Princess Academy- Book Review

Hullo, hullo! We’re making another review! Just a statement, I just scrolled through almost two months’ worth of posts to get to this because I couldn’t remember my format. Good job, self. Anyway, time to review and listen to showtunes. What are we reviewing today? Well, in case you didn’t look at the title, we’re reviewing the book Princess Academy!

Title: Princess Academy

Author: Shannon Hale

Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis:

Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king’s priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year’s time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village. The king’s ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess.

Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend. But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates.

Characters: Miri Larendaughter, Marda Larendaughter, Laren, Peder, Olana, Os, Prince Steffan, Britta, Katar, Liana, Bena, Gerti, Esa, Frid, Helta, the other Academy girls (too lazy to list them nor do I remember them all), Doter, Dan, Dogface, other bandits

Theme: The themes of Princess Academy are marriage, family, education, and friendship.

LEESE’S THOUGHTS:

Overall, Princess Academy was a very good book. It was a bit sluggish in the beginning, but soon picked up. However, when the bandits came to the academy, I found the writing confusing because I am used to reading quickly during action because the pure franticness gets to me.

The characters, on the other hand, were some of the most lovable characters from anything I’d ever read. Miri was strong, intelligent, and funny. Britta was so shy and adorable it was impossible to dislike her. Katar, well, you love to hate Katar. Even Olana found her way into my heart, surprisingly enough. They were all so cute!

You’ll fall in love with Princess Academy very quickly. Being a thirteen year old, people probably thought I was too old to read this book. Well, they were wrong. No one is ever too old to read this amazing novel by Shannon Hale. How it didn’t win the Newbery it was nominated for I will never know.

Recommended for: Fantasy fans, girls, people who don’t mind reading something written for children, people who want strong female heroines.

My rating: 4/5 stars

Well, that’s all for this review! Keep watch for my next review!