Power of a Princess

September 15, 2019
In the series' second installment, Princess Aislin draws on her pedrasi powers to confront a powerful enemy. Exploring Mount Gora's tunnels at the behest of her royal pedrasi grandfather, Aislin discovers vicious trolls collecting dragons' eggs for a mysterious being they refer to as "her." Using pedrasi powers to dispatch the trolls--with help from cavern-dwelling spriggans--Aislin, her guards, and her doll friend, Twinket, return to the pedrasi palace. On the way they meet angry fairies, upset that Aislin's royal fairy grandparents are moving to the human world and opening the borders for humans to enter the magic realms. Asked to help with the transition, Aislin travels to the fairy palace, where, ignoring relentless lobbying from fairy wannabes, she selects her own multispecies ladies-in-waiting, provoking more fairy ire. Her royal relatives, too, realize mischief's afoot. When, after the move, human nobles visit--including odious Rory and Aislin's friend Tomas--events prove harm is intended, but by whom? After a strong opening, the story quickly loses steam, remaining flat and nearly action-free until the final 30 pages. Exciting events are summarized, not shown. The author's tendency to repeat what readers already know in dialogue that's long on introductory greetings and action summaries and short on plot advancement and character development doesn't help. Aislin's gifts--exceptional magical powers, wide popularity, and prodigious beauty--deprive her of challenges, leaching her story of suspense. Human characters default to white; nonhuman but human-seeming Aislin has brown skin and long, dark hair. Strictly for princess-culture devotees with a high boredom threshold. (Fantasy. 8-11)

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October 25, 2019

Gr 4-6-The second installment in the series follows Aislin and her friends as the Fey return to the human world to tidy up some of the lingering issues after Aislin's first visit. The slow pace and labored world-building of the first half of the book may make it hard for young readers to stay engaged. Aislin is never out of temper and her only mistakes come from her good intentions. In fact, all the good creatures are very good and all the bad ones are very bad, so none of them feel like fully realized characters. The positive messaging around looking beyond surface-level beauty to value strength and kindness is welcome but hardly new. The action picks up in the second half of the book, as a new villain rescues an old one and Aislin and her Mestrasi (a mixture between bodyguards and ladies in waiting) set out to stop them, but it is likely only fans will make it to that point. VERDICT Purchase only where the first book is popular.-Gesse Stark-Smith, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR

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