Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with an ARC of This Princess Kills Monsters. I was drawn in by the pretty cover and was even more interested when I read the description. I love fairytale retellings, and would recommend this book to anyone who feels the same. I really liked how the author seamlessly blended multiple tales together. The story was silly and fun, and I like how whenever it got too silly, the characters acknowledged that what was happening was crazy. The one criticism I have is that the description mentions Melilot fighting attraction to her fiance’s sister, I would have liked to see that relationship explored more. I loved her relationship with the huntsmen though. I’m pretty sure this book is a stand-alone, but I would love to read more books about the other characters.

 

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

A fun take on fairytales, with lots of tongue in cheek references! I liked the different take and the characters were interesting- the romances were great too! A very fun read overall. 

I found this book really endearing and I very much enjoyed reading it. I will also say that the style in which it is written will not be for everyone and if it had not been executed as well as it is, I might not have liked the writing style.

As it is, I found the storytelling to really add to the fairy tale vibes. I loved catching the little callouts to classic tales. I found the tone just silly enough to work without being annoying.

This pulls in large elements from classic tales to craft a story about a princess who is sent off to marry a prince and fails spectacularly in the best way.

Fun, funny, and an absolute delight! Heartfelt and heartwarming, and a bunch of their good things. Tongue in cheek, a little meta, always a good time. I really enjoyed this book. Fantasy at its most darling. 

This Princess Kills Monsters is chock full of homage to fairy tale stories we're deeply familiar with, heavy on modern-adjacent banter and narrative, and a handful of lovely little queer touches.

The book focuses on Melilot, resident middle child and princess of a mountain kingdom. She's called by her stepmother—a Melilot proclaimed evil sorceress and queen—and told that she's to marry a new King from a distant land. That king was ordered to ask for her hand by his dead father, except he was previously engaged to another that he truly loved, and SHE isn't taking the marriage being called off lying down. 

It sounds like a lot, and it is—and you get all of this information in the first chapter.

This was a fun book that wasn't necessarily for me as a reader but I think many people will have a grand time with. The author has fun weaving references to all sorts of fairy tales in and out of the plot, which for me sometimes became a little much. It's definitely a plot heavy book over a character heavy book, with the author honestly doing more to add kooky lore to this wild universe than develop characters. The characters more than anything served as stand-ins (with a few delightful queer twists) for the ongoing plot. Every time I thought that things couldn't get more zany, they did—which was often for me a little bit jarring.

For me this wasn't necessarily helped by the plethora of added information. I think sometimes reading this book felt like more work than it needed to, not because the story wasn't fun but because there were too many odd things happening that you weren't entirely sure what you needed to retain for the sake of the plot. Weird creatures, 12 huntsmen who all look alike and who admittedly don't get enough character development that it's easy enough to remember which is which (including our main character who only barely is able to discern Jack, the former fiance of the king, and Sam, her love interest), existing within dream states where the narrator didn't entirely know what was real or not—all fun aspects to this book that put together definitely were a little too much for me.

I had a fun time with the primary romance between Melilot and Sam, and enjoyed the twist that came with Sam after what was implied in the original "story" iteration of the plot that came in the first chapter, and the dynamic with Melilot and her sisters was also fun and I wish we'd gotten a little more time and development with them, and with the King's sister, Angelique. There was a point where she told Melilot that she saw her as a sister, and so I knew time had passed at that point I wish we had gotten to see more of that development play out (particularly because the blurb for the book teased something potentially romantic with them—though I love Sam as the primary romantic interest I was definitely thinking there would be more conflict with this semi triangle situation).

The narration itself wasn't my thing either—but will be a ton of fun for those who love books like Gideon the Ninth, where the story measures together modern vernacular and quirky storytelling with a more classic setting that traditionally gets more "serious" narrative structure. For me it felt a little too close to traditional story book narrative, with some characters purposefully obtuse and reactions to oddities a bit blunt in a way that works for a shorter story that didn't work for me in a longer novel.

All in all, while this book wasn't necessarily MY thing I do think that there's an audience who will have a grand time on this adventure, laugh along with the absurdities and gags, and be thrilled to find queer stories normalized within fairy tale universes. 3.5 stars from me!

Thank you so much to Random House and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book was such a joy to read. It's a satirical take on The Twelve Hunstmen and it is loaded with all kinds of weird, unhinged behaviour that you should expect out of the classic Grimm's fairy tales. Underneath the silly moments and dialogue are tender moments, a lot of love, lessons of acceptance, reflections on behaviour, and a bit of romance.

There were a few moments here and there where the pacing could have been better, but overall it was very well written. The story flows well, the writing keeps you engaged, and overall it is just heartwarming and hilarious.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an eArc in exchange for an honest review! 

3.5 stars.

This book was a ridiculous read (but in kind of a good way)! True to most fairytales, it was a book that you couldn't help but not take it too seriously. I couldn't predict what would happen next at some points because things would just come out of left field, but I guess that is what a fairytale does half the time! It was fun reading the twist the author gave on the original fairytale by making it more ridiculous while also including some nods to other well known fairytales! I also really enjoyed the LGBTQ+ representation in this book especially (Sam has my heart!).

One gripe I did have was that I did find it a bit long, with the plot dragging on at times. I had a hard time getting into the plot for the first 20% of the book because nothing was really happening until we got to meet the huntsmen. The writing was humorous, but at times some things didn't really land for me.

Overall, a fun read!