The last big projects for both of my classes are starting to come due in the next couple of weeks, and I need to finish up my hours for my ESL field experience in the next couple of weeks as well. I'll just say that I'm really struggling in my ESL class because there has been essentially no human interaction the entire semester. The subject matter is interesting and important, and I'm really enjoying my field work for the class, but the coursework is very time-consuming, the instructions aren't always clear, sometimes there are conflicting instructions in various places on the course website, and the professor is not always easy to get answers from.
Enough about that, on to the book review! I recently won a contest on the blog of the author Jessica Day George for an advance reading copy of her latest book, Princess of Glass, a sequel to Princess of the Midnight Ball, which I reviewed on this blog last year. The author wanted to get 50 amazon reviews of Princess of the Midnight Ball before Princess of Glass was released, so she offered a contest on her blog. If you posted an amazon review of Princess of the Midnight Ball on amazon and then left a comment on her blog with your amazon reviewer name, you got entered in a drawing for an ARC of Princess of Glass. I already posted an amazon review based on the review I did in this blog, so I entered, got lucky, and won one of the copies!
Here's what I got in the mail - it's an uncorrected advance proof of the book, also known as an ARC, and it's autographed inside by the author! Uncorrected proofs are in paperback form, probably contain mistakes, and basically aren't polished or finalized yet. I definitely found some typos and mistakes as I read along, but they didn't distract from the fun story.
Princess of the Midnight Ball, as I mentioned in my blog post about it, is a retelling of the twelve dancing princesses and is the story of Princess Rose. This sequel is the story of one of Rose's younger sisters, Princess Poppy, and it's a retelling of Cinderella, but with a twist. Although I found some of the chapter changes confusing and abrupt, I really enjoyed the book a lot. Instead of a kindly fairy godmother, the godmother in this story is a black magician called the Corley, and she has an ulterior motive when she helps young Eleanora go to the balls to win the heart of a prince. Princess Poppy, so recently released from a curse of dark magic in the previous book, recognizes something isn't right, and with the help of her friends, works to undo the damage that the Corley has caused.
Although I think I liked Galen from Princess of the Midnight Ball better than Prince Christian in this book, Princess Poppy is definitely my kind of princess. She's spunky, beats everyone at cards, swears like a soldier (her brothers-in-law are to thank for that), and yet still carries herself like a princess.
I also really enjoyed the way the glass slippers were worked into the story. They are a recognizable part of the tale, and yet with a new twist that works with the darker tone of the story. Every night before each ball, the Corley's mute servants bathe and dress Eleanora in beautiful gowns and jewels, and then the Corley herself melts and molds magical glass directly on to her feet. It causes her great pain, and if she doesn't get back to the Corley before midnight, her feet start turning into glass. The Corley also puts an enchantment on Eleanora so that every man, but especially Prince Christian, will be crazy about her.
Unfortunately for the Corley, Prince Christian is falling in love with Poppy despite the love spell enchantment to force him to fall in love with Eleanora, and Eleanora is actually in love with someone else as well. The important thing in books of this kind is that Poppy and Eleanora both get their happily ever afters in the end.
As with Princess of the Midnight Ball, Princess of Glass also includes a knitting pattern at the end. Throughout the story, Princess Poppy knits magical protective bracelets for all of her friends in the hopes that they will help them see through the Corley's enchantments; the pattern in the back shows you how to make Poppy's anti-love spell bracelets.
I really enjoyed the book, and I will definitely buy a "finished" copy when the book comes out in a few months. I'll keep it right next to this ARC. I hope Jessica Day George decides to write about this family. There are still 10 more sisters and a bunch more fairy tales to take inspiration from!
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