Undercover Princess

Author: Connie Glynn

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Fiction

Publisher: Penguin

Publication Date: November 2nd 2017

Format: Paperback (288 pages)

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Synopsis:

When fairy tale obsessed Lottie Pumpkin starts at the infamous Rosewood Hall, she is not expecting to share a room with the Crown Princess of Maradova, Ellie Wolf. Due to a series of lies and coincidences, 14-year-old Lottie finds herself pretending to be the princess so that Ellie can live a more normal teenage life.

Lottie is thrust into the real world of royalty – a world filled with secrets, intrigue and betrayal. She must do everything she can to help Ellie keep her secret, but with school, the looming Maradovian ball and the mysterious new boy Jamie, she’ll soon discover that reality doesn’t always have the happily ever after you’d expect…

A thrilling world of parties, politics and bad ass princesses, this is the first book in the brand new series THE ROSEWOOD CHRONICLES.

My Rating: ★★★

Okay. That’s how I would describe this book for me. It was simply: okay.

I didn’t dislike this book but neither did I love it. The plot was okay, it did have its moments where I will happily admit to being interested and I read the book fairly quickly but it just didn’t scream ‘READ ME’ or have anything that I found particularly gripping. In fact what the plot did for me was leave lots of unanswered questions and one of those was “Why did Lottie so desperately want to go to Rosewood Hall?”

I also felt like the plot went from being super simple to having lots going on all at once rather than having one or two things happening that were really well developed which I think would have resulted in us seeing more layered characters too. I think it’s important for me to point out here that this book isn’t boring, lots happens and some readers will have loved the way it is written, I just really like layers and depth and this was definitely more of a fairytale (I appreciate this is probably intentional!)

As for the characters, I’ve kind of touched on this above but I just felt they were quite flat. I really love a flawed, layered character that I can get to really know but although I felt that I liked most of the characters in this book, I got to the end and still didn’t really feel I knew them as well as I would have liked. If I was asked to describe their personalities I would have a really hard time doing it. Ellie is supposed to be this super rebellious Princess but she didn’t feel that rebellious to me, Lottie was adorable and very Disney Princess-like but what on earth happened to Ollie?! This really pained me because at the beginning Ollie and Lottie are super best friends, then she goes off to school and just forgets all about him. Granted she doesn’t have her phone but, HELLO, write a letter? I just felt like their friendship was totally just forgotten about and then something had to quickly be written back in at the end to acknowledge Ollie.

I think the best way for me to end this review is to sum up my feelings and that goes a bit like this… Undercover Princess is a fluffy, light and Disney-like read that plenty of readers will love but if you are looking for a complex plot and layered characters, this won’t be the book for you. A lovely read and a GORGEOUS cover (had to slip that in…) but for me this book will be easily forgettable.

Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin and Connie Glynn for my advanced copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Have you read Undercover Princess?

What YA fairytale retellings are your favourite?

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