My Review of The Hidden Princess by Mira Crest

My Review:

★★½

This book is marketed as a YA Cinderella Fantasy Romance, but it doesn’t read that way. The Cinderella aspect is a very, very loose retelling with only a mistreated girl and a prince to amount to any similarities. The writing tone and complexity feel much more Middle-Grade than Young Adult. The romance is very minimal and feels more like a c-level plot, not a major thread of the story. I really liked the world that was being built in this story, and it has a very interesting story foundation, but unfortunately, the execution is just not there. The plot meanders at times, making it hard to follow, and some actions don’t really make sense with the rest of the narrative or feel contrived. I think the story could probably use a developmental editor to make it more cohesive.

I listened to the audiobook of this story, and the narrator did a good job, though her voice for Penny feels like it’s for a much younger girl than a teenager. That may be because of the way the writing characterizes Penny.

Please don’t take my word for it. We all have different likes, interests, and opinions. Check out the book at the link below and read the blurb to form your own opinions. 

Buy the book: https://amzn.to/3jQBVOO

Blurb:

A human princess with the power to read minds. A dragon prince who seeks the chosen one to save his kingdom. A dark mist that corrupts the mind.

Penny is an ugly princess born to a family known for its beautiful offspring. To protect the royal bloodline’s reputation, the king proclaims her dead since birth and locks her away in the castle cellar.

But unbeknown to most, including herself, Penny has a gift: she can see the darkness within one’s mind through touch. Everett is a dragon prince whose land is plagued by a deadly sickness in the form of black mist, capable of turning any fairy being it touches into stone.

He comes to Penny’s kingdom seeking the one princess foretold to end the darkness. The choice is clear, it’s either Penny’s cynical eldest sister, Tatiana, or her kind elder sister, Sarah, because Penny does not exist, not officially.

But a twist of fate and Penny’s gift bring her to Everett’s attention, and she takes on a secret identity to aid him to trace the origin of the black mist. What follows is a journey into a dark magical world within the minds of the corrupt, ruled by demons that plague on the dark aspects of the human psyche.

With the clock fast ticking, the prince must discover who the chosen one is in order to defeat the black mist before the mist turns him to stone and spreads to the rest of the world. But there are those who will do anything to keep Penny’s identity hidden. With the odds stacked against Penny, will her true identity be revealed or forever remain hidden?

A must-read for fans of fantasy and clean romance with magical action, adventure, and mystery! Princess League is a series of interconnected fairytale retellings. Each of the first five books features a different heroine who must unveil her hidden power to fight against the magical threats and save her kingdom and love. The heroines’ stories will merge from the sixth book onward.