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4/5 STARS

This is a retelling of two of my favorite childhood books: The Secret Garden and A Little Princess. The authors combined the two stories into one, perfectly weaving the storylines together. Sarah Crewe and Mary Lennox in the same book?! I was hooked from the description.

It was a cute, fun read! The perfect mashup I didn’t know I needed! Great idea by the authors to combine these stories. You will not be disappointed 😍

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the e-ARC of this book! ❤️

I am 100% always excited for a retelling so when I saw this was a mash-up of two classics I immediately knew I need to read it! I really was not disappointed by this retelling - and I always go into one expecting a lot and a fresh unique take on the source material. Stohl and Cruz blended the stories so well together that they felt organic, something hard to achieve when mixing two retellings. I also adored the take that Sara is from a Filipino background to add some more diversity to the book. The only (very slight) disappointment for me was that the girls felt a lot younger than they actually were, but I don't hold that against the authors as it could just be the time period it was set in.

Overall, I was very impressed with the story and would recommend it to any fan of fairytale retellings.

I really enjoyed this modern spin on two childhood classics. It was a quick and easy read, filled with adventure, magic, and friendship. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to be swept away in a quick whimsical adventure. The authors did a nice job with character and plot development, I appreciate that adventure, rather than love, was the focal point of the book.

Several letters were missing from the manuscript, making it very annoying to read. I didn’t want to try to continue reading it because I know it would have affected my views of the actual story. I’m sorry!! Let me know if it gets fixed.

I was hooked when I saw The Secret Garden meets the Little Princess and this did not disappoint! It was so sweet and charming and I loved every second. It's magical and whimsical and just the right amount of classics meets fairytale. Definitely put this on your list if you're a fan of any of those things!

It is written as a surprising and romantic YA retelling-mashup of A Little Princess and The Secret Garden both books that I loved as a child. And still love now. Reading this brought back fond memories from my childhood but have me new memories too. It's one of my most anticipated books and it did not disappoint!!!

A delightful retelling mash-up of childhood favorites: A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, and Little Lord Fauntleroy. Filipino readers might get a kick-out of this book. Remember the 1995 family-drama film adaptation, Sarah: Ang Munting Prinsesa? Sara Crewe, in this story, is a wealthy, intelligent and unapologetically Filipino girl in 1860’s England. Read and enjoy Sara’s adventures along with her friends Mary Lennox and Cedric Errol (a.k.a. Cedie and Munting Prinsipe).

Hi team! Cannot rate this book, the file downloaded is a different title than the one stated. Thank you!

This book had so much potential but just fell completely flat in my opinion. Yes the right elements of A Secret Garden and The Little Princess were there, but the storyline just didn’t work. And the characters were a mess.

As far as the storyline goes, it didn’t feel like there really was a plot, or a major goal or climax. The characters just kind of bumbled along until they got a happy ending.

My first major issue with the characters was they didn’t feel like 16/17 year old people. They acted like they were 12. Mary was supposed to be this witty wild character. And she was just wild and there were no consequences ever. Sara is supposed to be brilliant yet almost never uses her brain. And why on earth would she just let people walk all over her?

The romances were a little strange. Cedric and Mary worked. They had the history for them to work. Dickon proposes to Sara after a day of knowing her claiming ti love her quite a bit and it was just weird.

Minchin was also an issue. Supposedly Sara’s family dies in a volcanic explosion and her room and board hasn’t been taken care of. Classes are paid, but nothing else is. Also, how does she get away with shaving Sara’s head for no reason?

I also had issues with the prologue. Somehow there’s a genie. Which I’m still not sure if it was real or a figment of Mary’s imagination. Then it jumps to Sara’s head getting shaved and Mary doing the same to herself to stop Minchin. Then later on in the story is when the head shaving happens in real time. It was just a weird scene that could’ve been better placed.

I did like that the ending was both happy but not completely filling.

From the first paragraph, I knew this book would be a good one. I immersed myself into the book from the first chapter and I cannot say enough good things about this book! Honestly amazing! The writing is incredible and the plot is just one to die for. I am absolutely obsessed with this book. My favorite part would have to be the character development throughout the book. Character development is something I look forward to and this book did not disappoint.

When I saw that this was a mash-up of The Secret Garden AND A Little Princess, I was immediately SOLD on this.

I am such a fan of both books/movies that I was so excited to see how the authors were going to merge these two separate stories into one, and I think they did it very nicely.

Something that threw me was that they were supposed to be around 15/16 years old but, I kept seeing all the characters in my mind at the age they were in the movies (11-13) but that's just me not being able to let go of the past.

But overall it was a cute story about friendship and I'm happy I picked it up.

I AM A HUGE FAN OF MARGARET STOHL AND MELISSA DE LA CRUZ! This book is incredible and I love how they write retellings. I will be doing a more in -depth review on pop-culturalist or my bookstagram account closer to release day.