Review of “The Princess Pact: A Twist on Rumpelstiltskin” by Melanie Cellier
This is the third book
in the “Four Kingdoms” series and after having enjoyed the first two and the
novellete, I was looking forward to this tale dealing with Rumpelstiltskin. As
someone who watched the show “Once Upon a Time”, I couldn’t get that portrayal
of Rumpelstiltskin out of my head while reading this book. I’m not very
familiar with the original story of Rumpelstiltskin, so I appreciated the
author giving a short retelling of it.
This book takes place
in the kingdom of Northhelm and follows Princes Marie, whom we meet in the
first book. We quickly learn that Marie was adopted, and that her real father
is Rumpelstiltskin, although his real name is a mystery until the end of the
book. So, instead of retelling the original tale, this serves more as a continuation
of the story.
After learning of her
parentage, Marie runs away to seek her father only known as R. She wants to
investigate a rebellion that he has created. Marie runs into Rafe a young man
that the King had sent to spy on the rebellion. She also left because she
suspected that her brother had run off to the rebel camp as well.
At first she is excited
to me her real father, and even entertains the idea of joining his rebellion.
After learning his true intentions, she decides that she needs to free the
rebels, who were only there because of an enchantment. I like that Marie has
conflicting emotions about being adoptive, and in the end learns that family
are the people that truly love you, whether biological or not.
Marie also falls in
love with Rafe, who she believes is a commoner that lives in the forest.
Luckily, a twist is revealed and Marie is allowed to marry Rafe after all. It’s
a sweet love story, and Rafe comes off as a charming character. There are also
side characters that are interesting as well. Marie’s friends at the rebel
camp, Lisa and her brother Danny, are also fun characters, as well as Marie’s
brother William.
Overall, this was a
fun, and interesting take on Rumpelstiltskin. I really enjoyed learning more
about Princess Marie because I liked her small part in the first book. The
story is well paced, and the character relationships were engaging. So far,
this is my second favorite book in the series, the first being the first book,
“The Princess Companion”. I’m enjoying the crossover of characters and
worldbuilding of these stories.
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"The Chimera Prophecies" consists of eight short science fiction/dark fantasy short stories. Themes of how reality and identity shape our journey and humanity.