there were just enough nods to the princess bride to make this one work for me. I couldn’t put it down! While it pays homage to the original work, it is completely it’s own story and I’m dying for a sequel! The ending took me totally by surprise. The writing was fabulous. Though I really enjoyed it, I still felt there was just a little something missing. I probably hyped it up in my head too much 😅 But this book was wonderful, and I would highly recommend checking it out!⁣

The Princess Will Save You follows in the vein of Henning’s previous YA blockbusters in that it is a retelling of sorts but also not. Princess has frequently been described within various bookish circles as a gender bent The Princess Bride but it’s also so much more than that. There’s epic twists, heart wrenching events and some extremely kickarse women be it Princess Ama, the evil but also not Dowager Queen or the little lady with the big sword, Ula. Each of these women has different traits and hopes for their own ‘happy ending’ of sorts but also just represents what it is to be a boss bitch (sorry for the swearing, its utterly necessary in this circumstance).

I feel like I don’t really need to mention the cover of this one because its been, well, everywhere. Its got that signature Charlie Bowater feel to it with the brooding and the staring and the all around pretty.

So, if you have read the blurb, you know it is about a princess who goes to save her stable boy after her dad dies. She needs to marry someone to take the crown because she is a woman and its some all around sexist bs to be honest. So off Ama goes to save her man. In Princess there is that deep kind of semi-obsessive love going on and I kind of dig it. While she could marry for wealth and (backseat) power, the princess is determined to get back her childhood friend and love of her life. Yes, it has the whole destined to be together thing going on but its all done in a sweet kind of way rather than simply being shoved down the readers throat.

Now I know I have already mentioned the Dowager Queen being kind of evil, but I feel like she was probably one of my favourite secondary characters. She is determined and knows what should be hers (sexist bs rears its head again) but is also willing to go to whatever ends are needed to obtain the best for her sons. Her sons who honestly need a good kick up the backside and a stern talking to. Throughout Princess, diamonds are frequently mentioned and while its kind of a cheesy metaphor for the Queen, she herself is a bit like a diamond with all her many facets. Also, she is an expert manipulator, leaving people questioning motives and whether she is in fact genuinely just trying to enact change within the world.

I also want to mention the brother princes because honestly, they are nutjobs of the highest degree. Renard, the heir to the Pyrenee throne and eldest son of the Dowager Queen is willing to go to whatever means he must in order to obtain ascension to the throne. I mean, he could wait less than 12 months but that means there’s room for a certain someone to usurp. He’s an all around jerk who cares only for himself; basically, he is like Joffrey minus the imp uncle who frequently slaps him across the face for being a twit.

Who I really want to mention though is Taillefer. The second son of the Dowager Queen and therefore second in line, this young gentleman is willing to do whatever it takes to make Pyrenee his. He isn’t below torturing and murdering to get his way, but he is also so damn charming while he’s at it. While I don’t generally like to compare characters from other series, he kind of reminded of Maven Calore from Red Queen but willing to torture other people rather than the woman he is trying to marry. He is complicated and I REALLY hope we see him in further instalments.

In Princess, Henning manages to keep the action mostly fast paced. By around 45% of the novel, there had been revelations hinted at, so much adventuring, all sorts of action and then it felt done. It was like reading a fully polished novella which was in its final pages. But then it packs another punch, coming out of what felt like nowhere to turn the tale on its head. While it could have felt strained and a little out of place, the story continues to flow in a manner that is both sensical and encourages the audience to remain engaged. The twists and turns, while predictable continued to unfold until the final pages where the epilogue plays out in a manner that made me feel so many things, mostly rage and generalised ire but also gave me the AHA! Moment I had been waiting for.

So, I’m going to wrap this one up with this. While the twists and turns felt kind of stock standard and it utilised a lot of tropes, I am trash for a good trope, so I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Around half way through, the tale seems to be approaching a logical end but there is a spanner thrown in the works that leads to some very interesting moments. I loved to hate Princess’s villains and really hope to see certain people back in the next instalment. While not my favourite read of the year, it is one I would gladly read again.

The Princess Will Save You centers around Amarande, a princess who may or may not be in love with her stable boy, Luca. Okay, maybe she is. But she doesn't realize it fully or what impact he can have on her future until her father, the great Warrior King dies. She suspects he was killed, though his advisors seem keen on saying it was natural causes. The only person who backs her up is Koldo, the king's right hand woman. When the advisors start pushing for her to get married, because they won't make her queen, she's resistant. She knows that's not something her father would want and it's definitely not something she would want. She makes a bold statement to the rest of the kingdom that she will not accept any request for marriage that she doesn't sign (and she's not signing any of them). When Luca is kidnapped, she begins to suspect it's Renard, a prince of another kingdom. But she refuses to marry him, even if it might save Luca. Then she realizes her training should not be wasted. Why marry to save Luca when she could do it herself?

Labeled as a Princess Bride retelling, with the Princess Amarande (Princess Buttercup) taking the lead rather than dear Luca (Westley), I had such high hopes. The Princess Bride is in my top three movies and I can quote it all day long. I love the Princess Bride so much. But this wasn't the Princess Bride and came no where close. I was first thrown off by the altogether confusing world building. There's a continent that isn't named like a continent? And she's princess of a kingdom? Made up of other kingdoms I think? Or territories? And one wing of the castle is named Itspi? Or the whole castle is named Itspi? Or it's a group of people? I tried so hard to keep everything in check, but I just couldn't. Even 30-40% in I was wholly lost. Additionally, the names are just TOO odd. They cross the line from making any kind of sense into just chaos. 2/3 of them seemed barely pronounceable. Outside of that, even the sentences and syntax were confusing. There were several lines I had to reread four or five times to understand what they meant. Clarity was lost. I came into this novel expecting so much and felt it delivered poorly. I could barely continue reading it, it fell so flat to me. It felt like it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a Princess Bride retelling or its own story and, in combining the two, lost all sense of what a novel and a story should be.

Lets start with the first thing you see and the cover art from Charlie Bowater is just AMAZING and so very eye catching. The Princess Will Save You is a gender swap retelling of The Princess Bride (one of my all time favorite movies EVER!) and let me tell you that you won’t regret picking this up and reading. I will tell you though that I’m usually a stickler about not starting a series until all the books are done because I am a very impatient person when it comes to my books…well that backfired on this one as I didn’t know there was a sequel (how did I miss this??). It starts off kind of slow but as the book kept picking up and getting closer and closer to the end with all the craziness, my anxiety was growing and then the ending……ugh that ending killed me because now I have to wait for the next book and I’m not sure if I can. Sarah Henning did a great job of building from the scaffolding of The Princess Bride (some of the plot that was not from the movie I figured out pretty early on in the book but wasn’t too bothered by that part) and I love a heroine that kicks but for those she loves.

I was provided with an electronic ARC through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

If you want to get me interested in reading a book, have Charlie Bowater design the cover. I mean, seriously, did you LOOK at that cover. Going into this my expectations weren’t set as high as others I have seen surrounding this book. I have never actually seen Princess Bride *gasp*, so I was not as bought into the hype.
When I started this book, it was off to a decent, if not predictable start. We have a princess whose father dies and she has to marry to become his successor. Of course there is a lot of court politics that go into this and she just wants to be with the love of her 16-year old life, the stableboy. Within the first few pages he is kidnapped as a hostage and the story begins.
My first and BIGGEST gripe with this story is that we didn’t get to spend enough time in the beginning with Princess Amarande and her stableboy Luca. You only get one scene with them and we are just supposed to immediately know that she has this deep love for him that makes her willing to risk it all. I feel like if we got any more time with them or maybe even one heartfelt interaction with them it would have made the relationship feel more real to the reader and I would have been more invested from the beginning.
I really struggled this whole book caring about the plot simply because I was not invested in the characters. The writing was done very well and I did enjoy the writing style, however that didn’t make up for the fact that I felt the book fell flat for me. Overall I found myself wanting to just get through the book, I had no attachment and nothing made me want to pick it up and keep reading.

I would like to thank Tor for sending me a physical arc, as well as a Netgalley copy.

Unfortunately, I put this one down after 19% as it felt very amateur, I was a little bored and I didn’t care for the characters. I just felt we didn’t know or care for our protagonist and were thrust into a world where we were told everything, instead of shown.

I was incredibly excited when I heard one of my favorite authors was writing a book inspired by one of my favorite movies. Of course, I was also a bit nervous because those can be pretty difficult expectations to live up to. However, Sarah Henning did not disappoint! I absolutely adored this book from page 1.

A princess, a stable boy, a kingdom, a kidnapping, a quest. This had everything I wanted, without being a literal retelling of The Princess Bride. The author made this into her own world, her own story, borrowing certain elements from the original to create a truly new and unique work of fiction.

You can enjoy this book without ever having read (or watched) The Princess Bride. However, for those of us who grew up reading and re-reading that book, and watching that movie on repeat, there are plenty of Easter eggs hidden throughout that made me want to jump with glee.

Additionally, the ending is a huge shocker, and I am already screaming for Book 2!

The cover is gorgeous, and absolutely caught my eye!

I was so excited for this book, especially after hearing that it was a more feminist retelling of The Princess Bride. However, it ultimately felt like the book was built more around the references than the story, but with the intension of giving Buttercup more agency. It felt like I was being told how empowered and great the princess was rather than having her character and development speak for itself, especially since Luca and their relationship was barely developed.I understand that this is supposed to be making fun of how poorly developed the damsel in distress tends to be, but all of the characters could have just used more. It's also ridiculous that Luca was in such a powerful position at a young age at a court while still having so much time to spend with Ama.

I'm not sure that this book would have stood on its own without knowledge of The Princess Bride, and I'm not sure if the author understood what made The Princess Bride so iconic and memorable.

The cover is gorgeous, to start with. That's what made me pick up the book to begin with (and if you think you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, you're severely underrating the artists who work so hard on them). I also really liked the world building with the different kingdoms and their characteristics. That said, I think that the book could have used a little more development in some aspects. This is a love story, but I didn't feel like I knew very much about the main two characters other than Amarande (which is a great name) was stubborn and independent and Luca was a nice dude. I didn't hate them, but I didn't feel like I really had a reason to root for them other than that I was supposed to because the book was about them. I did appreciate that the good of her kingdom was a main motivator for Amarande. The kind of language used was also something that kept pulling me out of the story. I kept thinking "we know she's a princess, you don't have to keep calling her that every other sentence". It was distracting. The last third of the book or so really felt like JUST a retelling of the Princess Bride (I was all for being inspired by it, but I was hoping it would be its own book too, and maybe not quite so on the nose). Maybe some people will find that a bonus, to have all of the references. I think that there is definitely a crowd out there who will love this book, but for me it didn't quite hit the mark.

Sara Henning is a very interesting writer who has a knack for turning certain well known parts of tales on the upside down. I loved the idea that the princess is the savior and not the damsel in this book. Ama is a badass and fearless, and when her love is taken, she doesn't hesitate to go after him. I loved the play of the princess going after her love, and then a prince going after her and him playing that 'prince saving the princess" trope. The book was definitely weaves an interesting journey and tale of deception. The idea of finding out who contracted for Luca to be taken in the big mystery throughout the book. It was fun and wild ride to read this book, but the ending definitely presents an interesting trajectory for the next book and it went into a direction that was unexpected.

This book has potential but the fact that the stableboy actually really runs the stable for the king of a powerful warrior nation at the age of 17 just really did not work for me. He could have been the assistant but to have him be the primary caretake and still be able to secretly go and play fight with the princess just did not work for me.

I am... torn.

As you may gather from the title, this book is not subtle. It's all about turning a popular narrative on its head, and that popular narrative is The Princess Bride.

I did not realize this until about sixty percent through the book. Up until that point, Amarande was just a sixteen-year-old princess in the process of figuring out just how unprepared she was for the job of taking her late father's throne. She's one of those "I'm ruthless, I'm a devastating warrior, I've been training from birth to sword-fight and throw knives and never trust anyone" heroines who also, somehow, has never hurt anyone in a real fight and seemingly never even been camping.

The stable boy, her childhood friend and crush, is kidnapped by three somewhat hapless ruffians in a plot by an evil prince to seize power. Since I clued you in beforehand, you can already see The Princess Bride shaping up, although I didn't quite yet. Amarande manages to race after the ruffians and rescue the stable boy, and this is where it gets really overt.

They run into the prince. "Marry me, and I promise not to hurt him."

She agrees. Obviously, it was a lie.

From here on out, we have the thinly-disguised outline of The Princess Bride itself:
• A girl harangues Amarande about marrying another while her true love lives
• Both Luca and Amarande, who didn't even know if the other like-liked each other before the kidnapping, now can't stop talking about TRUUUUE LOOOVE
• A single dagger meant for the wedding night
• A poisonous drug named "fire swamp" (Ho! Ho! Get it?)
• "Mostly dead"
• A literal pit of despair where the "How does that make you feel?" scene is nearly word-for-word reenacted
• The two "good" ruffians hear Luca's tortured scream and instantly know it's him, coming to the rescue
• "If he dies, you die." (Okay, this one is actually from The Court Jester.)

There's some background intrigue with unknown identities and mysterious mothers and what, exactly, the late king had in mind in the first place that is honestly the most interesting part of the book. I assume that, along with some Dread Pirate Roberts action, awaits in part two of the duology. I'm hopeful that it will come off better than this one.

There is some subversion that I think is fun. The extent to which Luca is a fainting damsel with no personality except being unfailingly kind and handsome, and loving Amarande with stars in his eyes is nice. You can't help but like him, and I think he plays the part of Buttercup very well. It's too bad he had to get the torture side of the stick as WELL as the kidnapping side.

The problem is that Amarande is not nearly as good a Westley. She is a struggle, in general. The contrast between her hard-bitten thoughts and the way her mishaps actually turn out in real life is one that's hard to respect. She basically still is Buttercup as well, except for the fact that she will wave a sharp weapon at anyone nearby if given half an excuse, and more in a wearying "please stop and think about the consequences of your actions for ONCE" way rather than a fun action-hero way.

Still, more than halfway through this book I was still planning to give it three stars. Like, Amarande is annoying but she's not THAT annoying. It's still a fun story. Until... the pit of despair scene. There's "inspired by" and then there's whatever this is. The "fire swamp" shoutout could have been a fun wink-nudge reference, but not in the MIDDLE of a scene which LITERALLY copies dialogue from the original. The word-for-word was too much, way too heavy-handed, in a book that didn't offer much else of its own unique content to balance it out.

I would purchase this title to recommend to fans of The Princess Bride. It has lots of cute little references to the movie. On its own, I thought the book was average. If this had come out a little earlier, I might have liked it more but Princess Bride spoofs/retellings have been a bit over done lately.

*Spoiler free, 4.75 stars*

I'm not sure what drew me to this book first. The title, the cover, or the fact that I loved this author's other book, Throw Like A Girl. But I do know that I was very, very eager to read it. I mean, a princess is determined to save a stable boy, whom she loves? Yes, that sounds amazing. Trigger warnings: sexism, torture

Sarah Henning is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Everything about her books appeal to me and I can't help but fall in love with them. And this one was no different.

Let's start off with the writing, since that's as good a place as any. Henning's writing gives her books a light, fluffy feel, even if the content doesn't quite match. It creates something that I was able to fly through and was able to get every drop of enjoyment out of. It reads fast and it works very well for the story.

Despite feeling light and fluffy, or maybe because of, the writing allowed the emotions of this book to be so bright, clear, and strong. I was stressed pretty much the whole time because the tension and suspense were spot on. I was able to feel the fear, the pain, the love, the hope, and every single thing a character was feeling. It was great, even if I felt that "let's go, let's keep moving, what's gonna happen omg" urgency in my stomach the whole time.

It was also told in third person omniscient POV, which I wasn't sure of in the beginning, but worked out very well. There were multiple POVs, many of which I didn't expect, but I really enjoyed getting into the minds of so many characters. It allowed the world to fill itself out and allowed the plot unspool itself at it's own pace. In all, it worked for the book.

While I would have liked the world to feel a bit more expansive, that does not mean I didn't love it. It's filled with greedy rulers and slippery politics. And the kind of politics that I actually enjoyed! There's secrets and fire pits and fallen kingdoms and kingdoms poised for war and councils that won't allow a woman to lead. It's twisty and very interesting.

The romantic relationship was so, so strong. I loved how it was so solid. They are so steadfast in their feelings for each other. They support each other, they care for each other, and they fight for each other. It's just so great.

Let's talk about Ama. Wow, was she a great princess. She's stubborn, strong-willed, kind, unbending, and just has this sureness about her. She's going to go into any situation with her head held high and try and get the best out of it. But I also liked how there's still things she needs to learn. And she's willing to learn them. She's still growing. She's going to make a fantastic queen.

And Luca. Let me start off by just professing my deepest love for him. He was so sweet and gentle and kind. He was so sure in his love. Just, a really, really sweet guy. His heart is so pure and he only wants the best for everybody around him, even the people who are supposed to be his enemies.

There were also side characters that surprised me. I wasn't expecting some to be so fleshed out or to fall in love with some of them. I really, really hope two of them have a big part in the sequel because they have such a great dynamic. Even the schemers and jerks were interesting.

The epilogue threw me a bit. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it because I felt like it was just thrown in there. I felt like it was there to add conflict, but I felt like the ending could have worked without it. Or maybe I would have just liked more foreshadowing and development for it.

Nevertheless, I'm very excited for the sequel. This book was so enjoyable, filled with horses and secrets and strong love and characters who won't back down. It was truly amazing.

Sweet, light, entertaining fantasy with a female lead. Occasionally the attempt to make the titualar princess the empowered one in the story was a little on the nose - just write a fully rounded female character, there's no need to keep pointing to her and saying she's empowered. This riffs on the Princess Bride and while I enjoyed the references, I'm not sure the source material was fully understood. Anyway, this is fun and will definitely appeal to the younger end of the YA spectrum.

I thoroughly enjoyed this young adult novel, a combination adventure/romance/fantasy with a very appealing heroine and hero and multiple secondary characters. "The Princess Bride" references/inspiration contribute to the fun, and I definitely want to see more of Amarande and Luca in the next installment. The twists at the end only add to the anticipation!

This was a sweet, light fantasy. I didn't know when I started that it had so many Princess Bride references, but I caught on and rather enjoyed that aspect. I think this would work as a movie quite well.

Here's what would have elevated this for me:
-This is close to 400 pages, and we see Luca and Amarande together for so little time. I think another scene with them together (or maybe some flashbacks or something scattered throughout) would have helped me cheer along with Ama more. Luca, in the role of damsel in distress, felt barely fleshed out.
-This is marketed as a story of female empowerment. While there are examples of strong women, I wanted more from Ama as a main character. She's far more reactive than proactive, especially when she meets up with Renard again. Minor quibble: I appreciate characters having faults, but leaving the castle in a red lace dress was outrageously stupid.

The main story wraps up but has several twists to set up the sequel. There are lots of loose ends here as well. To fairly judge the book, I think I'd need to read the second in this duology.

What a great read! I really enjoyed reading this book that was like a spin on The Princess Bride. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a great action adventure. I can't wait to read what happens next especially after that great ending!

"The Princess Will Save You" turns the typical medieval fairy tale on its head. In this book, the princess is the one who saves the day. I enjoyed the relationship and chemistry between Amarande and Luca. There were many times that I felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters in the book and had a hard time remembering who everyone was. This book ends on a cliffhanger, and it will leave you wanting more!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

It took me a while to fully immerse myself in the world and the characters' journeys, but even before then each moment of reading of was time very much enjoyed. A solid and promising beginning to the duology, I'm looking forward to the next one!