In this tale, an ugly duckling, a misfit, finally finds a place for herself, a place where she fits.
The Princess Search is a young adult fantasy, a retelling of The Ugly Duckling by Australian author Melanie Cellier. It is the last book of The Four Kingdoms Series. The series contains a noveltte, 2 novellas, and 5 novels. Even though the books can be read as standalone, I would recommend reading them in order, to avoid potential spoilers and follow the timeline, it is fun reading about old characters and the world-building is great.
An outcast.
A prince.
And a deadly rebellion…
After a lifetime of rejection, seamstress Evie can’t trust Frederic, the crown prince of Lanover—not his words of friendship or the way the warmth in his eyes seems to ask for even more. But when they end up on a tour of his kingdom—one filled with increasing danger—Evie’s mistrust might doom them all.
In this spin on the classic fairy tale, an ugly duckling must discover her true worth in order to save her kingdom and maybe even find true love.
I feel like I have found a comfort book, something I can read a number of times and still not get sick of. So, I am going to try my best to give an unbiased review. (Keyword: try)
The last of this series there are two more connected series, but this book brings the end of The Four Kingdoms. It is my personal favorite. I did not think a retelling of Ugly Duckling was possible but here we are, with a beautiful one. I just went through Wikipedia on the tale and there are many parallels in the story. Therefore, as a retelling, this book doesn’t disappoint. I liked the fact that like in Ugly Duckling the duckling wasn’t ugly, it was not a duckling at all and was a swan, Evie wasn’t shown to be Ugly either but rather that she was a misfit, that is until she found her place and her people.
The plot was good and interesting, as Evie’s past slowly unfolded and with it the trouble in the Kingdom too, and then the final few chapters wrapped everything up nicely with a bow at the top. I was hooked from the first few chapters. The pacing felt like it fit, it wasn’t fast or slow. Everything was so well thought out, the Villain(s) were sinister but smart and Evie’s past was significant for the story.
Evie, our protagonist has severe trust issues, which isn’t surprising since she has had a very rough past, and now she has to revisit it, all of her old wounds, which had never really healed were now open and bleeding maybe this time they will heal.
She was so strong and even though she had trust issues, she didn’t feel like she had a victim mentality. She still managed to find fun in life and stood strong against her problems, so much depth in this character, as she slowly worked through her trauma and realized that maybe not everything In her past was bad. She slowly accepted herself and grew to love herself. Honestly, she was kind of cool especially after the final bit of her past is revealed, plus she was a clothing genius.
Her love interest Fredric was with her every step of the way, he was the crown prince of Lanover, Celeste, Rafe, and Cordelia’s oldest brother. Now, this male lead had depth. I had that complaint for some of the male leads in the series, and Melanie has surely improved on that aspect.
We see them slowly form an emotional bond, very slowly he wins Evie’s trust, and his character is a serious one, the responsible crown prince but with her, he can loosen up. It was a slow burn, but so worth it. The scene where he asks her to marry him and explains his feelings was 😍. It made so much sense for his character to realize he has found true love, the way he did.
Also, his dynamic with Celine was so good, that it showcased the serious responsible older sibling and impulsive disaster-prone younger sibling so well.
Two words for Cassian’s situation unexpected and funny, usually Melanie doesn’t go down the instant love path, but it is fine and it certainly made Cassian a more interesting character, and Celine, god I can’t wait to read her novel.
Lanover seemed to me the most beautiful out of the four kingdoms so many different ecosystems, so many different sub-cultures, and so much diversity, I guess it hit quite close to home, literally since I am an Indian. Did I mention Cellier is good at world-building?
It involves violence and kissing so a 13 and up rating from me, about 250 pages long, with a prologue, an epilogue, and 31 chapters.
In a nutshell, 5 stars, my personal favorite of this series, leads that have depth, sweet wholesome romance, a good plot, and a wonderful theme of believing in yourself and accepting yourself.
With this, we have finished The Four Kingdom Series’ book reviews.
Yours,
A Fellow Bookworm
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