<b> "Love a commoner? Of course I can, and I do. Love doesn't know anything about class, nor should it be bound by it." </b>

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK! Like I love it as much as Agnes loves her fluffy unicorn. Aggressively.
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The Princess Will Save You is so dang cute, I might pass out. Like actually swoon. TPWSY is loosely inspired by The Princess Bride. And anyone who has seen the movie may find it impossible...
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to liken TPB with anything other than a super sweet romance between a princess and a commoner. To me, that's what I found to be a delight in this book!

Once upon a time, Princess Amarande of Ardenia fell in love with the boy who ran her father's stable. Luca. King Sendoa mysteriously dies in a single breath. In order for Amarande to rule... You guessed it.
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Or lose control of the kingdom. And that's when a neighboring kingdom kidnaps Ama's true love in order to force her into an unwanted marriage. Save Luca. Avoid war. Change the marriage law.

You think you know some cinnamon rolls? Congratulations, you are wrong. You haven't met Luca. The boy who dare tussled with the Warrior King's daughter.
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AND! Bonus Jonas! Luca can hold his own. He's strong and loyal. He calls Ama, "my princess." Oh, Luca, so kind of heart. This OTP love each other something fierce. Ama is anything but a storybook princess. SHE'S A BAWSE. Strong-willed. The daughter of the Warrior King and the Runaway Queen. She's capable enough to take what's hers.

Need more convincing?
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Gender-swapped, true love, high adventure, pirates, princesses, and giants "ya big oaf".

READ IF YOU LIKE:
-The Princess Bride (obvi)
-#IsThisAKissingBook: Stars, of course.
-political intrigue
-forbidden love
-days long quest & reconnaissance
-power & revenge
-blackmail
-twists & turns
-truths & revelations

Thank you Tor Teen for providing me a ebook of The Princess Will Save You! I am SO looking forward to continuing Luca and Ama's story of true love, in [book:The Queen Will Betray You|43603842]

Song: Find You by Ruelle

A gender-bent retelling of The Princess Bride, this book unleashes a wonderful world in the reader’s mind and establishes a heroine who isn’t afraid to defend who she loves while fighting for a better future for her kingdom. This is one princess who encapsulates Princess Buttercup of The Princess Bride if she had a sword and a no-nonsense attitude.

While this title is toted as an "inspired by" retelling of The Princess Bride, I did not want any of my bias for that beloved tale to influence my thoughts on this book - so I did my best to approach the story with a clean slate of expectations. . . and I am glad I did. Yes, there is a princess, a farm boy, and true love - but Sarah Henning took that inspiration and ran a different direction with it that I completely enjoyed. She throws the age-old damsel-in-distress trope on it's ear by giving us a strong leading lady in Amarande with hopes, dreams, and determination all her own. She is funny, intelligent, and definitely not in need of saving. Her loyalty to Luca is inspiring and their bond from childhood to current was lovely.

The pacing and word use was dynamic and witty. I never felt as if I were 'plowing through' just to get to the good parts of the story. It was a delight on every page. And Charlie Bowater's cover art is *chef's kiss*. I am very excited to read more by this author.

Recommended for fans of Mercedes Lackey, Melanie Dickerson, and Gail Carriger's Finishing School Series.

*I received an eARC for free from NetGalley and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Unfortunately, was unable to finish this one - found it not engaging at all. I do like The Princess Bride so was hoping to give it a chance.

The female heroine is the best part of this story! Though Luca is very sweet too. I love the idea of the girl doing the saving and I thoroughly enjoyed this.

I found this book to be alot of fun. It definitely hit a lot of note from the princess Bride that I wanted it to. Granted it's not perfect by any means but I did have fun reading it! I will be picking up the sequel!

This book had so much potential as it was described as a retelling of The Princess Bride but it fell so flat. First of all, the book didn't feel like a retelling at all. There were a few similarities but they were so insignificant that the author and publisher would've been better off not describing it as such. I think it caused a lot of wrong expectations with the readers because that certainly happened with me.

Second of all, the romance was so inadequate. To be honest, this is my biggest issue because the whole story revolved around her going on this epic quest to save her love. However, I felt that there was no history between her and Luca other than what was told and so, the romance always felt fake to me. And because majority of the book took place with the two of them separated, I never felt any real connection with the romance. It's hard to root for a romance when there is no history or feelings other than what was briefly mentioned. And it's especially hard when the book heavily revolves around this romance.

And finally, the other issue I had was the characters. I wasn't a fan of the princess at all. I found her choices to be incredibly naive and downright stupid a lot of times. You can tell that she was very young based on her choices and while that is okay because she's also very young. However, as someone who is trying to be the next Queen and to prove to others that she has what it takes, it definitely felt a bit off to me.

Overall, this book was a disappointment for me. It had a lot of potential but the execution was done poorly. I also didn't expect this book to be a sequel so it definitely took me by surprise to find it as such when I got to the end. For the most part, I wouldn't recommend this book. However, I'm hoping that her other books will be more suited for me.

The Princess Will Save You was a wonderfully done retelling of the Princess Bride. It had all the elements of good storytelling for me: wonderful writing, ship-worthy romance, political intrigue, and action.

FULL REVIEW ON FRESH FICTION
In this gender-flipped, loosely-Princess Bride-inspired young adult adventure novel, Sarah Henning spins a fabulous coming of age tale with swashbuckling feats, battles of wit, and the fight for true love to win. Amarande is an awesome, capable princess who can hold her own among the stuffy and vindictive court, but has to learn how to navigate through the kingdom she strives to protect. Luca, in the gender-swapped damsel-in-distress role, spends much of this novel in captivity, but his interactions with the trio of kidnappers charged with his abduction are eye-opening and set the stage for future books. Political intrigue, Princess Bride Easter eggs throughout, and a sweet story of first love under the direst of circumstances, THE PRINCESS WILL SAVE YOU is an entertaining and feminist retelling, easily enjoyed by young adults and adults alike.

AUTHOR GUEST BLOG: https://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10752

A lot of the "hype" (if you will) surrounding this book is due to the "Princess Bride" angle - but honestly the fact that it is inspired by the PB book or film is not necessarily an attribute that is important. What is important is the story and world-building of Sarah Henning. The character building was a slow going, but the world-building was magnificent and enough to distract from the lack of immediate character building. The descriptions of the various outlying kingdoms, the wasteland (especially while in it), and the inner politics of the kingdom are enough to hook the reader.

The Princess Will Save You is a fun book where Princess Amarande chooses to rescue the love of her life, a stableboy that was kidnapped in an attempt to force her to marry a prince from another kingdom. I loved the premise, but the plot points in the story felt generic and as if I had read them hundreds of time. The twists were heavily foreshadowed and didn't come as a surprise.

The Princess Bride, but make it even more badass with the PRINCESS taking the helm instead of the prince. I loved every second of this highly-anticipated read, and its high action plus romance that made my heart soar.

Rating- 3.5/5

What attracted me to request this book was the cover (which, I later learned, was done by Charlie Bowater). It is so gorgeous!!! I totally ignored the quote 'Don't judge a book by its cover' when I requested this book.'The Princess Will Save You' is the first book of the Kingdoms of Sand and Sky Duology and the next book is planned to be released on 6th July 2021.

The main protagonist of the story is Princess Amarande. Her world begins to fall apart when her father, Warrior King Sendoa dies in an inexplicable way. Heirs and rulers of the neighbouring kingdoms flock to Itspi to ask for Princess Amarande's hand in marriage, each with a cunning ambition of their own. And the princess has no other choice than to accept one of the proposals in order to secure her rightful throne. But after a powerful speech that she delivers at her father's funeral, her true love, Luca gets kidnapped to force Amarande's hand into a marriage. The strong-willed princess then embarks on a journey through the scorching desert of Torrent with the goal to save three things: her love, her kingdom and ultimately, her life.

I haven't read or seen 'The Princess Bride' so I honestly don't know how this book is a retelling of that. The plot is fast-paced, filled with adventure, politics and betrayal. I loved Princess Amarande's character. Unlike most of the royal people in books, she speaks from her heart. And the book ends with a cliffhanger so I am eagerly waiting for the next book. I also loved how almost every character had a plan of his/her own.

Although there are many twists and turns, I was able to predict most of them because of the raw hints here and there. I wish there was more of Amarande and Luca before Luca was kidnapped because honestly, I don't know how this pair of best friends became lovers all of a sudden. So I felt like the romance was bland and their relationship was somewhat forced and flat. If you are planning to read this book, I recommend you to go in with an open mind, not expecting anything after reading the blurb or seeing the cover.

I recommend this book to people who like high fantasy especially those books with a tinge of politics in it. I thank NetGalley and Macmillan/Tor-Forge for providing an e-arc of this book. All opinions are my own.

Oh my heart. I love the Princess Bride and I love Sarah Henning, so when I found out that she was writing a reimagining I was sold immediately. This did not disappoint at all! I can't wait to read the sequel!

This ARC was provided for review, but in no way affects the following impartial and unbiased review:
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2,5*
Pros: Kickass and feminist lead, specially in medieval fantasy. Plays twists in expected gender-roles. Interesting court games and schemes.
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Cons: Not captivating enough. Cliche tropes and plots. No real depth to it.

This was such a fun read! I think that Sarah Henning has a real knack for retellings. If you've read her SEA WITCH or SEA WITCH RISING and enjoyed those I think you will love this one. For anyone that has somehow not read and/or watched THE PRINCESS BRIDE you can 100% enjoy this story. For those of you that are familiar with it, I think you will find the parallels super fun.

I'll be honest, I first requested this book based purely on how much I love this cover. Even now, looking at it above, I'm swayed to feel more positive about this book just by the lovely depiction of its main characters on the cover. But, when I dug deeper, I realized that it is also being promoted as a gender-swapped retelling of "The Princess Bride," so, of course, I was even more excited to check it out! While I did enjoy it overall, it sadly didn't quite live up to the promise of the gorgeous cover or the intrigue of the unique concept.

After the sudden and unexpected death of her father, the king, Princess Amarande quickly discovers how few options she has. Seemingly, no one else is concerned about potential assassination, and instead, her entire council is moving full steam ahead to marry her off to the most politically advantageous match they can find, regardless of Amarande's own wishes. When her best friend, Luca, is kidnapped by one such potential match in an attempt to force her hand, Amarande takes matters into her own hands. Her quest is simple: save her true love, save her kingdom.

This is a tough one for me to rate and review. On one hand, it was enjoyable enough, and I was able to blaze through it in only a few days. The writing was solid. The characters were interesting. And the world-building did enough to paint a picture that I felt grouned. And yet...it was lacking something.

For one thing, I don't think it did this book any favors to have it marketed as a gender-swapped "Princess Bride." Sure, I can see how it follows similar plot points and winks and nods at some of the key phrases used in that book. But, on one hand, if I had not had that put in my head and thus wasn't looking for these elements specifically, I'm not sure I would have made these connections. And, conversely, when I was looking and did spot them, they often detracted more from the story than they added. For one thing, the first half of the story doesn't feel like a re-telling at all, whereas the last half really goes all in. It's an uncomfortable balance.

Beyond that, I think I was also set up to expect more of a humorous fantasy story. Obviously, "The Prinicess Bride" is comedy through and through. Here, not so much. Not only is it clearly not going for the same parody tone that its inspiration had, it also just seemed to lack much humor at all? I think this, truly, is where my main contention point came for the story. It checks all the marks for a good fantasy adventure, but there is something decidedly dry in the tone and its telling. It didn't have to be back-to-back laughs, but as I was reading through, I realized more and more that there simply were no laughs whatsoever. So, while the characters, romance, and adventure were compelling enough, they also felt strangely two dimensional and flat. It was too bad.

It looks like a sequel is planned, so I'll most likely check it out. There were some interesting developments towards the end of the story. And perhaps the second will be served better by being more thoroughly detached from the "Princess Bride" read-alike label. Just add some humor to the story, and it could be great!

Rating 7: Sadly a bit flat in its telling, but a fast enough fantasy adventure.

(Link will go live Sept 2)

There is so much I love about this book. I absolutely love the cover and it made me want to read it. I like the parallels to Princess Bridge and the feminist feel of it. I wasn't crazy about the pacing or the character development. I do think it is good overall though and I will promote this book and look out for more from the author. Thank you so much!

I love Sarah Henning's writing from previous books I had read and I really wanted to love this one, too... but it just missed the mark.

The Princess Will Save You is a retelling of The Princess Bride in which Princess Buttercup and Wesley switch roles. Okay, confession time: I've never seen The Princess Bride and have no desire to do so, it's just never interested me - but I was excited to read this one! But it was boring? It didn't have much humor and seemed pretty dry to be honest.

The characters aren't developed well, and I'm not sure if that's because the author was dependent on the source material too heavy or if they just didn't care? but there's not even any build up to the romance and it was... disappointing?

I absolutely loved this book! The Princess Bride is one of my favourite books, and this did a great job of retelling the story while still being new and fresh. I can't wait to read the sequel!