Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Two stars

Imagine putting a completely inexperienced rider on a spirited stallion and sending them on a journey with no means of escape; If for some miracle, the rider doesn’t fall and kill themselves after three steps, you could guess the tug of war that would ensue between rider and horse. That’s what happened to this author, who seemed to have created the characters with some ideas of what who they would be, but finds to late they have a mind of their own, and them tries to pull them back, she slips, they are someone wholly different, to pull them back … this tug-of-war ended in a prince a inch from schizophrenia, and several one dimensional characters who seem unnecessary.

Anyway, I think the intended story is one of a old fashioned, but slightly modern day, princess who is revoking the typical Cinderella story with a unusual princess, a mystery and a love story with real love.

Reality check: There are hundreds of stories with mostly the same plot and moral. But anyway this is the story. When Ben’s (Princess Benevolence) mother is killed, father disappears and uncle (who is the king) dies, you don’t really feel it at all. You don’t even KNOW these people and now the author is expecting you to be crushed?! but I digress. Then the queen (Ben’s aunt), Sophia, has Ben come and live in the castle because she herself has never produced a heir and so Ben will be queen when she comes of age. So she take her to the castle and tries to train her to be a queen. Ben doesn’t like it so the queen gives her a bedroom at the top of the tallest tower where Ben finds a secret entrance to a wizards room and starts learning magic.

All in all, I would not say this is a good story, but I think a eleven-year-old just finding the world outside the juvenile section would really think it was good.

At least until she find the two hundred other princess stories next to it.

Posted under review