Kali and Mr. Puss need to save a kingdom, the esteemed cat seems to have a plan and Kali isn’t sure if she should be relieved or terrified.
The Rogue Princess by Australian Author Melanie Cellier is a retelling of Puss in Boots, it is the 5th and second-last book of The Return to the Four Kingdoms Series, there are two other series in the same universe, they are prequels, The Four Kingdoms series and The Beyond the Four Kingdoms series, I recommend reading everything order for the best experience, for this one, I especially recommend reading, The Princess Game and The Princess Search from The Four Kingdoms series and The Golden Princess from The Return to the Four Kingdoms Series
Kali has always dreamed of adventure, but she never expected to find it in the company of a talking cat. Puss definitely has an agenda, but he isn’t sharing it with her. All she knows is that he wants a miller’s child to accompany him across the Great Desert to the mysterious lands beyond.
Kali doesn’t mean to let her opportunity go, even if she doesn’t understand the purpose of the mysterious creature at her side. But when she encounters thieves and misadventures, she realizes something bigger is underway. Her people are under threat, and she can’t turn her back on them—no matter how irritated she is by the fellow traveler who turns up wherever she goes. Kali knows Xavier isn’t to be trusted, but she and Puss need his help. Only together can they avoid the traps laid for her and uncover the truth.
In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale, Puss in Boots, a miller’s daughter will have to trust a tricksy cat and a handsome young man if the three of them have any hope of saving her people.
I wasn’t a big fan of this book in the series. It was engaging, but the stakes didn’t feel very high, and I found the love interest annoying. The climax wasn’t as intense as in the other books, and the main villain was only introduced in the last few chapters. The characters barely interacted with the antagonists, and it felt like they took the case up as an adventure. The bad people caused a lot of trouble around the kingdom, and there were some surprising twists, but overall it didn’t become my favorite. However, the retelling was creative and included all the important parts of the tale. Unlike the original story, in this book, Kali and Xavier took the plot forward instead of Puss. Nonetheless, the cat’s interactions with the other characters were delightful to read about.
As a retell, this was definitely creative, it had all the important parts of the tale, which I had not been acquainted with but my forever friend Wikipedia helped me out and unlike in the tale, in this book, Kali and Xavier took the plot forward, rather than Puss, but the cat was a delight to read about, and all of his interactions with the other characters.
Now the other characters.
Kali, we first met her and her love interest in The Golden Princess, I loved her, I really did. In fact, if this book didn’t have romance in it, I would have been content with her adventures, I mean her father died and she set out across the desert to new lands, her courage and daring are honestly something I aspire to have, and that doesn’t mean she was a ‘super’ woman (thankfully, otherwise we would have had a problem), she got in trouble plenty of times and needed help too, and she helped too. Honestly, since the book was from her point of view, and well, there is a misunderstanding of sorts between her and the love interest, which meant, I misunderstood him too, if only we had gotten a hint that it was a misunderstanding, perhaps my view on their scenes, and my perception of Xavier would have been better and as a reader, I would have enjoyed the situation more.
Xavier was the flighty and flirty prince who found his ‘the one’ and he pursued her, ready to settle down. I have already written about the misunderstanding and my perception, though once it was all sorted, I started understanding Xavier and appreciating a new and unique character, a reprieve from all the responsible crown princes. But then I was annoyed at Kali for not giving him a chance. They both clearly complemented each other, with their penchant for adventure, and how Kali was somewhat fiery and he didn’t take life as seriously and as a result was pretty calm, finding amusement in everything and anything, so if we talk about the end, I have no complaints on the pairing.
Despite everything I didn’t like, there was one part that I loved and just that part increased my rating to 4 from 3.75. We meet characters from The Princess Search again! That one is my personal favorite in the entire Four Kingdoms universe, and I was so happy to read about Fredric and Evie again, they even have kids now, and I loved it.
Now that I’m done fangirling, the book has a prologue and an epilogue, it has violence and kissing so tweens and up age rating.
In a nutshell, 4 stars, we meet old characters, it is an engaging and creative retelling of Puss in Boots and a strong female lead, and you will find some angst and misunderstanding on the romantic front.
That’s all.
Yours,
A Fellow Bookworm
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