"Prince of Song & Sea" by Linsey Miller, a retelling of The Little Mermaid from Prince Eric's perspective, unfortunately didn't fully capture my interest.

While the world-building is detailed and the setting vivid, I struggled to engage with the story, likely due to its YA focus, which sometimes doesn't resonate with me. However, I thought that, because I love the animated film so much, I would be able to overcome this. The plot, though ambitious, felt uneven, with pacing issues that made the middle sections drag. The romance, central to the story, lacked the depth I was hoping for.

Overall, Prince of Song & Sea offers a fresh perspective on a classic tale, but it didn’t quite hold my attention. Fans of YA fantasy might find it more appealing, but it wasn’t the right fit for me.

Thank you to Linsey Miller, NetGalley, and Disney Audiobooks for sending me the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

It’s high time we get some prince stories and I love that Disney chose ONE author to write them all. First up is the story of Prince Eric, who we really don’t know much about. What’s the deal with his family? How much do we really know about any of the princes? This story is not another retelling of The Little Mermaid but a unique exploration of Eric and how his family intersected with Ursula before the events of the movie. I don’t know that I ever thought about why Eric doesn’t have a mother or events involving Ursula prior to the 1989 classic but I was invested in knowing more as the story went on.

I was really excited about the second book in the series, which is focused on Prince Philip. Unfortunately, it is fae related (why I didn’t think about this beforehand…Sleeping Beauty is one of my fav movies and the thought that it might be about FAE, considering Maleficent is a fairy, never crossed my mind. I am humbled by my own lack of awareness all the time) so it wasn’t a fit for me.

Prince of Song and Sea is a fleshed-out and aged-up version the The Little Mermaid. Perfect for teens who loved the movie as little ones.

I received this book as an advanced reading copy.

I really enjoyed hearing Eric's tale of the little mermaid. It was fun here in a different side of the story and seeing a different point of view. We also got part of a different story as well which was fun. Overall this is a really good book and I'm definitely recommended especially especially if you like the little mermaid.

This was so good! I loved getting the story from Eric's perspective and seeing the dual problem of him being cursed so it wasn't just that he was oblivious in the movie. It was so exciting to wait for certain plot points to line up with what you knew was coming from the movie. I loved to see the relationship between Eric and Ariel build, so it wasn't just instant love. I will be recommending this to patrons.

This book was fun!! It just wasn’t for me — I think a younger audience who is familiar with the story would love it though. It’s got adventure amid curses and secrets. It took me back to childhood when I loved the movie of this story! Definitely worth a read if you are between the ages of 8-13!! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this as an expansion of The Little Mermaid (my favorite). I loved the lines pulled straight from the movie. However, I felt a little disjointed with Eric's character, I just wanted my leading man. But I enjoyed the behind the scenes of his royal life and that he actually had friends. I also wanted to be OBSESSED with this, but it was just okay. HOWEVER, Phillip is coming next and that earns extra brownie points because MY LOVES. Great picks to kick off this new series.

Prince Eric doesn't really like being a prince but he has a strong sense of duty. His mother was lost to see and he discovers that it was because of him. Eric was cursed as a baby that if he ever kissed anyone who was not his true love he would die. This has made his life difficult as a royal since there is lots of hand and cheek kissing but also difficult to bond with friends and family as he's had to stay away just to be safe. He follows his mothers tracks to try and determine what happened to her and try and break his curse as well. And along the way he meets a mute red haired girl...

This was an interesting retelling that strayed quite far away from the original that all know and love. It was refreshing though. There were fun nods to the Disney film but it also was unexpected where it went with the story of Eric's curse. I also appreciated the diversity of the characters that Eric was friends with.

This is like a dark Little Mermaid retelling with splashes of Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean. It does include some woke stuff so if that's triggering to you go ahead and skip. I love fairytale retellings so I couldn't wait to get this one. It was full of adventure and it was fun to see it unfold from Eric's POV. It was interesting to see them both live with a curse. I'm intrigued to see what she writes next! I'm hoping we get Li Shang!!

Thank you Netgalley and DisneyAudio for the review copy!

Prince of Song & Sea by Linsey Miller is part of a new YA Disney book series called Princes. This book focuses on Prince Eric’s side of the story. From the loss of his mother, to the curse placed on him by the sea witch, to the search for his true love, Eric’s story is filled with action and adventure. There are parts of the story that read very similar to scenes from the classic Disney movie, but there are also a lot of parts that are unique to Eric’s side of the story. This book includes a good mix of old and familiar characters and I felt that the familiar characters remained consistent with what we know from the movie.

Overall, I feel like this book will largely appeal to Disney fans as well as those interested in action/adventure books. Romance fans may also enjoy this book, although there are parts where the action is more prominent than romance. I’d recommend this title for middle school and up.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this title.

Full review to come...once I sit and process
----------
Okay so first and foremost, the author decided to throw in some queer characters and say literally NOTHING about it it was so fantastic and normalized. I did listen to the audiobook and I was definitely thrown by the use of they/them pronouns because I hadn't been paying full attention when the character was introduced but I loved it after the fact.

The story opens up with Eric practicing sword fighting with his friends. We quickly learned that Eric is cursed, which sets up his whole side of the story. Honestly, it mostly followed The Little Mermaid movie, but I felt that it had enough of a spin and was different enough that it was enjoyable on its own.

I do have to admit that the narrator was not good at the beginning. I almost DNF'd the book because I did not enjoy the women's voices at first. However, it definitely got better as the book went on and I'm super glad i did finish it.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free eARC of this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Prince Eric was always one of my favorite Disney princes because he actually has a voice and a personality (unlike other princes of that time who didn't have more than a line or two in the story and were just pretty faces). Plus I liked that Ariel rescued him first. When I saw that there was a new book from Eric's perspective, I knew I was going to love it. Plus... the cover.... is AMAZING!

This is Eric's story. There's so much more that happened behind the scenes that isn't seen in the movie and I love that this book explains some of it from Eric's point of view. The opening scene of Eric on the boat with his statue unveiling is rather humorous. I also like Eric's friends and their adventures together. And of course... the twist of Eric being cursed by a sea witch too. The twist is the best part since it makes the whole story make more sense.

Basically, I loved everything about this novel and its explanations and unique story line.

I like that this novel did give a depth to Ursula that wasn't seen before in the movie either. I think I liked her more in this story than in the movie and I liked her as a villain so much as a kid.

If you're a Little Mermaid fan, this book is for you!

I came across an ARC of this when I went to TLA earlier this year. And I’ve been waiting on this to release ever since. It brought something up that I’ve never thought about before. What was the prince in every story thinking in all of these movies? What did Prince Eric think when he couldn’t find Ariel? What was Prince Charming thinking when Cinderella ran away? And now after reading this, I NEED THEM ALL. So y’all better at least borrow these from the library because I need them all to be made m’kay?

Now the number one thing I loved about this, was the new information that we got about Prince Eric. The story of his mom was not what I was expecting at all. (I really need to start reading the stupid synopsis, but I only skim them to go in not knowing anything.) Anyway, I thought the story of his mom was interesting, but I also thought him not telling all the people all these details made it seem a bit repetitive. I mean that even though he wasn’t telling them, he was still thinking about the details over and over. I’m probably not explaining this right, but I really felt like he was saying the same thing over and over. I also felt like the emotion of him could have been a little more done. It seemed like it was more telling than showing. I just mean for someone who lost their parent it felt a lot like, “I’m sad BUT……”

I also really loved the parts that I recognized from the Disney movie. So what, call me basic, I don’t care. But this was so cool. I never thought about what Eric thought about when he couldn’t find Ariel. He was walking around thinking he was crazy when he couldn’t find the girl who sings with the red hair. I can’t imagine trying to tell someone that and they didn’t believe him. Also I loved seeing little tidbits I saw from the movie and was like why did that even happen? Like the statue that was in her cave? lmao I always wondered how she got it in there so quickly. And of course I was swooning during the Kiss the Girl scene. So stinking cute. And lastly, the wedding scene from Eric’s POV seemed so much funnier than the movie. From the seagull to the cake part, it was just really hilarious to me. This was the scene that made me want to watch the movie again. I LOVED it.

The plot of this was what got a little wonky. It was all over the place. Like I said there was some weird times where he was like saying the same things over and over. And when he finally started getting somewhere with that stupid myth or whatever, it started getting weird. Being on the ship and everything else. Idk maybe it was just me, but it was just really all over the place. Too many people doing too many things. If that makes sense. It may have also been the fact that I was listening to this so fast, but I listen to all my audios fast, so I’m not sure that was the reasoning.

If you’ve ever been interested in the Disney princesses, please don’t hesitate to dive into the world of the Disney Princes. This book was so fun! I can’t wait to see what other Prince she uses and what happens in their POV of their story. I know I’m not the only one who never thought about what they thought before. If you have, let me know in the comments!

I am feeling torn about this book. While I REALLY enjoyed the parts that were retelling the film from Eric's point of view, and I understand that there needed to be elements added to flesh out his story which a lot of happens off screen, I didnt love the new elements. I really liked all of Eric's friends and all of their interactions but the whole curse and pirate subplot felt forced, clunky and disjointed. I just wish things flowed better and were smoother.

I really enjoyed the narrator but some of the lines felt too over the top and dramatic for me.

I had trouble staying interested in this book. I hoped to hear Eric's side of "The Little Mermaid", but the author went off about curses, dead mothers and ghosts. I think it could have worked with just the mention of his curse as extra motivation not to kiss a girl he just met.
The inclusion of so many extraneous characters that play no role in the original story and complicate (sometimes ruining) the story we grew up with was rather annoying.
My least favorite part was when Ursula says to Eric, "She didn't even want you. She just wanted an adventure on land". Really!? That's not the feeling I got from the movie when Ariel says, "Eric, you want to run away together? This is all so sudden?"

And why, oh why, do so many modern books feel the need to include a gay relationship? And in a children's book too! Those 2 characters weren't even necessary if all the nonsense about ghosts was left out.

This was a fun take on the Disney version of Little Mermaid. I really enjoyed the curse twist to the story every already knows. Seeing the story from Eric's POV is something that I have always wondered about and Miller did a pretty good job giving us a look into what was going on in his mind when he met Ariel,

Received the arc of the audiobook for free on NetGalley. I really enjoyed it. It was an unexpected point of view and added a lot of depth to the character. It added some events, and used magic to account for the time, but worked within the parameters of the movie well. The narrator did a fantastic job!
Review posted on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5044709570

Fairy tale retellings are one of my favorite things to read - be it twisted tales, role-reversals or totally new stories with the bare bones of a known fairy tale. I loved this story, it was almost like being able to re-read a favorite story for the first time. I absolutely adored getting to hear this tale from Eric's perspective, and getting to see the well known scenes from a new POV. The parts of the story that were new felt like great additions that didn't take away from the well known tale, and the new characters seemed to fit in as well. It still felt totally new, as the author could have twisted the story at any point, so even though I "knew" what was going to happen, I was constantly worried that it wouldn't turn out like that. It made for a really enjoyable experience. The ending was adorable and I can't wait to read more tales about my other favorite princes.

#PrinceofSongSea #NetGalley

Beyond this BEAUTIFUL cover, is a very strong reimagining of the Disney classic 'The Little Mermaid'.
Told from the perspective of Prince Eric, it not only adds depth and back story to our prince and even our mermaid, it gives us adventure, humor and curses.
I won't lie I went into this with lower expectations, retellings of Disney stories are always so hit or miss but this one was exactly what I needed it to be! Adding characters that give the story more depth and inclusivity, just the right amount of humor and character development.

The story of the Little Mermaid from Prince Eric's point of view and if he wasn't your favorite Disney Prince, then he will be now. I absolutely loved this book. It was a fun story that hit my favorite parts of the movie perfectly. I cannot wait to see what prince's they do next. 5 stars!