This was a riot! Fun characters, with a plot both absurd and heartwarming!

And as a lover of fairy tale retellings, this really checked all the boxes for me

Fairy tales have always been a favorite of mine, whether they're originals, or retellings, or mash-ups that spin several well-known stories into something uniquely its own. This story follows Melilot, a sorceress (not a witch!) princess trying to find her own place in the world despite her stepmother's constant demands--the most recent being that she marry a king she's never met.

Ry Herman scribes a tale that is both humorous and a bit irreverent while at the same time full of heart and magic (though thankfully no ripped-out, still-beating hearts, as some fairy tales so enjoy). If you ever read The Princess Tales by Gail Carson Levine, well, I'd liken this novel to a somewhat more grown-up version, with a main character who is just as compelling and imperfect and who makes you cheer them on as they face trial after trial after trial in their search for their own happily ever after. Nothing comes easily for Melilot, but she never stops trying, and that is perhaps the most important lesson fairy tales can teach us--always keep going, even when all seems lost.

I especially loved how well-written the relationships with her sisters and her stepmother were, particularly the latter. Their final encounter near the end of the book made me smile, because it truly showed how much Melilot had grown since they were last face-to-face. No longer kneeling but standing tall as her own person, able to understand her stepmother a little bit better as she looked--really looked--at the woman who tried, in her own flawed way, to raise her as best she could. Melilot didn't condone her methods (I don't either), but I do admire the work involved in crafting such a complicated character.

I highly recommend this book for readers who love fairy tale retellings with strong female protagonists.

I love the cover, the concept, and will likely pick this book back up if I see it in a physical store, but the writing style was not my favorite, especially for reading on an ereader with this one. I think I potentially have simply been reading one too many fantasy books recently and need a bit of a mood reader break. In other words, this book is great, it’s just not for me at this moment.

Thank you for the eARC copy! I appreciate the opportunity to leave honest feedback.

This book was a fun and whimsical read, though it took some time for me to get into it. The playful mix of fairy tale elements, from masked huntsmen to a talking lion, added plenty of charm, and the queer representation felt refreshingly natural. While Melilot’s personality sometimes grated on me, her romance with Sam was sweet and well-developed. Overall, this wasn’t quite my perfect read, but it will appeal to fans of lighthearted retellings with a healthy dose of humor and heart. Great for lovers of Assistant to the Villain.

This was a fun book, and I enjoyed it. I found the beginning a little bit too frenetic and silly and wasn't sure if I could stay with that pace for an entire book, but once Melilot arrived in Tailliz and I got to know her character a bit more and see the developing relationships, it was a lot of fun. I appreciated all the different fairy tale elements woven throughout, and the way Melilot and her sisters were in so many of the stories. I also enjoyed how storytelling was part of the story, with different characters telling each other stories. It reminded me of Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson, or Fractured Fairytales.

I really appreciated the queer and trans representation. It felt so refreshing and joyful to have such a queernormative, silly, playful world to immerse myself in while the actual world around me is increasingly terrifying.

The romance with Sam was delightful, too.

CW: Mild gore (wounds)

Herman’s novel was a superb retelling of The Twelve Huntsmen, but also brimming with humor that often made me chuckle. Main character Melilot is a clever, fun protagonist; Sam and the other 11 huntsmen are (mostly) endearing; and Melilot’s sisters and their spouses are great supporting characters. Herman purposefully builds their narrative to embrace the absurdity only too common in fairy tales – while also pointing out the absurdity of traditional gender roles and gender essentialism espoused by an out-of-touch magical talking lion. Yet, they are sympathetic to those caught in said gender roles and how to overcome or to effect true change, those systematically victimized must be directly helped to integrate into new societies. Herman also plays with the power of stories in offering multiple points of views and interpretations of events well. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who enjoys fairy tale retellings.

I really, really wanted to like this book. I loved the concept, and I believe the author is incredibly talented. However, I wasn’t able to finish it.

The main reason I struggled is that the author frequently went off on side tangents whenever new characters were introduced. The overwhelming amount of information made it difficult to stay engaged with the actual plot. On top of that, the character names were unusually long, hard to imagine being pronounced in real life, and ultimately not memorable.

While I truly believe this author has an amazing gift for storytelling, I found it challenging to follow the narrative and stay connected to the book’s direction. I hope that one day I can revisit it when I’m in a different mindset, and perhaps it will resonate with me more.

For now, though, it just wasn’t the right fit for me. I’ll still give it a fair rating because the writing itself shows promise — it just wasn’t my speed.

Was immediately pulled in by this beautiful cover but to my pleasant surprise the story is just as wonderful!!

I can tell this is going to be a story that a lot of people love! Very reminiscent of the princess bride and the Brothers Grimm. Melilot is such a relatable endearing character that had me giggling and kicking my feet! A lovely feminist retelling with queer representation and a main character that will charm your pants off!

Wacky. Unabashedly queer. A wild romp of fairy tale parody, memey humour and some wisdoms about prejudice, tradition and how family is complicated. Fun but kinda forgettable.

Recommended for fans of humorous fantasy and satire of tropes, like Dreadful, Long Live Evil, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon and similar.

Bonus points for queer rep including trans love interest and lesbian side characters.

Unfortunately this has the same weaknesses as many other comedic fantasies: inevitably the characters feel like 2-dimensional caricatures and the plot feels like a theme park ride ticking off attractions (tropes) from a list. But since I managed to finish it without quitting of cringe, I'm giving it a 4 for effort.

I seriously hoped Angelique would redeem herself, Gervase would abdicate and everyone would feast on a roasted lion in the end, but alas, this isn't that kind of book. Maybe I should just go watch Cinderella with Camila Cabello instead for some wacky fairy tale twist.

The cover is stunning though and enchantingly rainbowy, as suitable for a very queer book.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group: Dial Press Trade Paperback for the ARC!

Extremely funny. Even though this is a retelling, it’s managed to craft a unique story all on its own. The romance and LGBTQ+ representation is outstanding. This book took me away into a new world, that I wish I was a part of!

Retelling of the Grimm's Twelve Huntsmen. Melilot is being married off, but on the way to her betrothed, she is attacked. She's rescued by 6 of the 12 huntsmen, who don't really know who she is, but take her to the castle anyway. She pretends to be just a handmaid while trying to figure out if someone is trying to kill her, or if something else is going on in the kingdom.

This was such a fun read. There were mentions of so many other fairy tales. It was amusing and thrilling.

This book was super fun! I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I love how meta and tongue in cheek the writing was. It was a delightful fairytale romp, I loved the characters as well as the set tin and am interested in what else the author has written.

I would absolutely comp this book to "Kill the Farm Boy" Absolutely hysterical satire for people who love adventure fantasies.
Complex female character, who you root for from the start.

Really fun read. I really enjoyed the romance inclusion and all the little fairytale trope Easter eggs. Ending fell a bit flat for me, but not worth docking my rating.

This Princess Kills Monsters has a lot potential, and some great elements, but suffers from structural issues and some troubling themes.
Princess Mellilot, a classic "underfoot fairytale stepdaughter" type, is sent by her sort-of-evil, definitely-a-dictator stepmother to be wed to the king of a small, non-magical kingdom. Melilot is unremarkable compared to her very powerful sisters, and despite loving them, also kind of resents them. Arriving in the kingdom to meet her fiance, things immediately go wrong when Melilot is attacked by monsters, and realizes the kingdom is waiting for her to save the day (except they're under the impression she's strong like her sisters). From here, the book advertises there will be a love triangle between one of the king's mysterious twelve identical hunters and the king's smokin' hot sister. That's where the problems with this book begin to really show.

The Good:
- The contrast between the insane fairy tale world Melilot is from and the mostly-non-magical kingdom the story takes place in is excellent and often humorous
- The humor is sometimes painfully corny, but when it's not, it can be pretty funny
- Overall, mostly the concept, setting, and fairy tail backdrop are the biggest strengths. The world is fun.

The Bad (SPOILERS AHEAD) :
- The promised love triangle romance is executed so poorly as to basically not exist. The romance arc with Sam comprises nearly 90% of the book's content, with the promised sapphic romance elements in the synopsis boiling down to a couple of short scenes where Angelique says a flirty one-liner and Melilot blushes. This make the synopsis feel wildly inaccurate, which is frustrating on its own, but it leads to structural and thematic issues in the third act of the book.
- Sam's reveal that he's a trans guy is a bit of a thematic shift for the book, and I feel a little silly for not seeing it coming. I liked this reveal, and I like Sam as a character, but given how absolutely little time the supposed sapphic love interest was given, and the total lack of relevance Sam's trans identity has to any character arc, this felt a little bit like a "bait and switch" from "love triangle with sapphic romance" to "hetero romance, but the guy is trans even though it's never relevant, and the woman is bi, even though it's also never really relevant". 90%+ of this book's content is focused on a straight romance where the queer nature of the characters is largely inconsequential to the story being told. Unfortunately, when these queer themes do come to the surface, it's surprisingly kind of... thematically misogynist? Which comes to the next point.
- The lesbian love interest that's shunted to the side and is built on like... four pieces of dialogue between the two characters.. is revealed to be THE villain. The explanation has lots of feminist undertones... women in our settings are second class citizens with no power, no rights, and women can't inherit the throne. Oh wow, that's a huge problem, right? Maybe we should actually side with this usurper because she's the only one in a position of power that cares about the rights of women in her country, right? WRONG, she's INSANELY EVIL. Like, she immediately begins monologuing about how she's been kidnapping and torturing animals since she was a child and how she's willing to murder anyone and everyone solely because she wants power for the sake of power. Excuse me... What... the.. fuck?? So we've spent 90%+ of the story focused on a hetero romance, and even if we HAD given equal time to the sapphic love option, it doesn't matter because she's a serial killer animal torturing power hungry narcissist because... feminism?
- Casual misogyny abound. Grevase, the new king, presses back at every opportunity when a character is like "Hey, maybe.. women's rights?" with some variation of like "Well, it's too much, or maybe we'll talk about it later?" His love interest has to be literally bleeding to death and demanding it before he's like "Okay... I mean.. we'll try.. women's rights.. I guess.. if we have to." That's the side the reader is supposed to be cheering for. Even after knowing his sister, whom he relied on and brought to the kingdom for guidance because he didn't know how to rule, was targeting the rest of the family because she'd been denied the right to rule due to her gender, Grevase does... nothing? Isn't like "Oh shit, maybe she has a point, actually" and instead lets his fiance murder the shit out of his sister. King Grevase's response to his sister's death, ultimately drawing its cause all the way back to the oppression of women in his kingdom, is to FORBID ANY MENTION OF HER EXISTENCE. Bruh.
- The ending barely solved the core thematic issue of misogynistic oppression. The king begrudgingly lets his wife be a military leader and ends gendered segregation at her dying demand. And that's all the effort he takes. Setting up education and support programs for these women who were until now essentially baby factories? Well, that's his wife's responsibility, obviously. The king? He's going to keep his impossibly misogynist talking lion adviser in his position, but just... ignore him. Oh wait, except they're letting him give hours-long sexist diatribes at every royal meeting to discuss policy, and commission a second edition of his ultra ultra sexist book, which is like the entire UNDERPINNING of the sexist social and legal structure in their country. I am so sorry, because the bones of a good book are here, but this is a zero out of ten ending.
- The character arc for Melilot is kind of nonsensical. Like, yeah, her stepmother actually IS abusive, but maybe she actually DID abuse Melilot because she cared about her, and maybe actually she's AFRAID of Melilot who is now super powerful because really all she needed was to believe in herself... which she was only able to do because she... didn't have her abusive stepmother pointedly ruining her life. Melilot's abuse is hand waved away as like "Well there was no way to reach her and the queen ran out of options and what she did wasn't good but maybe she meant good" when it's like "Bruh, Melilot was a rebellious CHILD". She stands up to her stepmother after years of being neglected and abused "for her own good" and then is like "Well, maybe I'll still take quests from my stepmom, but only when I feel like it, and I'll do some traveling, but I'll probably come back and visit some every now and then". It just seems like the book's take on child abuse is like "maybe it's more complicated than we might think", which is frankly, just awful.

This was very sweet, fun, witty and feminist! The plot was a bit too slow at times for my taste but otherwise I had a great time.

A hilarious re-telling of the classic brothers grimm fairy tale "The twelve huntsmen" ! This was a really fun read, and I definitely recommend it just from how often I genuinely laughed!
While this was lighthearted and easy to read, I really didn't enjoy the main characters energy. She kind of reminded me of those really annoying spoiled brat kids you see on the internet.
Overall, if you can look past the character flaws, this isn't a bad read, but there are definitely some cringes and eye-rolls among the laughs

4.25 stars. This Princess kills monsters is a queer, feminist retelling of the Brothers Grimm 'The Twelve Huntsmen with a few other fairy tales mixed in as well. Honestly I had never heard of The Twelve Huntsmen story before this and it was really refreshing reading a fairy tale retelling that I've never seen done before. I really liked the humour in this book and how it pokes fun of fairy tales, like in a princess bride kind of way, I laughed out loud so many times.

Overall I thought this book was funny, magical and heartwarming. I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys fairy tale retellings.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is a feminist and LGBTQ retelling of The Twelve Hunstmen fairytale. We meet Melillot, the queen/evil sorcerer’s step daughter. Melilla has two other sisters who seem to be better at everything they do compared to Melilot. They always end up saving her too when her adventures go awry. Then her stepmother tells her she is going to be sent off to marry a young king in a different land. Melilot and her stepmom do not get along very well, so she’s already upset about having to do another crazy task for the queen. Her carriage is attacked by spider wolves (honestly they seem a bit terrifying) and she meets 12 identical huntsmen who save her. They help her get to her new home but something is amiss.

This is really good for a light fantasy read. If you want something that takes it self seriously, don’t read this. This is part love letter and part satire of fairytales. It was fun getting most of the fairy tale references, and it was a quick read. The romance was a bit lackluster, which might be a killer for some. I did feel like the story dragged a bit until closer to 60/70ish percent. It’s definitely going to be a book that some really love but others won’t really like. It did feel a bit disjointed at times. I needed a light fantasy read so it did its job!

This post is live right now, 3/2/2025 on Goodreads, Fable (Book Club App), and Storygraph.

Sadly this book was not for me, I really really wanted to enjoy this books so much as the premise was very intriguing. However the writing style and pacing just wasn’t for where I needed it to be in order to keep me interested and hold my attention to keep reading. I ended up DNFing at about 50%.