The Golden Princess is a retelling of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, by Australian author Melanie Cellier, it is 4th book in the Back to The Four Kingdoms series, which has two prequel series, The Four Kingdoms series The Beyond The Four Kingdoms series, I always recommend reading everything in order, for the best experience, for this one I would especially recommend reading The Desert Princess, the previous book since our heroine was introduced in this book and so were the new lands which are the setting in The Golden Princess as well.
Exiled from her old life as the daughter of a vizier, Zaria still grieves the lost friends of her childhood. She’s grown accustomed to her new role as a servant, though—up until the day she stumbles on the fabled lost cave of treasures.
The wealth inside is enough to transform anyone’s life, but Zaria isn’t the first to find it. A gang of cutthroat thieves got there first, and their behavior makes Zaria question everything she sees. With an unknown enchantment at work, and forty criminals desperate to protect their hoard, she doesn’t want anything to do with the gold.
But when her royal friends reappear, Zaria discovers the cave is the key to defeating a threat to the entire kingdom. She can’t turn her back on her people, even if that means facing thieves and traitors with Crown Prince Tarek at her side. Zaria thought she’d found peace with her past, but now she isn’t sure if she’s more in danger of losing her life or her heart.
In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, a servant girl must outwit a cunning adversary before she can claim the treasure her heart truly desires.
First of all the tale the book retells is not a very well-known one, but Melanie follows the Arabic tale quite closely, I read on Wikipedia (as usual) and all the important parts are seamlessly woven into Melanie’s tale, which has a much larger plot that touches on a rather deep theme, the plot was very happening, with good pace, and I was extremely engaged, there were so many intense parts, and the climax, oh my gosh, my imagination was working overtime, and it was beautiful in my mind’s eye and very intense obviously, but I still have some qualms for the book, however, this one has become my favorite in this series, let us see what the next two books bring.
Coming to the Characters,
Zaria, our protagonist as mentioned earlier was first introduced in The Desert Princess, she is like so clever, there was not even a single point in the book in which I felt frustrated with her, and we readers are indeed unique beings, since, I am not sure that is entirely a good thing that she didn’t have any apparent flaws. You see, I want to be frustrated with the characters when they do stupid stuff, I want to feel the second-hand embarrassment, it humanizes the characters.
But Zaria indeed carried the entire book, and I was in awe of her, no wonder her prince was head-over-heels for her. Coming to him, Prince Tarek oh my gosh, he was so in love, I loved it. He was the responsible crown prince (who really wants to make his father proud), like so many others in the Four Kingdoms universe, but he seemed to be trying to hold back or curb his rebellious and impulsive side, the man was trying his best, then the girl he has been in love with for years comes back into his life, and boy, does the rebel in him rebel. I was grinning like an idiot when he does his thing, won’t spoil it, but I’m sure when you read it, you will know exactly what I’m talking about.
I had been disappointed by the romance in both of the previous books, but this one was great, there was tension, longing, and so much trust, Melanie had the chance to put in play a very overused cliche thankfully she did not take the chance. It had the childhood best friends to lovers trope and so freaking cute, and there was another romance going on, on the side, It was sort of love-at-first-sight-ish or rather captivated-at-first-sight, whatever the label be, it was pretty cute and enjoyable.
The side characters were so fun to meet, Adara and Navid were a delight, and two of them reminded me of Fred and George Weasley from the Harry Potter series, they both have their own books or are the love interests, but it still counts.
Alright, let us dive into the theme. The theme was how grief and bitterness shapes people, how holding onto the past can either be a blessing or a curse, this part may have spoilers, but here is the thing holding onto the past is not always a bad thing, and even if it is rough or hurtful not all parts of it have to bad, now that I’m writing, this is reminiscent of the theme of The Princess Search by Cellier only, and this is what our protagonist learns as well, she cannot seem to let go of her life of 3 years back, personally, I feel that isn’t even that long of a time anyway, however, her past was not all bad, in fact more good than bad, and definitely better then her present so there was nothing wrong with her missing the good old times, in fact these doubts did humanize her somewhat, so perhaps she was not completely perfect, there is also another important plotline that entangles with the theme, but I won’t risk spoiling, it is too good and too important.
There is some violence and kissing so a 13+ rating, the book doesn’t have a prologue, though it does have an epilogue.
In a nutshell, 4.75 stars, the plot was intense and engaging and the romance was good, the characters, though they could do with some more flaws were interesting.
Buh bye!
Yours,
A Fellow Bookworm
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