In case the name didn’t tip you off, in this book its the princess saving the boy in distress instead of languishing in a tower. In this gender swapped the Princess Bride retelling we follow princess Amarande after her father dies under mysterious circumstances leaving the kingdom she calls home scrambling to deal with the issue of succession of the crown. According to the law a woman can not rule on her own so as the sole heir to the crown Amarande must be wed before she can claim her birthright. Problem is she is the warrior king’s daughter, raised in his image, and isn’t going to let others determine her fate. When she refuses to allow herself, and her country, to be auctioned off to the highest bidder the stableboy she grew up with, Luca, is kidnapped in order to force her hand. Throughout her journey to save the boy she loves and claim her rightful place as queen, she finds strength not only in love but in the words of her father.
I love the idea that the princess saves the boy, but I feel like the author took it just a tad too far and made Luca bland and helpless. I wish he had been a bit more competent instead of just mostly sitting back waiting to be rescued. I did like the feminist themes in the book but at times I felt like it was a bit repetitive and actually didn’t add to the story in many places. There where parts where it definitely felt shoehorned in.
Ruling through fear vs love and compassion is another theme throughout the book. There is tons of political intrigue that adds a lot of mystery and excitement. The mystery of Amarande’s mother, the runaway queen, is only barely uncovered and I feel like it will play a major role in the next book. Renard is your stereotypical power-hungry prince, and is even referred to as such in the book. His character is a bit bland but I absolutely loved his brother, Taillefer. He was just the right amount of crazy to be entertaining. He was actually given a personality where I feel like a lot of the other male characters where not.
The idea of love transcending social class was carried throughout the book as well. Most of the conflict comes from the fact that Luca is a commoner and not eligible to marry Amarande. I would love this theme to continue and them to dismantle the class restrictions completely but sadly it seems the author is abandoning this plot line with the next book after the revelations at the end of this book.
If you love the Princess Bride and want to see the princess be the one to save her love, the Princess Will Save You is something to add to your TBR list. With friends to lovers romance, political intrigue, and loads of girl power themes its a good read. There are things I wish had been written differently when it came to character development, but I still enjoyed the book and will be reading the sequel.
