Enchanting Review: Princess Ben

PRINCESS BEN

CATHERINE GILBERT MURDOCK

YA Fantasy

Houghton Mifflin

ISBN# 978-0618959716

344 Pages

$16.00

Hardcover—Available Now

Rating: 5 Enchantments

I have to say I absolutely adored this book. It pulled me in right from the first paragraph. Told as a memoir, promising to ‘tell the real truth’ of Princess Ben, Ms. Murdock weaves a wonderful story about Ben’s struggles to adapt to a life without her parents as she’s thrust headfirst into the Queen’s world and expected to survive. Faced with spending the rest of her days with Queen Sophia, a woman her mother detested, Ben finds herself suddenly taking Princess lessons, on a diet and spending her mornings dancing under the watchful eye of her tutor. All she wants to do is return to the life she knew, but as the Princess next in line to the throne she simply cannot. When a war is threatened by the neighboring country, who both she and Queen Sophia believe are behind her parents and the King’s deaths, Ben finds herself about to be betrothed to stave off an attack, the very idea of which has Ben stunned.

Princess Ben has quickly become one of my favorite characters. I loved her feisty spirit and her willingness to sabotage anyone’s plans for her that she didn’t agree with, a trait that comes in very handy in the latter part of the story. Throughout the book, we watch Ben slowly grow up and see that things may not be exactly the way she perceived them early on. One of my favorite scenes is when Ben finds the secret passageway in her room and begins her journey into magic. When she discovers the reason for all the ‘ex’ rooms in the castle, she quickly begins to spend her nights traveling about, which prompts the staff to believe the place is haunted.

Filled with unexpected twists and turns that take Ben from a Prince's daughter, to orphan and finally to a real Princess, this is one book fantasy fans and fans of fairy tales won’t want to miss. Anyone looking for a fun, entertaining YA Fantasy won't go wrong picking up PRINCESS BEN.

Ms. Murdock grew up in small-town Connecticut, on a tiny farm with honeybees, two adventurous goats, and a mess of Christmas trees. You can visit her online at her website www.catherinemurdock.com and read Chapter One of PRINCESS BEN http://www.catherinemurdock.com/books/pbchapterone.html

Lisa

Enchanting Reviews

September 2008