Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Princess Benevolence, Ben for short, is left to deal with her moody aunt Sophia after the assassination of her parents and uncle, the reigning king. Sophia becomes the new queen, but since Ben is the only member of royal blood left Sophia wants to her to start acting like a real princess. From the horrible dancing lessons to needlepoint and eating like a lady Ben finds no pleasure in learning what it’s like to be a princess. When Ben learns that all these lessons are being used to make her more appealing to suitors she loses it. She is rude to her aunt and finds no joy in anything she does anymore. Hoping to put Ben into her place Sophia locks her up in a tower. As you can imagine Ben is furious, but it seems that she has fate on her side when she finds a secret door up into a magical tower. Ben hopes this room will be an escape from her horrid life of manners, curtseys, and potential suitors. Even better, the magic in the room may help her find out what really happened to her parents.

WOW!!! This was seriously an amazing book. I was literally speechless after finishing this book. I have always been a big fan of Murdock’s books, but this one now holds a special place in my heart. I mean you take magic, a princess with an attitude and Murdock’s brilliant writing style mix them all together and how can you not expect to get a phenomenal story? From the first sentence the book pulls you in and envelops you in Ben’s story, making sure you never want to leave. I think that this is actually one of my new favorite fairy tales. While it may not be your everyday fairy tale there is just something about it that makes you want to read it over and over again. Another amazing thing about this book is that it doesn’t leave you after the final page. You’ll want to keep reliving the book and thinking about what could happen next. As you can probably guess I highly recommend this book and suggest you run out to the bookstore or library and grab a copy. This is truly one of those books that you can just escape into.