Title: The Princess and the Hound (Princess #1)
Author: Mette Ivie Harrison
Publisher: HarperTeen 2007
Genre: Fairy Tales
Pages: 410
Rating: 4/5 stars
Reading Challenges: Telling Tales; Fall into Reading
How I Got It: Library Loan
He is a prince and heir to a kingdom threatened on all sides, possessor of the forbidden animal magic.
She is a princess from a rival kingdom, the daughter her father never wanted, isolated from all except her hound.
In this lush and beautifully written fairy-tale romance, a prince, a princess, and two kingdoms are joined in the aftermath of a war. Proud, stubborn, and bound to marry for duty, George and Beatrice will steal your heart—but will they fall in love?
I actually grabbed the second book in this series, but stopped before reading it. I went back to the library to grab the first one in the series. A retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I wasn't expecting that, but was pleasantly surprised. The book is told mostly from the side of George. it took me many pages before I figured out that this was a Beauty and the Beast retelling. I was thrown by the concept of animal magic and the gender role switch. After settling into the idea, I started to really like the story. I loved George's struggle between who he is and who he thinks he should be. It was a nice internal struggle. I wish that we could have gotten to know Beatrice/Marit better. It seems that George falls in love with her, but I couldn't pinpoint why. For the ambiguous love, I dropped the book a star. I just had too many questions at the end of it. Maybe the second book will answer some of those for me.
Princess
- #1 The Princess and the Hound
- #2 The Princess and the Bear
- #3 The Princess and the Snowbird
- #4 The Princess and the Horse
- #5 The Princess and the Wolf
