Princess Ben

Title: Princess Ben
Author: Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Genre: TeenKid, Fantasy
Ranking: Okay
LibraryThing: Title:Princess Ben ISBN:978-0-618-95971-6 (Add Book)
Read: 2008-05-23

With her parents lost to assassins, Princess Ben ends up under the thumb of the conniving Queen Sophia. Starved and miserable, locked in the castle's highest tower, Ben stumbles upon a mysterious enchanted room. So begins her secret education in the magical arts...

Thoughts

This was one of those "if you liked this, you will like that" books recommended on Amazon. The reviews were favourable, so I got it.

I did enjoy it when I read it, after I got into the narrative style. And there were allusions to lots of fairy tales, which gave it a touch of irony. But the more I think about it, the more dissatisfied I am with it. The first dissatisfaction is that I can't believe in the "romance" that the book finishes up with. It isn't completely unbelievable, but it doesn't quite make it. A lot of things in this book don't quite make it. I mean, they're fine, they're okay, they're even a bit above average sometimes, but... it just ended up being less than satisfying.