The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: The Golden Princess: A Retelling of Ali Baba and Forty Thieves

Series: Return to the Four Kingdoms #4

Author: Melanie Cellier

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling, Clean Romance

Rating: 4.5 stars

Review:

Exiled from her old life as the daughter of a vizier, Zaria still grieves the lost friends of her childhood. She’s grown accustomed to her new role as a servant, though—up until the day she stumbles on the fabled lost cave of treasures.

The wealth inside is enough to transform anyone’s life, but Zaria isn’t the first to find it. A gang of cutthroat thieves got there first, and their behavior makes Zaria question everything she sees. With an unknown enchantment at work, and forty criminals desperate to protect their hoard, she doesn’t want anything to do with the gold.

But when her royal friends reappear, Zaria discovers the cave is the key to defeating a threat to the entire kingdom. She can’t turn her back on her people, even if that means facing thieves and traitors with Crown Prince Tarek at her side. Zaria thought she’d found peace with her past, but now she isn’t sure if she’s more in danger of losing her life or her heart.

In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, a servant girl must outwit a cunning adversary before she can claim the treasure her heart truly desires. – summary from Goodreads

The Golden Princess is a wonderful retelling and addition to this series! I absolutely loved this story and can’t wait to revisit it!

I will start with Zaria! She was an incredible main character, but I especially enjoyed how sensible she was. Cellier has given us all sorts of characters, and for that I will be forever grateful. While Zaria is very sensible and responsible, she also likes to have fun and go on adventures. Zaria was also a very kind character. That is another thing I love about Cellier’s characters- they are all kind. Zaria didn’t really have any interest in wealth either, which I appreciated. What she was doing was out of the goodness of her heart, which is admirable.

This book had a really well thought out backstory and I love how it came together and played out. I loved the history between Zaria and the younger royals, and how that impacted her current situation. You could tell that the history Zaria had with them greatly impacted her and affected how the story played out.

I thoroughly enjoyed Rek! I love a responsible character, so Rek totally spoke to me! I will say that while Rek was responsible, that wasn’t all he was. He was a fully developed character, but his responsibility shown through the most. He also liked adventure and was protective as well. I also really enjoyed how he just wanted to get his dad’s approval- this is always a powerful storyline, and I enjoyed seeing his growth.

I loved the childhood friends to lovers’ part of the story. I thought it was well done and incredibly sweet! It was adorable, and I loved the confession scene!

In every one of her series’, Cellier has managed to slip in a secondary romance plot among side characters. This book we get a romance for Navid (one of Zaria’s best friends) and Adara (Rek’s sister). It was sweet but felt a little sudden for me. I wish it was developed a little more for the reader, but also, I wish the characters had a little bit more time on their own, so they felt like more full-fledged characters.

The magic in this world was very interesting! I was slightly confused about how it all works, but I loved it. It was very unique and new. It also connected back to Cassie’s story in the previous book, and I liked that connection and backstory. I don’t know the story of Ali Baba and Forty Thieves, and this is my first retelling, but I thought it was super cool how it was done- especially how the forty thieves were incorporated.

The culture in this book was also well written and one I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I love a good desert read, and I loved how Cellier set up this world really nicely in The Desert Princess, but this kingdom had a feel of its own as well. I loved how this city was set up, and the different culture we see here. It was very intriguing and different from all the other kingdoms we have read about so far!

This book had some fun dynamics. There were interesting sibling dynamics, as well as parent-child dynamics, servant-employer dynamics. The more I think about it, it felt like a drama (a little bit). It wasn’t cheesy or anything- I promise- but there was a level of drama that I thoroughly enjoyed.

One of my absolute favorite parts about the book was the knife dance! It was well done and engaging! I just had to share that.

I didn’t mind a lot of the side characters, but there were a few of them that I am a little confused about. I enjoyed Ali and Mariam, but they kept being set up as being a little manipulative. Nothing ever really came from this, and I wish a tiny bit more development was given to this part of the story. The other character I struggle with is Nyla- she was awful to everyone, but especially Zaria- and there weren’t really any consequences for her. I wished there was a conversation at the very least.

The Golden Princess was an adventurous, childhood friends to lovers retelling, with a sensible main character, responsible love interest, a unique magic system, adventure, and drama, making this a lovely read!

Quotes:

“‘And that’s why I need you by my side. For the moments of good sense and the moments of adventure.’

‘And may we have a great many of both.’”