Author: Kristen Boie
Ships Launched:773
Pages: 378
Publisher: Scholastic
Year Published: 2010
Genre: Contemporary, Fantasy, Adventure
Synopsis: Jenna has just won the starring role in a film about a princess--sweet!
In the wink of an eye, she's whisked off to a remote, romantic kingdom
for the "shoot." But something's amiss: First, she finds out she bears
an uncanny resemblance to the real princess, who has run away following
the death of her father, the king. Then she learns that the conniving
regent plans to use her to take control of the country, now being fought
over by rebels. As the plot twists and turns, Jenna discovers just what
she's made of--and just why she resembles the missing princess so much!
When I first read this book, I had no idea that it was originally a German bestseller. Yes, I'm a tad ignorant.
In The Princess Plot, a young girl named Jenna wins a starring role in a princess movie against all odds, but mysterious things begin to happen when she arrives at the filming location in the foreign country of Scandia.
Boie did a great job with creating the country of Scandia. Every country has its problems, and Scandia certainly has its fair share of them. Made up of two islands, the South has always been rich and successful, but the North has been taken advantage of for years. They are one step away from a civil war.
Jenna seems like a normal teenage girl. She is insecure at times, and in difficult situations she tries to be brave and do the right thing, but a lot of the time she cannot help but panic.
We don't really get much information on Malena, just that she is sad that her father is dead and that her people love her. Her character doesn't really have much depth.
Jonas, however, we know a little more about. We know that he misses his mother and that he has a strong friendship with Malena. He seems rude and sullen a lot of the time, but when you get to know him better you find that he is not like that at all.
Norlin is a bad guy, yes, but you cannot help but feel a little sympathy for him at times. That is not the case with Bolstrom. He is rotten through and through.
The plot of The Princess Plot (ha ha) is interesting, if not a bit fantastical. It's easy to get swept up in all of the action and drama.
The one thing that annoys me with this book is the writing. I understand that it is first and foremost a German book, and the English is translated from that, but I must say that the writing seems halting and, well, fake at some points. I find myself snorting at certain phrases and thinking, "Real teenagers would never say that."
The translator, David Henry Wilson, is obviously not a teenage girl and never was a teenage girl, so of course he does not know the things that teenage girls know.
Take, for example, this description:
"The young man smiled. He was good-looking, film-star good-looking. He was supercute." (pg. 21)
Um... supercute? Since when is that one word? Since when do teenagers use that to describe guys?
Please excuse my nitpicking. It just annoys me.
Other than those kind of things, The Princess Plot is a pretty entertaining book. Read it!
+15 - Scandia - I know an amusement park named Scandia! I've never been there, but I drive past it every time we go to the mountains! (And no, that doesn't really have to do with the book, but...)
When I first read this book, I had no idea that it was originally a German bestseller. Yes, I'm a tad ignorant.
In The Princess Plot, a young girl named Jenna wins a starring role in a princess movie against all odds, but mysterious things begin to happen when she arrives at the filming location in the foreign country of Scandia.
Boie did a great job with creating the country of Scandia. Every country has its problems, and Scandia certainly has its fair share of them. Made up of two islands, the South has always been rich and successful, but the North has been taken advantage of for years. They are one step away from a civil war.
Jenna seems like a normal teenage girl. She is insecure at times, and in difficult situations she tries to be brave and do the right thing, but a lot of the time she cannot help but panic.
We don't really get much information on Malena, just that she is sad that her father is dead and that her people love her. Her character doesn't really have much depth.
Jonas, however, we know a little more about. We know that he misses his mother and that he has a strong friendship with Malena. He seems rude and sullen a lot of the time, but when you get to know him better you find that he is not like that at all.
Norlin is a bad guy, yes, but you cannot help but feel a little sympathy for him at times. That is not the case with Bolstrom. He is rotten through and through.
The plot of The Princess Plot (ha ha) is interesting, if not a bit fantastical. It's easy to get swept up in all of the action and drama.
The one thing that annoys me with this book is the writing. I understand that it is first and foremost a German book, and the English is translated from that, but I must say that the writing seems halting and, well, fake at some points. I find myself snorting at certain phrases and thinking, "Real teenagers would never say that."
The translator, David Henry Wilson, is obviously not a teenage girl and never was a teenage girl, so of course he does not know the things that teenage girls know.
Take, for example, this description:
"The young man smiled. He was good-looking, film-star good-looking. He was supercute." (pg. 21)
Um... supercute? Since when is that one word? Since when do teenagers use that to describe guys?
Please excuse my nitpicking. It just annoys me.
Other than those kind of things, The Princess Plot is a pretty entertaining book. Read it!
+15 - Scandia - I know an amusement park named Scandia! I've never been there, but I drive past it every time we go to the mountains! (And no, that doesn't really have to do with the book, but...)
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