In this twist on the fairytale tale The Goose Girl, with a conspiracy to uncover and an identity to take back the ‘Goose Girl’ has a lot more on her plate than just a gaggle of geese…
The Secret Princess by Australian Melanie Cellier, it is a retelling of The Goose Girl. The first book of Back to the Four Kingdoms series. This series is the third one in Cellier’s Four Kingdoms universe, having two prequel series, The Four Kingdom Series and The Beyond The Four Kingdoms series, this series though has characters that were introduced in the previous two series and new characters as well, I highly recommend reading everything in order, starting from The Princess Companion.
THE PLOT
Princess Giselle is excited to be leading her first royal delegation–until everything goes wrong before they even reach their destination. With her rank and authority stripped away and her people scattered, she’s left with nothing but a gaggle of geese.
Giselle is determined to prove herself a true princess–in action as well as in name. But to do so she must uncover a conspiracy that threatens far more than her own future. With her life in danger and only a talking horse and an irritable goose boy at her side, she needs assistance. One of the servants is willing to help her, but Philip’s attractive smile hides yet more secrets, and Giselle is running out of time.
In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale, The Goose Girl, the wronged princess must prevail in a deadly game of identities with the fate of kingdoms at stake.
The plot was so engaging, in the retelling aspect, I’d say this one was pretty straightforward, the fairytale was wonderfully weaved into the main plotline, and so much else was going on, though I will admit it isn’t exactly something absolutely mind-blowing, but it is a fun read, somehow even during the climax I didn’t feel particularly tense, but maybe that’s on me. However it was a smooth read and there were no plot holes, and to be honest, nor can I think of any particular negative aspects.
THE CHARACTERS
Giselle, was pretty likable and relatable, I mean imagine what does a princess do when suddenly she is a goose girl and a very questionable woman has taken her place that too in a foreign kingdom, well, there is a lot of hopelessness to start with, then a hunger to prove herself and trying to solve things on her on, which was understandable since in the past adventures in her life she had been a side character (literally) so now she wanted to prove to everyone but most of all to herself that she is capable of being the heroine of her story.
Giselle made many mistakes and something I liked about her was that she called herself out when she made those mistakes. She is practical. I’d say she adapted pretty quickly to her new situation, but she seemed a bit gullible, when you have been betrayed so spectacularly once, wait this could come in spoiler category, but it is pretty unrealistic that she is shown to be trusting of somebody who basically sprang out of nowhere all of sudden and also has old ties with her betrayer, but this can also be seen as just a flaw, an oversight on her part as a character, rather than an unrealistic aspect of the plot.
I also liked the fact, that Giselle’s situation made her question what made her someone who deserved to be a princess, if she had that kind of power and luxury was she capable of shouldering the responsibility it asks for?
As for her love interest, He was the adventurous, fun kind of person, with lots of mysteries about him, and Giselle spent quite some time mulling over them, he was alright, he called her Lark, honestly I like that nickname it better then something like Kitten. The romance was fun enough, I got some butterflies by the romance and there was a love triangle involved but it wasn’t the kind I’d mind, I think most people won’t mind it, it brought in some jealousy, a pinch of heartbreak, nothing much 😁. But on a serious note, the attraction between them came pretty early, but as it always is in Melanie’s books, they become friends first then lovers, after properly getting to know each other.
As for the second love interest, honestly there was no chemistry between him and Giselle, and by the time he came along I personally had my heart set on Philip, but he had his secrets too.
Coming to the main villain, god what a villain, and I’m a Harry Potter girl rather than a Draco Malfoy girl if you get what I mean, so, this is not me fangirling over a good looking Villain, but he was good at his job, the climax was amazing, (this might be a spoiler) Cellier decided to put very loved characters in harm’s way.
I hated but understood the maid at the same time, this character was amazingly crafted, I think Melanie did a great job with this one, the almost maniacal obsession and how it became clear, that the seed for her actions was put into her mind very early on.
I am not going to go in more detail on the bad people cause that would certainly spoil all the fun.
Special mention to Arvin, I absolutely loved him, I mean who wouldn’t love a sassy talking horse, far superior to us mere humans.
The main themes that I could understand were, firstly appearances can be very deceiving, and secondly, something I mentioned earlier too,
what is right to power exactly? what are actually the roles of the ruling family? Is this right really gained by blood? the eldest son of the eldest son getting power, you know?
Melanie touched on those questions.
The book has kissing and violence so a 13+ rating. The book was divided into three parts and was approximately 300 pages long with a prologue and an epilogue.
It was a fun read, with a relatable and strong heroine and of course a talking horse, an engaging plotline not the most intense, I would give it a 3.75 stars, honestly, not Melanie’s best but it was good.
That’s all.
Yours,
A Fellow Bookworm
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