My gown suited me as well as I could ever hope, though I could not but envy the young ladies who would attract the honest compliments of the night. My bodice did not plunge as dramatically as some, and no man - no man I would ever want to meet, surely - could fit his hands around my waist. What I lacked in beauty I would simply have to earn with charm...
When Princess Ben's parents both meet tragic ends, she is sent to live with her aunt, the conniving Queen Sophia. She tries to put up with her aunt's haughty manner, and she tries to ignore her aunt's constant jibes about her etiquette, but one day it just gets to be too much. At the dinner table, Ben lets her feelings be known. The wrong way.
As a punishment, she is sent to live in in the castle's highest tower. Ben is miserable until she stumbles upon a mysterious, magical room.
And so begins her training, unknown to the rest of the world, in the arts of magic, giving Ben's once boring existence a little sparkle.
But it can't last. Ben is accused of being a witch and she quickly runs away. She is captured by the people who are believed to have killed both her parents and forced to work for them. Unknown to her captors, they have just imprisoned the princess.
And all this time, true love is waiting patiently for Princess Ben.
My thoughts:
I'm not quite sure what to say about this book.
To start with, there was a lot of magic in it, which I did not like.
When you hear the word
magic, what do you picture? I picture a dusty room with a broom leaning against the wall, an hour glass, and a big thick book on a table. I also picture a man with a long white beard, blue pointy hat, and a blue dress covered in tiny yellow moons.
Some people might say there is good and bad magic. "Good" magic could mean something like
Narnia, although some people might disagree with me on that. And "bad" magic could mean something like I just said: spells, pots of magic potion, wizardry and flying brooms.
And
that is what
Princess Ben is full of. Wizard-type magic. Maybe you don't have a problem with that sort of magic, maybe you think that since it's just a book that it's all a-okay. It's not real life, who cares..... right?
Wrong!
Personally, I don't approve of that sort of magic, and I most likely would not have read this book if I had known that magic was in there.
When I discovered it, I wondered what I should do. Should I stop reading, or keep going? I was already half way through the story, and I wanted to find out what happened. But then I thought maybe I should stop anyway. In the end I continued, even though I'm still not sure whether that was the right thing to do or not.
You probably won't be affected by reading that sort of thing 'just once,' but that 'just once' can turn into 'just ten times.'
The writing is good, though. I enjoyed the descriptions and comparisons, and the story line was quite interesting.
So, in conclusion, if you
do decide to read this book, just be careful and think about what your reading as you read. No one's going to blame you if the magic is just too much for you and you stop half way through.
Objectional Content:
Language: D*m*.
Romance/Sexual Content: Queen Sophia decides that Princess Ben must marry, and goes about finding a proper husband for her.
When Queen Sophia believes Ben to be under an enchantment, she says that whichever man's kiss awakens her, he may be the one to marry her.
There is one kiss between Ben and the man she decides to marry.
A prince, to spite Ben, dances with a lady whose "chest was only contained by goodwill."
Violence: I won't exactly call this violence, but Ben is accused of being a witch. She escapes quickly after this accusation can be put to the test, however.
There is also a fight near the end, Ben and a prince against a dragon.
A battle.
Nothing else that I remember.
Drugs/Alcohol: I'm pretty sure someone gets drunk at a feast, and there is hinting at the queen and a friend of hers getting a bit tipsy at dinner.
I suppose there really isn't such a thing as "good" magic, but if you've just
got to read about magic, I'd stick to the
Narnia series.
Not quite sure what to rate this book. It was good, but I just don't feel right about all that magic.
Ages: thirteen and up
