I realty enjoyed the art style. The characters and settings were wonderfully drawn. The plot is amazing and kept me on my toes. The story has great action and fighting scenes. The pacing was absolutely perfect. Greta has great development and I really enjoyed her character. All around great read.

I rather enjoyed Prince Freya overall, but I cannot say that I am in love with the graphic novel as it stands. The artstyle was lovely and I took no issue with that, but the story itself was lacking. Perhaps it is because historical fantasy is one of my favourite genres in the literary world and I have read a number of these fiction novels (as well as having a BA in history), but I found the world building in this one to be unsatisfying. The premise was wonderful, but I did not feel as attached to Freya, Aaron and Alek (the main protagonists) before major plotline events began to unfold. I thought I had missed something and had to skip back a few times to re-read pages due to how the book jumped from one incident to the next. ALSO Freya started to irritate me after awhile as she is ultra sensitive, cries over nearly everything, and does not think through her actions. She could have been made to appear a little less weak and helpless, although maybe she was designed so dramatically incapable to contrast how much emotionally and physically stronger she becomes as the story develops. Regardless, I think I would pick up the second book in the series out of curiosity, but I am not convinced that I would spend money on it right now.

This series looks like it's going to be pretty awesome! I look forward to reading volume 2 and seeing how things develop!

In this volume we are introduced to Freya, the White Knight, the Black Knight and the Black Knight's brother who is a guard. Freya grew up with the Black Knight and his brother after saving them, inadvertently, as a child, I guess. There isn't a whole lot of back story for the three in this volume, just enough to establish their bond. But I imagine there will be more as the series goes on.

Freya is a deadringer of the Prince, in body only. In spirit, they are two VERY different people. Edward is charismatic, self-assured and cocky. Freya, well she cries a lot, is a bit of scaredy-cat, but will endure anything to protect the people she loves. So when the Prince is poisoned, the Black Knight is on the hook for not bringing her back with him and her entire village is threatened, Freya steps in.

Thank you to NetGalley and VIZ Media for the ARC provided.

I’m not a fan of historical stories, but this manga can make me become a fan of it. All mixed with beautiful drawing and a strong kick-ass female character, make this manga is worth to read.

One thing that makes me a little bit uncomfortable, Freya can’t stand for not crying and it’s a little bit too much for me.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read Prince Freya for an honest review .
OMG, I cannot believe this manga will be published April 7, 2020 why have I done this to myself the wait will be long and hard for volume 2.
I am completely in love with this story and it’s characters. Prince Freya follows Freya, a normal teary eyed girl who has a striking resemblance to prince Edvard, a strong charismatic prince that the people love. In order to protect her village from a neighboring kingdom that wants to take over, Freya has to become Prince Edvard if she wants to protect her family and her people.
The story is very interesting and the artwork is captivating, I cannot wait to keep reading about Freya and her journey to becoming a strong character. I recommend this manga to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and character development I can’t wait to read volume two.

Volume 1 sets up the story of Freya, a young girl from the small village of Tena. She is meek and cries often, generally relying on the kindness of the villagers, her mother and her two adopted "brothers" Aaron and Aleksi, both of whom are knights of Tyr, the country in which they reside. Aaron is part of Prince Edvard's personal guard and when the Prince is poisoned and dies, Freya--who is his spitting image--pretends to be the Prince. Unfortunately, Freya is the opposite of the prince and struggles with being "strong" to protect her family and kingdom which is at war.

Freya is so far an interesting protagonist. Ishihara writes in her author's columns throughout the book that Freya is unlike her other protagonists who tend to be "gutsy" while Freya is so weak. Like Ishihara, I look forward to watching Freya grow into her own strength over several volumes, as she shows signs of this in her moments of masquerading as Prince Edvard.

Less interestingly is the "love triangle" between Freya, Aleksi and Sir Julius, Prince Edvard's trusted confidante. Julius seems to have been a bit in love with Edvard and uses this attraction to manipulate Freya while Aleksi, the shy strong type, uses his physical strength to get into Edvard's inner circle to protect Freya. I'll be definitely interested to see how these relationships grow, and if they grow beyond typical manga stereotypes.

Overall, a very good first volume! I'm excited to read more!

Stories with a strong, badass female lead are amazing! Stories with a weaker female lead, who despite their difficulties, push through to become a strong, badass female lead are even more amazing. I have a strong feeling that Prince Freya is going to become one of the latter.

Freya lives with her mother in a small town on the edges of a war, but when her adopted brothers return home from the Prince’s guard for a visit, Freya finds herself thrown headfirst into wartime politics.

Prince Freya was an insanely cute story with some wicked cute characters. It’s got some Game of Thrones vibes, some Princess Bride vibes and a ton of dark, tall, brooding soldier vibes! I will absolutely be checking out volume 2, because I am really excited to see how the story progresses and how Freya’s character develops. I also cannot wait to see more of Mikal and Yngvi.

First of all the cover for this manga really drew me in, it's really gorgeous. In fact I love the art style of this Mangaka, it's beautiful!

As for the story I thought it was an interesting if not overdone gender bender kind of story. Even though this type of story line has been done before I was still interested in what would happen to Freya and her brothers. Even though I'm only reading the first volume I already felt myself connecting to some of the characters, especially the brothers.

This volume really grabbed my interest and I would be interested in picking up volume 2 to see what happens to Freya and the village. I would recommend this manga for people interested in historical fiction and really gorgeous art styles. It's not a groundbreaking unique kind of plot but it's just enough to spark your interest and suck you in.

This has all of the tropes and things that I enjoy! A local village girl is forced into pretending to be the late prince because of her uncanny resemblance to him. Her two best friends are sworn knights to the prince and will do anything to protect her. I love Freya because she sweet and sensitive and not afraid to cry. (I'm a serial crier lol) And Aleksi is so handsome and protective and sweet and cool and I love him! I'm so excited to see where this series goes and if Freya will be able to adopt the prince's devil may care attitude and save the kingdom!

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, which is how I got my grubby little hands on this early.

I've read some of Keiko Ishihara's manga before, and thought it was decent, and the cover is pretty, so I decided to pick this up, knowing nothing else. The plot follows Freya, a girl whose normal life is disrupted when the fire nation attacks -- I mean, when she stumbles across a plot which will affect her adopted brothers, and she quickly finds herself in over her head. Freya is a little bit annoying; not enough to stop reading, but sometimes it's a little much. I think she'll get better in later books, as she's set up for character growth. A lot of this felt like set up for the larger series, which makes sense, as it is volume one, but it's not always the most compelling. It's not bad, and I feel like it's going to get better the longer we get to know the characters, but it definitely feels like there's room to grow.

The art is standard manga art, which I like, but nothing stood out.

Overall, I liked the book, but I think (hope?) the next volume will be better, now that everything's set up. There's a nice cliffhanger, so I'm definitely curious to read what happens next. So sure, I'd recommend this -- it's not my favorite, but it's decent.

I loved this manga so much I just preordered a copy. I can't get enough of historical dramas so this genre is right up my alley. The art is beautiful. The characters were all well-written and had unique personalities. There's political intrigue but also potential romantic drama, so I stayed involved in the plot and interested in the characters.

I liked that instead of ending the volume with a few pages of notes, the author actually dispersed them throughout the manga in side-bars. I have not seen that done before. Usually when I reach the end of a volume of manga, I feel like reading the author's notes after the story is just a chore. But this way, I felt like I was actually getting a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the author's creative process and enjoyed that a lot more.

If I had any critique, it would be that the main plot point of the peasant girl taking over the role of the prince was completely rushed. If I hadn't read the synopsis of the book first, I probably wouldn't have even been able to understand what was happening. I assume this is just a translation and that there's no going back to fix it, but I feel it would have served the story much better if readers had been able to see the prince being poisoned, and his confidantes coming up with a plan to use a decoy. That was almost entirely left to the imagination. I actually felt as if I were missing several pages of the manga.

Regardless, I love the manga and I'm completely invested now. I'll be looking forward to more volumes in the future!

Prince Freya by Keiko Ishihara is a European-inspired fantasy shojo centered around three childhood friends: Freya and two brothers, Aaron and Alek. Tragedy befalls the kingdom of Tyr as the crown prince, Edvard, falls ill, and Freya rushes to accompany her friends before they encounter an unexpected twist.

At first, I was drawn by the cover art of the manga volume. However, I was unfortunately not as impressed with the in-book art. The story is reminiscent of Yona from Yona of the Dawn, both showcasing soft, sheltered, 'crybaby' girls who have to steel themselves because of certain circumstances.

I am interested in finding out what happens next, so I will be looking of the volume two at the library.

Will I purchase a copy? With how much manga costs these days, I will not be picking this one up for my personal collection.

Great Artful drawings that are backed up with a really fun and interesting story! I will be reading more of this series!!!

"Prince Freya" is a beautifully drawn story of crybaby Freya who gets thrust into living a lie as Prince Edvard after his murder. There's a lot of room for political plots, twists in the story, and relationships which I'm excited to see where it will lead. The love "triangle?" (kinda?) is a little contrived but ultimately it makes for good stakes and very sweet plot points. This is something that teeters on the line of older-teen to adult so it's possible that we may order a copy for the teen room depending on the reveiws and interest.

A solid choice for any manga reader looking to jump into a fantasy adventure story.

Freya is a villager in a small town in the country of Tyr. She is a timid young woman who cries easily. Her two adopted brothers, Alec and Aaron, have been gone for three long years working as knights for Prince Edward. When they unexpectedly arrive home, Aaron kisses Freya and promises that he and Alec will never let their duties for the prince outweigh their love for her and her mother. Once they leave, Freya overhears soldiers from the neighboring country of Sigurd say that they poisoned Prince Edvard in the hopes of conquering Tyr. Freya, in a panic, rushes to the castle where Alec, Aaron, and Prince Edvard are staying. It turns out that Alec and Aaron had been sent home to bring back Freya, who looks eerily like Edvard, to impersonate the dying prince so as to not appear weak in the face of conquering Sigurd. The boys don’t want to submit Freya to this life, but she volunteers for it.

And so begins Freya’s journey from weepy to strong. We’ll have to see how she handles standing up for herself when White Knight Julius tries to bully her around, how she comes into her ownership of her role as prince, and how her relationship with Alec turns out since Aaron was killed by the Sigurdians.

While I am more comforting with the historical European setting (than the Japanese settings of most manga), I really hate Julius. He says he wants to support Prince Edvard, but he keeps throwing Freya under the bus. As a novice to manga, I don’t feel like I have much authority in judging this book, but I could take or leave this one— when I usually could leave the majority of manga I’ve read.

I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

4/5

This book was GORGEOUS. The art style is just *mwuah* chefs kiss. Getting a physical copy of this and seeing the 2 page illustrations is now my dream.
I haven’t read any other of Keiko Ishihara’s work but she seems like my kind of girl. This book has everything you could ask for: gender bender, hot knights, medieval-time fantasy, war, romance, blood! Need I go on? As a lover of both Inuyasha and Goblin Slayer, this new series hits the right spots with me.

Just as some side notes, I do like that Freya, the main character, is already being set-up for some serious character development, and I can’t wait to see if she becomes the character who I really want her to become. Her “quirk” is adorable though, but I am glad to see that she doesn’t get lost in her emotions.

I must say the story become real harem-y, real fast. I’m curious to see what Ishihara does with her romance - though of course I already have my favourite ;) As for other concerns, I am a little confused as to how nobody must take fall damage? Fingers crossed that that’ll be explained.

This series has GREAT potential and I’m very excited to dive deeper. Would love for this story to gain traction because it is worth the attention.

Beautiful artwork and compelling characters, plus a great start to the story. Some of the twists were amazing - one in particular was heartbreaking. Keen to see where this one goes.

ARC Copy...although the cross dressing plotline among political intrigue game is well intriguing and a promising start. In compare to other high fantasy-nordic style mangas...it did not "sing" as strong to me.

That took a turn for the dark right quick. Not as dark as Promised Neverland, but not what I was expecting either. Manga doing Western Historical or Fantasy has been hit or miss for me in the past but so far, I'm liking this enough to.read the rest of the series. Freya is a little bit of a crybaby but it is understandable and I like the direction the author is taking her. Alek I'm a little worried about. He seems a flat, but I hope that will change as we get to know him.

<b>Advance reader copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</b>

I went into this manga knowing that it is not normally my cup of tea, but I wanted to expand on my manga reading tastes to see if I could discover more things which I liked. I am happy that I was able to read this book because it enabled me to read outside of my comfort zone, and I did like it to a degree. I would be tempted to read volume 2 but I don't think it would be high on my reading list if I did continue with the series. If I did buy the second volume, I would probably read it because it was a fast read and not because it was a read that I really anticipating. But I do want to know what will happen in the series.

In terms of the plot, I liked it but I wasn't completely invested in it, and I didn't like the concept of Freya needing to become the crown prince. The plot of the story did surprise me. There was a twist, and I was like, "Oh my god! The author actually went there." That is a reaction which I very rarely have in books that I read. I am slightly invested in the story because I want to know what will happen, but I don't know if I will continue on with the series.

I didn't mind the characters in this story. My favourite character was Aaron. I did feel like we didn't really get to know anyone though, as this is a plot based story. The story is filled with action rather then getting to know the characters.

Overall, I did enjoy this book and I don't regret reading it.