“She’ll trick a pauper into wearing her crown to satisfy her own wanderlust.
Princess Sarina’s greatest dream is to travel, but her overprotective father insists on keeping her close to home. Simply running away isn’t working, since she never gets very far before she’s caught. When she fortuitously meets a pauper girl who looks like her twin, Sarina believes she’s found the missing piece to make her travel plans come true. All she has to do is trick the pauper into taking her place so nobody will realize the true princess is gone. Then she’ll be free to see the kingdoms to her heart’s content – at least, until the switch is revealed.
Alec Hendon has been a mercenary fighting on foreign soil for seven years, and now he’s finally ready to go home. Once back, however, he begins to think he shouldn’t have stayed away so long. His beloved home of Carabas and his family are not the same as he’d left them. Additionally, the pauper villages, known as Cantytowns, are more numerous and teem with dangerous gangs and slave traders. People from all the classes live in a growing fear of the king. And the worst part of all? When he finally sees his cousin again, she doesn’t remember him.
In all her great travel plans, Sarina didn’t count on running into a retired mercenary who believes she is his cousin (the very pauper she tricked into switching places), but can he save her from the perilous road ahead?”
Series: Part of the “Twist of Tales” multi-authored series, but is not connected to any other books.
Spiritual Content- Psalm 37:5 at the beginning; A Scripture is referenced; Prayers & Thanking God; A couple talks about God; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God; Sarina has wondered if God made a mistake in making her a princess, *Spoiler* but realizes at the end that she can use her position to help her kingdom’s people *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of God/the Creator & His will; Mentions of prayers, praying, & thanking and praising God; Mentions of abbeys/chapels, going to chapel, & priests; A few mentions of blessings & being blessed; A mention of a miracle;
*Note: Mentions of evil people & their actions (including slave trading); A few mentions of luck & being lucky; A mention of a possible ghost at an estate.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: An ‘idiot’ and two ‘blasted’s; Fictional phrases like “beards/wigs be torn” (x5), “by the Orders” (x2), “what in the kingdoms” (x1), and “curls and coiffers” (x1) are all said; The phrase “a pain in my petunia” is also exclaimed once; Someone swears by “every knights’ white beard”; Eye rolling & Sarcasm; Fighting, Being attacked, Threatened with a knife, Threatened with being sold as a slave, Being tied-up, Being knocked unconscious, Injuries, Pain, Blood/Bleeding, Fainting, & an Earthquake (up to semi-detailed); Helping someone escape from a slave trader; *Spoilers* Alec meets a family member who is a part of selling and trafficking slaves; The man justifies it because he needs the money and that the people would be glad to leave their land, but Alec is firm that it is evil and a crime to do this; Alec is distraught by this family member’s behavior; The family member and his group are arrested at the end of the book *End of Spoilers*; *Spoilers, about a parent’s death* Past halfway through, Sarina is told that her father has passed away and isn’t sure how to react; She decides that she will miss him, but they weren’t close and isn’t grieving over his death *End of Spoilers*; Sarina pushes someone twice (including into the water once) and tricks others into believing someone else is her (so she can travel like she wants); Sarina steals fruit from an orchard (believing that the owner would be pleased to feed her); Many mentions of gangs, thieves, stealing, & stolen items; Mentions of slave traders, a slavery ring, & people (including children) being kidnapped/taken by slaver traders to sell; Mentions of deaths & grief (including of loved ones like parents and extended family members); Mentions of executions; Mentions of torture, punishments, & receiving lashes (including those who speak badly about royalty facing these); Mentions of earthquakes, property damages, & people being killed in earthquakes; Mentions of fights, weapons, injuries, pain, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of arrests & dungeons/jails; Mentions of threats & blackmail; Mentions of Sarina running away from the castle; Mentions of gambling; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of rumors & gossip; A few mentions of a war; A few mentions of a fire, deaths, & burns; A few mentions of hunting (including slave traders for people to kidnap and sell); A few mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of a kidnapping ransom; A couple mentions of taverns; A mention of the death of a pet (dog);
*Note: Two comments that women sold in the slave market do not always have it “easy” and that they are not promised a good home as it is “dependent on the buyers”; Mentions of people having a “mind disease” (also called “madness”) that causes them to lose their memories & there being treatment and medicine to help with it; A mention of a couple unable to have biological children.
Sexual Content- An embrace; A few blushes; Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of crushes/romantic feelings; A couple mentions of flirting; Very light potential love in the future & the emotions.
-Sarina Terridan
-Alec Hendon
P.O.V. switches between them
204 pages
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New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
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My personal Rating-
This book was barely 200 pages, but it was an adventure! I don’t think Sarina or Alec caught a single break throughout these pages with all the problems they faced, but I was satisfied by the ending.
Blame the Barbie movie, but I’m always excited to learn about new “Princess and the Pauper” retellings. So much so that when reading about this book, I was confused how it was gender-bent like the rest of this multi-authored series because in my mind, that is the original edition. Ooops, sorry, Mr. Twain! 😅
At the beginning, I was afraid I wouldn’t like Sarina. She had her moments that made me want to sigh as she is very selfish and spoiled. But it’s truly because of how she was raised, so it actually made sense for her character. Didn’t mean I didn’t want to shake some common sense into her, but I could see glimpses of why she was the way she was. Sarina tricks the pauper to switch places with her against the pauper’s will or wishes. Because of this, she can come across as selfish and spoiled between that and some of her comments of being of importance. It was a little eye-rolling at times because I knew it wouldn’t go well for her (it never did) until there were some important realizations, but Alec was a very good Male Main Character and kind to her during the whole book.
This book was on the shorter side and a lot happens. That said, I do wish there had been a “happy ever after” kind of epilogue to see how the kingdom is doing years later. I would have enjoyed seeing more faith discussions between our main characters as I was a little surprised when Sarina brought up about God halfway through the book as there hadn’t been any signs of her believing in Him until then. Alec was steady in this regard which endeared him to me more. I didn’t quite buy the romance between the two of them, but it’s a very light element to the book. I’ll be nit-picky and say that I wish there had been another 50 pages at least to have these elements explored a little more. However, I did end the book mostly satisfied and would be thrilled to see another book set in this world as I found the setting interesting with all the knights and colors.
As a note for potential younger readers and their parents: There is a very light romance thread in this book—so light there isn’t even a kiss, which I think worked well for the characters and how short of a time they have known each other—but there are mentions of slave traders and people (including children) being kidnapped and sold by them to other countries. One side character justifies running a slave trading ring because he needs the money, but the main characters look upon it as the evil it is and call it just that. There’s no mention of what will happen to those slaves (whether it’s physical or sexual slavery) besides the possibility of not going to a good place. It could be an introduction into talking about human trafficking without details being shared as it is a real and sad thing in our world. For younger readers, though, I leave it to a potential reader and her family to make the decision about what age would be best for her to read this book.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
