between two different fairy tale villains. In these books, the villains are misunderstood and not truly evil. Falling for the Sorcerer  combines "Swan Lake" and "Rapunzel,"  introducing nicer versions of Gothel and Rothbart, whose stories differ greatly from their wicked counterparts. It's a great book for older readers who find fairy tale heroes difficult to relate to due to their age. Forget everything you know about the stories of "Swan Lake" and "Rapunzel" because this book takes both in a completely new direction. Falling for the Sorcerer  is a second-chance romance about two wor...

World Princess Week  is back, and that means fun new surprises from Disney! This year's princess treat was more of a throwback to 2023  when Disney launched an adorable LEGO special on Disney+ called The Castle Quest . In honor of World Princess Week, a sequel premiered on their exclusive streaming service called LEGO Disney Princess: Villains Unite , which is within the same vein as its predecessor. However, the new special is only half the length of The Castle Quest , falling at a paltry 23 minutes. This is a surprisingly short runtime considering that it took two years to create the star-studded sequel. Villains Unite  picks up where The Castle Quest  left off, with the LEGO versions of the iconic Disney Princesses working together to protect a sparkly pink castle that they share. When Snow White comedically eavesdrops on Gaston in the marketplace, she overhears a plot in which he assembles four other classic Disney villains—Jafar, Ursula, Kaa, and The Evil ...

While it may not be the first retelling of "Cinderella"  to flip the script from the perspective of the ugly stepsister , Ugly: The Stepsister's Story  by Mary Mecham is really something special. The last book I read from this author, Poisoned: Snow White's Story  was somewhat misleading because the story focused more on the dwarf characters than on Snow White. This one, on the other hand, is exactly what it looks like, a fresh new take on "Cinderella" with a tragic heroine that explores trauma in a believable and sympathetic way. I also thought the love story in this book was much stronger, possibly because the main couple knew each other for most of their lives. Between this and A Curse of Gold and Beauty , I think writing romance is one of Mary Mecham's strongest suits even though she places more focus on disabled representation , which she also does well. Truly is a refined lady of the court who lives in the castle with her parents and sister. Her m...

What if princesses were not daughters of kings, but members of an army trained for the destruction of mankind? That would explain why they are always  such powerful fighters these days. The new anime series  Love After World Domination  does just that, but with a twist. It has a  Power Rangers -inspired setting with a plot reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet . In the same way that Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle  parodies the trope of princesses getting kidnapped, this anime takes the modern trope of princesses being skilled warriors  and takes it in an unexpected direction. That's just one of the reasons that Love After World Domination is my favorite new anime this season. The show starts like any other Power Rangers series with a team of five color-coded warriors (sentai) fighting against a female-led legion of monsters. It is then revealed that this rivalry is a ruse, at least on the part of the Red Ranger, Fudo, and the opposing Reaper Princess, Desum...

Since I was feeling a little down this week, I decided to check out the final book in the Villain's Ever After series, Carabosse and the Spindle Spell . This book stood out to me because it sounded like such a drastic twist from the other books in the series. It's a high fantasy retelling of "Sleeping Beauty"  from the villain's perspective, but it's nothing like  Maleficent . The book turns the cold-hearted fairy into a bubbly and somewhat geeky princess whose kingdom gets caught up in a power struggle. It has shapeshifting dragons like the Love's Enchanted Tales series  and reads more like a high fantasy novella than a fairy tale retelling, which appears to be the common them among  author Sylvia Mercedes ' roster of books. No longer a scorned fairy who places a curse on a newborn princess at her Christening, Carabosse is now the princess of a magical kingdom that is protected by twelve dragon lords. Meanwhile, Aurora is the ruthless daughter of a ...

It's no secret that "The Little Mermaid" is my favorite fairy tale. One of my favorite adaptations of it is Princess of Mermaids  by AG Marshall . In  The Prince and the Sea Witch , she brings us an entirely different imagining of the story in a much darker world where mermaids follow the classical siren mythology of luring men to their deaths. This is one of the latest entries in the Villain's Ever After series that I had been looking forward to the most. Considering the length of many of AG Marshall's recent novels , I was pleasantly surprised that this one was quite short, allowing me to read it on my own time without feeling pressured to finish. It doesn't convey the same themes of risks and sacrifice that I love about the original "Little Mermaid" story, but it is a pleasant book in its own right that follows the narrative structure of the other Villain's Ever After books, giving readers a good idea of what to expect. You've heard of ...

The Sorcerer and the Swan Princess  is the third book that I have read in the Villain's Ever After series . I've been skipping around because the series contains too many books to keep up with on a regular basis. This one stood out to me after enjoying several of Lucy Tempest 's recent fairy tale books and because the story of "Swan Lake" has always fascinated me due to its many possible interpretations . While this book follows the same basic structure as the others I've read  in which the prince or princess falls in love with the villain instead of their traditional love interest, it also had a few clever twists that made it stand out. It takes place in the same fairy tale world as Lucy Tempest's other books , so it can be interpreted as the latest installment in the Fairy Tales of Folkshore series just as easily as the Villain's Ever After series. Princess Ava's sister, Lina, has always been jealous of her claim to the throne, but Ava never re...

The Dark King and the Eternal Dance  is the second book I've read in  A Villain's Ever After , though it is not the second book in the series. I received an ARC copy from Camille Peters , who wrote the other book I read from this series, The Beast and the Enchantress . Camille supposedly encouraged Alesha Adamson to become an author and contribute to A Villain's Ever After, which is a very sweet thing to do for a friend. We could all use a good friend who encourages us to share our passions with the world as a true modern princess would. This book is based on "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," which is one of my favorite fairy tales, but one of my least favorite to read adaptations of . Most authors prefer to turn the tale into a horrific nightmare about siblings who are forced to go out each night and perform tasks against their will instead of an escapist fantasy about twelve sheltered princesses who sneak out to enjoy some freedom from the confines of their c...

The Beast and the Enchantress  by Camille Peters  is the first book in a new collaborative series of fairy tale retellings called A Villain's Ever After . Each week for the next three months, a new villain-inspired book will be released by a new author, many of whose fairy tale books I have reviewed in the past. The series follows the latest trend in which villains are treated like princesses or heroes  who made mistakes or were misunderstood. This trend first gained popularity ten years ago with Gregory Maguire's Wicked  in 2011 and its corresponding musical and has grown exponentially in  recent pop culture and animation . Though I may not have time to read every book in the Villain's Ever After series, I was fortunate to receive an ARC of The Beast and the Enchantress , which just came out this weekend. This is the second adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast"  I have read by Camille Peters. The story is quite different from Enchantment , so it didn't...

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...

Just when I thought I wouldn't have anything else to talk about until the Aladdin  remake  comes out, the magical world of the internet surprised me yet again with two charming new YouTube shorts. Technically, neither of them are about princesses, but both are related to some of the most well-known Disney Princesses . The first is a new music video  from PattyCake Productions , the dream team that brought us "Princess Academy" and "The Grande Mermaid."  The second video is a clip from an upcoming episode of the animated  Guardians of the Galaxy  series on Disney XD called Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout! (not to be confused with the ride at Disneyland of the same name). This episode will premiere this Sunday with the clip below featuring Gamora, the green-skinned Avenger. Just in time for Mothers Day, "Tough Love"  is the second episode of PattyCake Productions' Villains Lair web series. It features three of the most ...

Yesterday, I explored the stigma that all queens are evil . Today, I'd like to follow up with an analysis of the stigma that all princesses are good. In the 1985 movie, Legend , Princess Lili gets seduced by Darkness and transforms into a "dark princess" in a revealing black dress, implying that her innocence had been taken away. Does being a princess and wearing a white dress automatically make a character sweet and innocent? The creators of  Child of Light , which I referenced in my "Video Game Princesses" post , had some fun with this concept by disguising a wicked princess to look like a good one. Ironically, the word "princess" is often used as an insult. Why? No one embodies the reasons behind that better than Princess Morbucks from The PowerPuff Girls . Despite her name, Princess is not actually a princess. She is the spoiled daughter of a very rich man who gives her everything she wants. Thus, she possesses all of the princess traits tha...