The Princess Companion, by Melanie Cellier
Genre: YA Fantasy / Fairytale RetellingRelease Year: 2016My Rating: 3.25 stars
"One dark and stormy night, lost and alone, Alyssa finds herself knocking on the door of a castle. After a lifetime spent in the deep forest, Alyssa has no idea what to expect on the other side. What she finds is two unruly young princesses and one very handsome prince. When Alyssa accepts the job of Princess Companion she knows her life will change. What she doesn’t know is that the royal family is about to be swept up in unexpected danger and intrigue and that she just might be the only thing standing between her kingdom and destruction. This retelling of the classic fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea, reimagines the risks and rewards that come when one royal family goes searching for a true princess. Danger and romance await a woodcutter’s daughter in a royal palace."
(From Goodreads)
★★★
Overall, I found this to be an engaging and enjoyable read. I liked how the author raised the stakes of the original fairytale, and I liked how she wove Cinderella into it with a slightly more realistic look at "happily ever after." However, that's not to say it was perfect.
First of all, who proofread (or failed to proofread) this?? There were so many missing commas, in addition to commas that had no business being where they were. Has Melanie Cellier never heard of a semicolon? Even a good old period would have worked in many cases. There were also multiple instances of dialogue tags being used incorrectly. And "no-one"? Really?! In addition, Alyssa (the POV character) would sometimes throw a large word into her narration that didn't really fit with her voice. ("Unconscionable" is the one I remember, but there were several.) Speaking of Alyssa, I liked her most of the time, but found her to occasionally be an insufferable know-it-all. At least she was semi-aware of this, which is what saved her in my estimation.
Okay, on to the plot. As I mentioned above, I liked how Melanie Cellier embellished the original story and raised the stakes. I had a few quibbles, though. First, we get a couple mentions of how sensitive to pain Alyssa is, but then we find out that *SPOILER ALERT* she only felt the pea because it was enchanted by Eleanor's fairy godmother to only be felt by the bride who was right for Max. *END OF SPOILER* I feel like there should have been either more mentions of Alyssa's sensitivity to pain or it just shouldn't have been mentioned. The only other thing is that I feel like the ending wrapped up too quickly.
Apart from the issues with the writing, which were minor enough, I was disappointed at how whitewashed this was. Every single female had blond hair (or at the very least "gold highlights") and blue eyes, and no one's skin ventured darker than "golden" or "tan". Listen to this gem: "Princess Ava was petite but not tiny, and her figure was exquisite. Her features were refined–small nose, blue eyes, high cheekbones–and her golden hair fell in tight curls. She had a roses and cream complexion, and the overall effect was on of THE MOST TRADITIONAL BEAUTY." [Emphasis mine] My heart aches for all the black and brown girls who have read this book and picked up on the subtle message that they can't be beautiful because they're not blond-haired and blue-eyed.
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