Blood of Life and Death: Bloodleaf by Crystal Smith

"Blood magic is rooted in emotion," he said. "Pain, pleasure, fear, passion--anything that heightens your emotion can be used to increase the strength of your spell. But therein also lies the trouble. It's easy to let the magic overtake you. It's like a dam on a river. If you aren't careful, you can bring the whole dam down on top of yourself."

Princess Aurelia senses that she is a witch, possessed of forbidden blood magic. But she is a royal witch in the witch-hunting kingdom of Renalt, with a power-grabbing Tribunal that would destroy her and her family if they knew of her power. Warned by the wraithlike spirit of the Harbinger, Aurelia sees that her only chance of escape will be her upcoming wedding with the prince of the kingdom of Achlev. Concealing a wedding dress made by her mother the Queen and taking her little brother Conrad, Crown Prince of Renalt, Aurelia flees her kingdom, for protection switching identities with her maid Emilie, helped by her dearest friend Kellen and an enchanted Empyrean horse, Falada.

But her wedding is to be with a reclusive and reputedly frail prince, and Aurelia finds Achlev no refuge. Its protective wall, held up by enchanted gates, has been breached by evil magic which has destroyed the spell of two of its three guardian gates. The decaying kingdom itself is roiled with hate, greed, and murderous plots, led by her betrothed's father King Domhnall, who is "managed" by the evil Toris de Lena, and in Achlev, not everyone is what they seem. But Aurelia, as Emilie, finds love and help in the person of a young man who calls himself Zan. And when Zan, protecting her, is stabbed and near death, it may be only Aurelia's blood magic that can save them all and reveal their true identities to each other.

Crystal Smith's forthcoming Bloodleaf (The Bloodleaf Trilogy) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019) is a fantastical, frightening, gory, romantic,young adult novel filled with both appalling and lovely imagery, set in a dystopic, vaguely medieval world of two rival but interrelated kingdoms. This novel is for readers who like their images vivid and their plots convoluted, with the qualities of both A Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games, the grimmest of the Grimm Brothers tales, and the inbred internecine warfare of classic mythology. This first of a planned trilogy is not for the faint of heart or the hyper-sensitive psyche, but for young adult readers it is a rousing and romance-tinged page-turning fantasy adventure.

Royal Bridesmaid! Royal Crown (From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess) by Meg Cabot

I knew something was going to go wrong----something besides my having to entertain my awful cousin Lady Luisa all day (and night), I mean.

It seems like my family can never have an ordinary, universally televised state function without it turning into a disaster.

It's not easy being a seventh grader and a part-time middle school princess, juggling two very different lives, but since Olivia Grace Clarisse Mignonette Harrison Renaldo learned that her older sister Mia was going to be the new ruler of the tiny, ancient Mediterranean kingdom of Genovia, she has known that being a royal princess was part of her otherwise fairly humdrum life. But now big sister Mia's coronation is near, and Olivia, with her BFF Nissi along, are spending their winter holidays in the sunny seaside palace, and things are far from boring.

The cousins on the Alberto side of the family, having secretly exhumed their ancestral founder, are suing Olivia's side of family, claiming that their DNA is a closer match to the first Genovian ruler, Rosagunde, the warrior princess who saved Genovia from the Visigoths in A.D. 568. It's two days before the coronation, and Olivia, is looking forward to wearing her haute couture gown and carrying her sister's coronation train of state. Instead she finds herself in the middle of a Game of Thrones drama, intensified by her snooty cousin Luisa, who flaunts her "maturity" and her boyfriend Roger, the twelfth Duke of Marborough, and taunts Olivia because the boy she likes, Prince Khalil, has never even kissed her.

But Olivia gets one up on Luisa when she and Nissi discover Luisa, wearing her bikini and the Royal Crown of Genovia, jumping on Mia's bed while Duke Roger records it all on social media.

Roger, the Duke of Marborough, was snapping photos of Luisa as she jumped on Mia's royal bed, wearing the multi-million-dollar crown of Genovia. Beneath both their feet lay the Robe of State!

"Oh, yeah!" the duke was saying to Luisa. "Work it, girl! Work it."

Grandmere Grimaldi is scandalized, the crown and the royal robe of state have been besmirched publicly, the lawsuit for the throne is pending, and Olivia is afraid that Prince Khalil may not want a disgraced royal for his girlfriend anymore.

Uneasy is the head who wears the crown, they say, and even for the young maid of honor for the intended monarch, being a royal isn't all accolades and caviar, in Meg Cabot's latest in her series, Royal Crown: From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess ( Feiwel and Friends, 2018), illustrated by the author. Author Cabot, famous for her Princess Diaries series, has delivered a royally funny sequel to her series, From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess (see review here) and Royal Wedding Disaster: From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess. Family life is complicated for young royals, and in this lighthearted middle-reader novel of a New Jersey girl who leads two lives, the sensible Olivia is bound to be everyone's favorite part-time princess.

Pedal to the Metal! The Princess and the Pit Stop by Tom Angleberger

Where would you expect to find a princess?

In a palace? Waltzing with a prince? Sleeping on a pea?

Not this princess! She's handed her crown to her principal lady-in-waiting/pit crew chief to hold, and she's behind the wheel and out on the race course.

Once upon a time there was a princess who made a pit stop. While the birds and beasts changed her tires, her Fairy Godmother told her she was in last place!

She might as well give up!

Will she return to her tower for a good cry? Will she command an official Re-Start? Not this royal. She's nobody's Did Not Finish Princess.

She floors the accelerator and puts the pedal to the metal.

She cruises past the Kings' Men, passes Peter Rabbit, gives the air to the Three Bears, spins past Rumpelstiltskin... and ...

... she beats Jack and Jill down the hill, blows the doors off Mr. Big Bad Wolf, and leaves Little Jack Horner in the corner.

Even the Gingerbread Man concedes that maybe she can catch him.

This princess powers her way past the checkered flag, accepts her trophy and smiles through the obligatory power poses as the cameras flash. She even tapes a quick commercial. And then... it's on to the ball for some Happy Ever After, in Tom Angleberger's just published The Princess and the Pit Stop (Abrams Books, 2018). With a princess who leaves all of Fairy Tale Land in the dust, cruising by cameos of famed Nursery Rhyme characters, done up by the turbo-powered art of Caldecott winner Dan Santat, this comic-book-cum-fractured-fairy-tale is bound to take the lead at in the read-aloud winner's circle. Says School Library Journal, "A high octane storytime selection!"

Turf Battle in the Fish Tank: Prince and Pirate by Charlotte Gannufson

Two fishbowls reside, side by side, in pescatory peace, each with a scaly resident who is master of all he surveys.

Prince ruled a scaly kingdom. He admired his majestic castle and his carriage.

Pirate ruled his small, round sea. He sailed his schooner and guarded his treasure.

Prince enjoyed his divine right to rule. Pirate protected his trove as a privileged privateer.

And then it appears that the powers that be have decided to ditch the dual domains. Pirate and Prince find themselves summarily netted, dumped with a plop, and suddenly swimming in a new watery realm--a large aquarium that should have provided ample provinces for both fish.

But--NO! Apparently there is not enough room for both of them in this tank!

A fishy feud ensues.

"Halt, Peasant! You trespass!" roared Prince.

"Avast, Ye scurvy Sea Slug!" Pirate retorts.

The two fish push pebbles to make a border down the center of their space. It's THE WALL! They dare each other to put so much as a fin over the fence.

"You miserable mollusk!" shouts Prince scornfully.

"Barnacled Bloomers!" bellows Pirate bellicosely.

It's a showdown at the Okay Aquarium.

But... Wait! What this? Another scaly resident is dropped into the tank. It's a frightened little dogfish, who peers fearfully out of his little kennel, frightened by his pugnacious neighbors. His little tail fins are all a-tremble.

Awwwww! Poor little finny fellow! Pirate and Prince are suddenly protective of their new little co-resident and promptly put their pebbles to work to play fetch with their new pet.

It's time for an underwater truce, in Charlotte Gannufson's finny and funny newest, Prince and Pirate (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2017).  Gannufson's proffers the snappy dialogue between Prince, that paragon of the King's English, and Pirate, the boisterous buccaneer, making for some read-aloud fun, while the noted comic artist Mike Lowery provides the comic contrast between the rivals. All's quiet on the aquarium front as Gannufson gives her fishy foes a common cause to be kind. As Booklist puts it, "At first glance, this is pure silliness, but a tidy lesson about sharing will rise to the surface."

The Pullet Princess! Cinders: A Chicken Cinderella by Jan Brett

Snow on the outside, feathered friends on the inside...

Jan Brett's newest, Cinders: A Chicken Cinderella (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2013), sets the scene, a Russian chicken coop with ornate towers, settling into a deep winter snowfall, with Tasha, the little girl who cares for the chickens inside, temporarily snowed in with her flock for the night. Largessa,  the old biddy who rules the roost, struts about clucking importantly as she makes sure that her proud daughters Bossy and Pecky, have the best place in the pecking order, as Tasha sits in the straw near the warm stove and offers to tell the drowsy hens a fairy tale.

Settling down, Tasha pulls little Cinders, the much pecked and put-upon little Cochin pullet, into her lap as she begins her story.  But Tasha, too, drifts into a dream-like state, and a story begins to unfold before them all.

... Largessa pulls out a letter from the Ice Palace, inviting all the young hens to a ball.

"Darlings! Prince Cockerel is sure to be looking for a princess bride! Time to get ready!

Summoning little Cinders, the chicken sisters order her to fetch warm water to bathe and fluff their feathers and clean their claws. As sisters primp and preen, Largessa summons Cinders to help dress and adorn Bossy and Pecky in their best finery before they set off for the Ice Palace. Little Cinders longs to go, but she knows she has absolutely nothing to wear to such an elegant event and no way to make her way through the snow to the grand ball.

But Tasha has promised a fairy tale, and Cinders' fluffy-feathered fairy godmother appears in a sudden flare of the stove and provides a silver sarafan dress and crystal slippers and turns a pumpkin into a glorious sleigh, with barn mice for footmen and a handsome pair of gray geese to pull her to the palace.

Brett sticks to the traditional story line, with its warning that the magic ends at midnight, and Cinders enchants Prince Cockerel just as the magic wanes, leaving a crystal slipper behind. Bossy and Pecky are properly put down when their unfortunate feet fail the slipper test, and Cinders rides off with Prince Cockerel to the Ice Palace to feather her nest with her silver eggs and presumably live the poultry version of happily ever after.

The story remains the same; only the names have been changed, but Jan Brett's elaborately styled gouache art, especially the four-page gatefold which features all of the feathered revelers swirling in their colorful finery at the ball, tells the tale in her special style, raising this Cinderella spinoff to the top of the princess tale pecking order. Virtue and hard work are rewarded at last, even in the chicken coop and the old story still has all its magic, set off in this stunning new version by one of the modern masters of picture book art. As Kirkus Reviews writes, "A captivating addition to the "Cinderella" canon."

Pachyderm Princess: Cinderelephant by Emma Dodd

ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A GIRL NAMED CINDERELEPHANT.

CINDERELEPHANT LIVED WITH HER TWO COUSINS, WHO WERE KNOWN AS THE WARTY SISTERS. THEY WERE HORRIBLE, MEAN, AND SMELLY.

Despite her imposing size, Cinderelephant is forced to serve as her cousins' handmaiden.  To meet their specifications, she is forced to multitask as only an elephant can, mopping with one hand, cooking with the other, and deftly managing to do the ironing with her trunk, slaving thanklessly while the warthog girls lollygag and mindlessly loaf away the entire day.

But then an invitation arrives that focuses their minds wonderfully.  Heir to the throne Prince Trunky, who finds his kingdom's eligible ladies a bit on the delicate side as dancing partners, is hosting a grand ball, with the clear objective of picking a presumably sturdy consort.  Princess is the operant word of the hour, and despite their lack of pulchritude, the Warty girls proceed to primp up, hoping to trip the light fantastic with the Prince.

Cinderelephant is excited at the princessy prospects, too.

"IF THEY ARE INVITED ALL THE GIRLS," SAID CINDERELEPHANT, "PERHAPS THAT INCLUDES ME!"

"OF COURSE YOU WON'T BE GOING, CINDER-IRRELEVANT!"  LAUGHED THE WARTY SISTERS.

But Cinderelephant has a resource her cousins know not of--her Furry Godmouse,  who magically transforms her dull house dress and everyday shoes into glamorous gown and sparkly pumps and conjures up an appropriately commodious stretch limo as transport to the ball.  Giddy, Cinderelephant, all dolled up for the dance, eagerly hoists her considerable posterior into the plush backseat of her ride.

"BUT, (AND IT WAS A BIG BUT," THE FAIRY GODMOUSE SAID (PUNNINGLY), "YOU MUST BE BACK BY MIDNIGHT."

It's a pleasantly predictable ending to Emma Dodd's latest, Cinderelephant (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2013), as the hefty Trunky and his plus-sized princess are at last reunited over  her missing pink pump in traditional style, and as Dodd puts it, "hugely happy ever after." The Cinderella motif is one of the most popular in literature, with its universal themes of orphanhood, sibling rivalry, romance, and the get-rich-quick drive. Author-illustrator Emma Dodd spoofs the bare bones of the old folktale, generously, er, fleshing them out visually while sticking close to the familiar plot, and her artwork, just a bit reminiscent of Babar and Queen Celeste, is as comically captivating as ever in this venture into the fractured fairy tale genre.

Stowaway Princess: Beauty's Daughter: The Story of Hermione and Helen of Troy by Carolyn Meyer

"They will sail to Troy, and there will be much bloodshed," Zethus predicted. "Menelaus will certainly want to get Helen back. As for the goddesses Hera and Athena will be on the side of the Greeks, but Aphrodite will help Paris as much as she  can. The war is likely to last for a long time."

"Where is Queen Helen? Where is my brother?" I shouted.

The boatmen stared uneasily at their feet. "They're with the Trojan prince. They boarded the ship with the figure of Aphrodite and Eros on the prow. They sailed eastward."

Eleven-year-old Hermione has always known that her beautiful mother, Helen, Queen of Sparta, has little interest in her, but when  the queen falls in love with the visiting Prince Paris and flees to Troy, taking Hermione's beloved little brother with her, Hermione determines that she will stowaway on a ship in her father's fleet and follow King Menelaus and his Greek allies to war on the shores of the great walled city of Troy.

As her loyal friend and servant Zethus prophesied, the war drags on for ten years. Hermione and her cousin, Orestes, to whom she was betrothed by their grandfather, grow up in the Greek camp on the shores of Troy.  When at last Zethus designs the Wooden Horse, the Greeks  gain entrance to the Trojan city. Paris is killed by Achilles, Achilles is killed by an archer's arrow to his vulnerable heel, and Menelaus reclaims his Helen. But Orestes and Hermione are separated as the fleets depart for their homes, and Menalaus rewards Achilles' son Pyrrhus for his service by promising Hermione to him as his wife.

Longing for Orestes and unhappily married to the brutal Pyrrhus, Hermione is miserable in his long-abandoned and shabby palace at Pharsalos. She loves only Orestes, but when she fails to bear the son Pyrrhus demands of her, he spitefully takes her two handmaidens as concubines who give him a son and daughter.

But Hermione has good fortune in her bad fortune. The loyal Zethus finds her, and when Pyrrhus is killed by a rival, with the assistance of the god Hermes they escape to the coast where she learns that Orestes has arrived at home to discover that his unfaithful mother, Clytemnestra, has murdered his father Agamemnon.  In a rage Orestes kills his mother in retribution and, tortured by the Furies for the sin of  matricide, loses his mind and his memories and is imprisoned on a distant island.

Still, the resourceful Hermione believes that she can find her love and restore him to health, if the gods will it, and she sets forth on her own quest, in Carolyn Meyer's forthcoming Beauty's Daughter: The Story of Hermione and Helen of Troy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013).  Meyer, the queen of queen fiction, has a talent for telling a compelling personal love story, while taking the reader deeply into early Hellenic history  in which the story is set.  The story of Helen of Troy is the world's first great romance tale, the story of the stunningly beautiful but unfaithful queen who claimed herself to be Aphrodite's pawn and whose face "launched a thousand ships" as chronicled in Homer's Iliad.  Meyer tells that epic story tangentially as she focuses on Helen's unloved, red-haired daughter Hermione, whose own romance, in the face of unfortunate history and the mischief of the gods, offers a counterpoint of devotion and resilience to her mother's fickle infidelities, making the self-reliant Hermione the center of the swirling events of the world's first great love story and first great war.

Middle readers who grew up with Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians adventure series and into young adult status will find some familiar Olympian characters but a different sort of historical fantasy in Carolyn Meyers forthcoming Olympian romance novel.

Other notable young royal novels by Carolyn Meyer include The Wild Queen: The Days and Nights of Mary, Queen of Scots (Young Royals) (see review here), Mary, Bloody Mary, The Bad Queen: Rules and Instructions for Marie-Antoinette (Young Royals), Doomed Queen Anne: A Young Royals Book, and The Royal Diaries: Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess, Russia, 1914.