What does it mean to be a princess? For most girls the answer involves being a beautiful young woman with closets full of even more beautiful dresses, never having to work a day in your life, sitting around playing the harp and embroidering—all while waiting for Prince Charming to show up. The Ordinary Princess, on the other hand, flips this idea on its head when young Princess Amethyst Alexandra Augusta Araminta Adelaide Aurelia Anne is blessed (or cursed) at birth with the gift of being ordinary.
The now ordinary princess (commonly known as Amy) is doomed to go through life without all of those traditional princessly characteristics. Her hair is straight and mousy, not gloriously long and curly. Her skin is tan and freckled, not porcelain white and untouched by the sun. Waiting around for a prince will do her no good, since no prince (Charming or otherwise) can be found who is willing to marry her. And when her parents, in desperation, plan to bring in a dragon to lay waste to the land (in a roundabout attempt to marry her off to a stranger) the Ordinary Princess has had enough. She runs off into the woods to stop her parents' foolhardy plan—and to start an ordinary life. When she discovers that she cannot survive alone in the woods for very long she gets a job as a kitchen maid in the castle of a neighboring kingdom.
There she does nice, ordinary things, like earning a weekly wage, sending a letter to her parents every month, meeting a nice young man, washing hundreds and hundreds of dishes, and playing with her forest animal friends. But when love sneaks into her life unexpectedly she is forced to confront her gift at last. What she discovers is that perhaps she doesn't need to be defined by being ordinary or being a princess; perhaps she can just be Amy.
Review by Lauren Shearer
Lauren Shearer writes words for fun and profit. She also makes films, but everyone knows you can't make a profit doing that. Her other hobby is consistently volunteering way too much of her time. You can read more of her reviews
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