The Princess Curse by Marie Haskell

Rating: 4-Would recommend it to everyone

PLOT:

Twelve princesses suffer from a puzzling—and downright silly—curse. Ridiculous though the curse may be, whoever breaks it will win a handsome reward. 

Sharp-witted Reveka, an herbalist’s apprentice, has little use for princesses, with their snooty attitudes and impractical clothing. She does, however, have use for the reward money that could buy her a position as a master herbalist. 

But curses don’t like to be broken, and Reveka’s efforts lead her to deeper mysteries. As she struggles to understand the curse, she meets a shadowy stranger (as charming as he is unsettling) and discovers a blighted land in desperate need of healing. Soon the irreverent apprentice is faced with a daunting choice—will she break the curse at the peril of her own soul?

The Princess Curse is is one addition to story retellings that had been read over the years.

However this version of The Twelve Dancing Princesses is actually just a part element of the whole story for it also has its share of Beauty and The Beast, as well as Greek Mythology.This is simply a impressive rendition. It even introduced me to this Romanian mythological creature called zmeu

if you ever had problem in imagining him, lol like i did,just stare at this red colored beauty

The narration tends to be slow and some political issues are told in a boring manner, but hey you're the reader, so skip and go to the meaty parts.

Anyway Reveka sacrificed herself and agreed to be the zmeu's wife, thus saving her father and the princesses. She then lived in the Underworld, a world of total darkness and discovered how the dark kingdom of souls suffer from deterioration that she could, in a way, help to stop.

Reveka and the zmeu had a quiet, civil relationship that grew with Reveka able to understand Frumos' (zmeu's name) problems. 

All in all, the book isnt perfect, but the way the plot was presented was nice and the later part of the whole story showed maturity and understanding. Yep its squeaky clean, nice romance for Frumos and Reveka too, something that is realistic for a 14 year old to experience.

And now for me, I am lusting for one thing : a sequel.

I have read books before that has open endings that is up to you and all, but the ending Haskell gave the readers is not satisfactory,  you know how that feels? The ending is quite good and win-win I tell you, nothing to be worried about. But still I want Reveka’s adventures to continue. The publisher however hinted he will ask more if the sales are good, and I hope it does \(n_n)/