The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: The Secret Princess: A Retelling of the Goose Girl

Series: Return to the Four Kingdoms #1

Author: Melanie Cellier

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling, Clean Romance

Rating: 4.5 stars

Review:

Princess Giselle is excited to be leading her first royal delegation–until everything goes wrong before they even reach their destination. With her rank and authority stripped away and her people scattered, she’s left with nothing but a gaggle of geese.

Giselle is determined to prove herself a true princess–in action as well as in name. But to do so she must uncover a conspiracy that threatens far more than her own future. With her life in danger and only a talking horse and an irritable goose boy at her side, she needs assistance. One of the servants is willing to help her, but Philip’s attractive smile hides yet more secrets, and Giselle is running out of time.

In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale, The Goose Girl, the wronged princess must prevail in a deadly game of identities with the fate of kingdoms at stake. – summary from Goodreads

A Secret Princess was such a fun, sweet Goose Girl retelling!

I really loved Giselle and her story arc. She was an intriguing character in A Crown of Snow and Ice but the story wasn’t focused on her then. I really enjoyed how she wanted to prove herself. It was an important part of the story of her wanting to move away from Celine’s shadow and do something without help. Another side of this story that I really enjoyed was her realizing that she deserved to be a princess not because of birth but because of her actions and the way she treated and cared for people. It was an incredibly important and powerful storyline, that I thoroughly enjoyed!

One of the things that I loved about this book, but Cellier’s books in general, was the fact that lying is looked down upon so much. I find that that is not something that I see a lot in media nowadays. Giselle did lie, but she was forced, but she felt terrible about it, which I really liked.

Phillip has my heart! He was so much fun to read, and I loved his nicknames for Giselle. I think that had been something missing for the many of the other books that there weren’t any nicknames! I loved, loved, loved that he called her Lark- it was ridiculously sweet. My heart also melted every time he called her “my girl”! He was a lot of fun and a nice pair with Giselle.

I truly adored Arvin! I loved how Cellier included the talking horse in this book, and I loved Arvin’s personality. He was so snarky and stuck-up, and just utterly ridiculous! It was everything! Arvin often had me giggling!

I thought the geese could have been part of the story a little more, but I did like the scenes with the geese, and I also understand that if Giselle spent the majority of the book with geese, then nothing would have happened. Despite the fact that I wanted a little more of the geese, I actually really liked how many adventures Giselle was able to go on in this retelling.

The story actually has a dark beginning, with Giselle’s delegation being attracted and Giselle, Cassandra, Daisy, and Daria all being separated from each other in Arcadia. I really struggled with the part of the story where all the girls are separated and continue on their own stories. I know it all works out for the best, but I chafe against it a little. I truly enjoyed how the handmaiden’s story was written. I liked how she had a reason for going after the crown and how, when she is caught, the punishment meets the actions.

I think a really interesting storyline was set up with Damon and I am super excited to see how this continues in future books!

We got to see Alyssa and Max and their two kids, Harry and Rose! I loved seeing these two characters again and seeing that they are happily married with kids is everything to me! We also got to see Aldric for a quick second, which was also nice.

A Secret Princess is an adventurous, fun retelling of The Goose Girl, with a wholesome romance, wonderful characters, and a rebellion!