this was Ok. not great, not awful, just Ok. the heroine was Ok. bit dim, mind, but there you go.
Probably I'm too old for the book - it's tween, not YA, that's for sure.

A poorly written, often derivative semi-fantasy. While good writing can make a predictable premise exciting, the former is largely absent here. Wouldn't recommend, primarily as there are so many better alternatives for this age group and genre from more skilled writers.

The story is simple. Lottie Pumpkin (yes really) has fulfilled her young life's ambition and promise to her dying mother by gaining a scholarship to the prestigious Rosewood Hall. She leaves a rather mean (some might say wicked) stepmother to enter a whole new world. There she meets fellow newbie Ellie Wolf ( are we sending a theme? ) who turns out to actually be Princess Eleanor of Maradova in disguise as a moody teenager ( she plays the part well!). Due to a series of misunderstanding and miscommunication soon the whole school thinks it's Lottie that is the princess and this suits the girls fine - Lottie loves all things pink, glittery and princessy whereas Ellie would probably rather be in a mosh pit somewhere. Despite their differences the girls become fast friends but soon realise their games might be dangerous at somewhere like Rosewood Hall....

OK so here it is. This ain't Shakespeare or Tolstoy. Its a fantasy novel about 14 year old girls written for 14 year old girls. Now I have had many many more years in this world than that but I can release my 14 year old self and enjoy a good kids book. And enjoy it how it's meant to be enjoyed. Its why I still read Harry Potter without throwing abuse at J.K.Rowling for not making Sirius gay or enjoy The Last Jedi despite all my theories been wrong and Luke been oh so different to the one I grew up with. Or maybe I'm just immature but my point is this is a kids book and should be read from a kids point of view. Read it cynically and you'll hate it....but if you read it as a light hearted fairy tale you might just be surprised at the smile on your face when you finish. I really enjoyed this tale of a simpler more innocent world, where even the bad guys are not that bad (well not that bad yet- I suspect this will change in future novels). I'll be interested to see where the story leads.

This is a delightful and sophisticated story for very young adults. Lottie Pumpkin lives with her stepmother who she doesn't really get on with. She had promised her dying mother that she would always do the very best she could, and has worked very hard to try and obtain a place at Rosewood Hall, an elite boarding school. She has been very lucky and has been awarded a full scholarship to the school, she wouldn't have been able to go otherwise. Her very best friend Ollie takes her to the St. Ives railway station to start her journey to school.. When she arrives it feels like a magic place to her. Lottie has to share a room with Ellie Wolf. They are as different as chalk and cheese but get on very well. The school is rife with rumours that the princess of Maradova is attending the school, and most of the pupils believe that Lottie is her. However, the princess is really Ellie, and she is thrilled to be able to live an ordinary life because Lottie, once she knows, accepts the pretend role. Ellie is guarded by her Partizan, Jamie, who is the same age, and has been trained all his life to guard Ellie with his life.

They have many scrapes and adventures, searching for clues to a riddle that has been set them, and to keep themselves out of harm's way when the Princess's life is threatened. As the book progresses you gradually find out about all the main characters in a very natural way, nothing is forced. You are kept guessing till close to the end of the book as to who the villain is, and although I half-guessed who it was there were several likely candidates, and I wasn't entirely sure I was correct!

A good story, well worth reading.

The story felt really cliche and for the most part, I couldn't get on with the writing style.

Hey Guys,

It's me again. So this is from a buddy read with the bestest. Check her out on Instagram. We have recently started our bookstagram together so its still within is early stages. All links are below to the Katspurl's Instagram and also The Coverless. The Coverless is our joint bookstagram that we will be using to promote hard back books. Not just will we be doing some great photos but we will also be reviewing the hard back covers with out their jackets. Keep an eye out for it.

As it was our second buddy read we knew what we were doing and what to expect. I definitely had a lot more fun this time around. As we were reading almost the same areas. And its also safe to say that we had more or less the same thoughts on the book as well.

So I'll give you a quick synopsis: When fairy tale obsessed Lottie Pumpkin starts at the infamous Rosewood Hall, she is not expecting to share a room with the Crown Princess of Maradova, Ellie Wolf. Due to a series of lies and coincidences, 14-year-old Lottie finds herself pretending to be the princess so that Ellie can live a more normal teenage life.

Lottie is thrust into the real world of royalty - a world filled with secrets, intrigue and betrayal. She must do everything she can to help Ellie keep her secret, but with school, the looming Maradovian ball and the mysterious new boy Jamie, she'll soon discover that reality doesn't always have the happily ever after you'd expect...

So, on with this review. It started okay. Character building is always a slow process if you have to get everyone together in a new place. But surely once you are there, it shouldn't be a problem. Right? Wrong. The idea was a really good one, and kinda reminded me of Princess Diaries being undercover and learning to become a princess but it was so simple. Its age group was young and I knew this. I expected nothing complicated and a nice easy read. It was an easy read. But it was to simple. To predictable.

There were all the different niches. I know kids have to learn about these however there are other ways to do this. It would also be nice to see something less stereotypical. Unfortunately after a while it went from being an easy read to being boring. Katspurl and I had already figured out who the main culprit was and also what was going to happen. This was before we were anywhere near finishing.

I felt very disappointed as it sounded very interesting and fun. Instead, we get something that I feel needed a lot of work and some more fluff. Though please don't get me wrong there was a lot of description used which helped to picture the people and areas. But again there was a lot of description.

Some things were left unresolved as well which I thought, Connie Glynn could be doing a couple of things such as, using that for the next book or she is going to leave that unfinished. I'm not going to lie I will probably start the next one to see if its better. This book may be an exception and the next will be better but we will have to wait and see.

So for the good points, I like the sound of where the story could go and also the description. If it also helps, I like the cover art. So for the good points I will give the book 2 stars.

https://www.instagram.com/katspurl.adventures/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/thecoverless/?hl=en

A delightful book packed with strong female characters and plot twists to keep you guessing. Highly recommend and can't wait for the next book!

Actual rating: A high 3.5/5 stars.

So coming from Connie's YouTube channel and seeing her vlogs about this new series, I just had to support her and read it, so I was super excited when I got it via Netgalley.
Obviously I wanted to love it and for the most part I did, but I am going to be extremely nitpicky in this review and point out some of the flaws, that I think would be non-existant if it was aimed at a different target group.

For the most part, this was a beautiful story about friendship between common people and royalty and how if you apply yourself and work hard, you as an individual can achieve great things. This as well as other themes (strong female friendships, lgbt+ relationships, humour, hints of some kind of magic) were all things I loved and think were done well enough for a debut author, but there are also things I think could have been tweeked or removed completely, that I'll get to later.

Characters:
Our main character Lottie was a little bit weak in some things but strong in others, which made for an interesting balance. Poor girl, kept getting teased about her last name when everyone seemed to have overly strange names! She showed true determination and loyalty to her friends at most times and I generally liked her, even though she was a bit wimpish. I did keep getting annoyed with some of the things she did. Like, why does Lottie "groan internally" so frequently? I did like how she was used as an outlet for Connie's thoughts to radiate through Lottie. Sometimes it was too much but most often I found it quite endearing, because they were all traits that I like about the author herself.

Ollie was such a sweetie, but I honestly forgot about him as he wasn't mentioned much after Ellie moved. There was an argument that took place later in the book that I kind of felt was a way to justify his lack if existance for the rest of the book, but which annoyed me because he seems like a great character that I want to see more from.

Ellie was awesome! She was so badass and an incredibly loyal friend, that was very quick to get rise to a temper, however her heart is always in the right place. She was so dangerous and electric but she's the backbone that Ellie certainly needed.

Jamie turned out to have a bigger role in this story than I was expecting. I'm quite liking his envolvement but can't help feeling a little put off of him because of his responsibilities.

Briefly I'll go over Lottie's other friends... Binah seems pretty mysterious. She's a bit of an odd one to me because I feel like she could play mind games and I just point blank don't like Anastacia.

I was deperate for some magic in this book as there a few hints to something bigger, but after reading Connie's author note it seems like it's more of an internal magic, which could be just as beautiful, if done correctly, so that's something I'm really looking forward to in the second book!

So, time for my one of my biggest pet peeves that were totally at play here:
- a misunderstanding that can be easily corrected but is dragged on for far too long and is probably gonna be made into a big deal.
- large time jumps. e.g. that big jump from the school to the plane.. like how did they get permission, do the teachers know now?! WHAT IS HAPPENING?!
- overused words. These being: static, stormy and meticulously grated on me!

I'm not going to lie, some things in this are a bit cringey, for example threatening to bite someone. The way it was said made me feel awkward especially coming from like 15/16 year olds, because to me the tone felt slightly sexually and teasing. I think either some bits could have been left out and had it marketed as Middle grade, or perhaps it should have had them a bit older to express some avenues that were certainly hinted at more than once... Though that may have lost the princess, fairytale charm. Either way, I don't think it worked very well having both. It just felt a little off.

The ending was very unexpected and dramatic but it somehow did not feel out of place. It didn't feel rushed and we still had time to process what had happened with our characters, which I greatly appreciated. Despite my little picky points, this was an amazing read, but I think perhaps if it was marketed as Middle Grade, or written in a more mature style/less amature (two extremes, I know) I would have enjoyed it to it's fullest. Hopefully these are all improvements that can be considered for the remainding books and I look forward to venturing into more of the Rosewood school and the students' lives.

I received a copy of this book for my independent honest review. It has taken me a while to consider how to review it as I am not from the target audience age group. It reminded me of a modern day Mallory Towers by Enid Blyton. I loved this series as a child growing up in the seventies and fondly remember placing myself in their world. I think that this book will have the same feel good factor for young teens today who want a little easy reading escapism. It shows good examples of friendship which I liked, however it didn't keep me gripped. I still read children's and young adult books on a regular basis and there are many that I have to keep reading without a break. Therefore I only awarded this book 3.5*. I did enjoy it though. The story was easy to read and did evoke good childhood memories for me and I would recommend young readers give it a try.

Undercover Princess is a book written by Connie Glynn aka Noodlerella. I will honestly say that although I have seen a few videos by Noodlerella I wouldn't say I really know anything about her, I definitely think this helped going into the book. This story has serious Princess Diaries vibes and I was down for it!

This, for me, was by no means perfect. A lot of the story was predictable and after a while Lottie became very whiny and repetitive. I also feel like the book tried very hard to put you off the scent of the 'bad guy' and for me made it clear the person the book was hinting to wasn't our culprit. However, this was still a cute and easy retelling of the famous Prince and Pauper tale. I did really like the writing style. I found it flowed really well and made reading this very enjoyable. I liked Jamie a lot, to me he was the right balance of broody and sensible and young to be both believable in his role as a friend but also for his job. The setting of the book has Harry Potter like vibes for me and brought me back to the times when I was younger and has wished to be whisked away to a remote boarding school in the country.
The one thing I really wished for with this book was more Ollie! He was introduced as such a funny and lovable character and then Lottie essentially abandons him, such a shame!

I would definitely pick up more of Connies books (especially Princess themed ones!)

Lottie - a driven, princess-mad orphan - has won a scholarship for the infamous Rosewood School, a posh boarding school where blue bloods, rich kids and royalty intermingle. There she meets Ellie, her new roommate, who has a secret. She is the hidden princess of Maradova - unfortunate to her because she just wants to be a normal teenager. Together, they form a bond as they navigate themselves through the perilous waters that is high school.


To be perfectly honest, I did not get on well at all with The Rosewood Chronicles. I was put off by the cliche plot, thinly drawn characters and mediocre writing. It read very much like a first draft effort from a teenager who had read a few boarding school books and decided to give it a go. I fail to see what was special to prompt publishing, if not for the name of the author. It seems clear to me that the book deal was made on the basis of branding and assured sales. That so much money is being put towards basically what amounts to a vanity project, when it could be going towards more rewarding efforts, is infuriating. If I had known it was a YouTuber book I would never have picked it up in the first place.

But anyways, I requested this one because I was a big fan of The Princess Diaries and there seemed to be some hype behind this new release. I wanted to get ahead of the game and read it for myself, especially as I was in the mood for a cute contemporary to wile away the cold evenings. It definitely had potential and I did enjoy parts of this novel. I appreciated the diversity in terms of the representation of some of the main relationships, particularly for a novel geared towards a younger age group. I think Glynn really has an eye for writing relationships. Unfortunately, I think it was a disservice to her craft to be published so early on in her development.

It is difficult to review this one because I do not like writing negative reviews, and, of course, opinions are subjective. The most infuriating thing is it is not actively awful. It is bland and unimaginative, with wasted potential - and that makes it worse. It is too mediocre to even be a hate read. I am also tired of this increasing mindset of the publishing world towards publishing names instead of voices. It has detrimentally affected the quality of the recent output in YA especially.

Lastly, no fourteen year old girl moving to boarding school for the first time takes with her a Disney nightgown. 🙎💩

Thank you to Penguin and Netgalley for providing me with a copy to review.

This was awful. I literally only finished reading it so that I could increase my feedback ratio on NetGalley.

I’m not onboard with hating on Youtubers for the sake of it, but I genuinely feel that if this person didn’t have a built-in fan base to buy this book it would never have been published. It’s unoriginal, boring, and badly written.

Great fun book. A few holes in the plot but didn't stop my enjoyment of the overall story. Recommended.

An enjoyable story that I would definitely recommend to a young teenager. I must say that Lottie did drive me mad at times and I wanted to shake her and tell her to stick up for herself! I'm hoping that there's more to the series and we get to see Lottie grow as a character!

How a mistake about identity can be made through shyness, which then led to friendship and opportunities which would never have come about otherwise. Two girls sharing a room at boarding school, one there on a scholarship and the other to get a taste of real life before taking on royal duties. A rumour goes round about a princess in school, and without giving away too much of the plot, one girl gets mistaken, wrongly, as the princess, with all the difficulties this entails. A good read, moves along quickly, I enjoyed it.

Amazing. I loved it.
And yes I maybe 28years old but I like to support New Authors and Youtubers/Booktubers :)

I don't really follow Connie much, as in I don't watch all her videos on YouTube, but I was excited about being accepted to.read this via Netgalley.

I think I enjoyed It more than I thought I would because growing up I was a secret reader, I never read for Fun...I was always labelled "Too Thick To Read" and so I was always embarrassed when seen with a book...and so when it came to the times in school where the whole class read the same book I cherished it. My Main Favourite book I reading and what sparked my "Secret" obsession on reading again was 'The Secret Garden" I think I was 8 years old when I read that and oh my I loved it so much.

I now consider myself a book worm, I carry a book with me every where I go and I don't care either where I read.

then came the Harry Potter books, to which I found again not "Clever enough" to read a book, and so I only ever got through the 1st book...until I hit 16 years old and began the 2nd/3rd and then life became quite difficult, I had a major breakdown Blah blah blah when suddenly BOOM in 2015/2016 I re-read all the HP books (the last 4 books being my first time) and OMG I soooooo wish I'd read them as a child, (I grew up on the films and books)

what I'm trying to get at is that I feel this book would be great for anyone around the ages 8 upwards, and I would've loved hiding in the local library warm and cosy with this to read...

and no, it's not all about how little princess didn't get her Pony for Christmas...

it has Attitude, Hormones, tantrums, undercover stuff, fighting both verbally and physically and I sooooooooo want Lotte and Jamie to get together 😊

It's just a great read, and as you can read in more depth in other reviews about it, I just delved in not knowing anything but the name on the Cover...and km so pleased I did. 😊

you don't need to be into princesses etc to enjoy this book. Just pick it up and give it ago. and if you have a Son or Daughter...read it with them 😊

I gave it a 3 stars, due to the fact my Ebook copy from Netgalley was messed up and it was showing me the edits of wording/sentences and it frustrated me.

I received an e-arc of this book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

“be kind, be brave, be unstoppable.”

I must admit that this is a slightly late review for this book as it came out at the beginning of November and I should’ve gotten around to it sooner but I wasn’t in the mood to constantly read review books so I kinda got off track…

From what I’ve seen on Goodreads reviews for this book, it doesn’t seem like many people actually enjoyed this however I absolutely ADORED reading this book. I realise some people might read this book and see that it’s cliché but I thought it was a cute read and I loved the characters!

This story is about two girls, Lottie Pumpkin, an ordinary girl from Cornwall who loves princesses and Ellie Wolf, an actual princess. They both end up sharing a room at Rosewood Hall where Lottie gets in on scholarship because she doesn’t come from money and Ellie just wants to try and blend in so that she can have a bit more of an ordinary life before having to become the princes.. We mainly read this from Lottie Pumpkin’s point of view but occasionally you get to read some of Ellie’s P.O.V and also Jamie’s. The two girls pretty much end up swapping identities as the students in the school mistakes Lottie for being the undercover princess, it remains this way after Lottie finds out it was really Ellie so that she can help Ellie live a more ordinary life and Lottie’s dream can pretty much come true by playing princess, however someone in Rosewood Hall knows their secret and is sending threatening messages so the two girls end up trying to figure out who it just might be.

For me this story just flew by, I couldn’t put it down I enjoyed it so much! I loved reading along and joining in on Ellie and Lottie’s year at Rosewood Hall! The book itself even has a BEAUTIFUL cover. It leaves you with questions and wanting more so therefore I highly recommend this book and I for one cannot wait for the second instalment in the series.

A magical adventure that transports you to another time and place. Each page offers the unexpected with vivid descriptions and intriguing characters. Different to any other book
I’ve ever read the story line captures your heart and will have you on the edge of your seat.

A good book but not great. I found it relatively interesting but for a younger public than me (I'm 18). I didn't really enjoy the characters, they had very child-like personalities that were not profoundly studied by the author whose way of writing didn't go well with me. Also, the secondary characters are not well developed. I thought this book was going to include some magical elements with the bodyguards/Porters, but (happily!) it did not. Quite cliché, to be honest, yet not very realistic. Reading it was not disagreeable and I was intrigued as what the next book will be about, but I won't read it, I think....

I don't think this book was appropriate for me. I found it quite childish and I think its more appropriate for teenagers. Its a good read and I finished it quite quickly.