Enjoyed this book although at first i felt it may be aimed at teenagers as it is based in a school. However, the story was like a modern fairy tale. The characters are interesting and the plot challenged you to keep reading changing your mind as to who was the villian.

This book was a pleasant read, with a really strong story line, but slightly lacking characters in my opinion.

It held a good pace, with the reader being introduced to Lottie just as she is about to depart for all of her dreams - Rosewood boarding school. I really enjoyed reading about the boarding school, as i enjoy reading any story about boarding schools (side effects of growing up dreaming of getting a Hogwarts letter), and it has a lot of history that has been left untouched - however the author promises more on this in the sequel. Throughout Lottie's trials and tribulations (and there are many), there was never really a boring moment or too much going on at one time. New characters were introduced but not so much that you could't keep track.

However, to me, even though Lottie and Ellie were supposed to be polar opposates, I often got them mixed up. Although it is a good thing that they both had the same endearing qualities, there was nothing that stood out for either of them that made them their own character, the side characters with more mystery were much more interesting to read about. Also, this is getting to be a pet hate of mine now - can authors please remember how young 14 year olds actually are. Think more "The Princess Diaries 2" with the slumber party and less love triangles between moral, strict guard and brooding, sinister prince. STAHP. JUST LET THEM BE LITTLE GIRLS.

The ending was really good once again, the plot and pace really can't be faulted, but to me it would have been more enjoyable if the girls were older, or more planned out and well rounded.

// thanks to netgalley for providing me with a copy of this in exchange for an honest review //

Verdict: A light and colourful read.

Lottie is a hardworking student at Rosewood boarding school, who loves tiaras, the colour pink, and fairy tales. Ellie is the rebellious princess of Maradova, who joined the school to shirk her royal duties and listen to heavy metal. When a misunderstanding has all of Rosewood believing that Lottie is the princess of Maradova, the girls use this as an opportunity to swap lives, one gaining freedom, and the other gaining her fairy tale wish.

This was just what I needed after a dry spell of reading - something light and imaginative, with vivid descriptions and a fast moving plot.

It's a happy book about friendship, princesses, and protecting others, and the many references to fairy tales woven into the plot make it a very charming book. Even when the princess begins receiving anonymous threats, the events never feel too dark and serious. Instead they feel more like a mystery to solve.

The three main characters also work very well together. Lottie and Ellie are opposites: pink and black, studious and rebellious, day and night. Jamie is Ellie's brooding protector, but its great to see the girls are also able to hold their own when things get tough.

My main criticism is that it reads more like middle grade than young adult fiction. Even through the characters are fourteen, the themes, language, and style all point to a much younger audience. The voice is simple and clear, often telling rather than showing, and the emotions are stated very clearly so there's no room for interpretation. As a young adult book, it's much too overwritten, but as a middle grade book it's perfectly fine.

So if you're looking for a light read and are comfortable with a younger voice, then this could be the read for you.

Source: With thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley.com.

As a huge fan of Connie, aka Noodlerella, I was really looking forward to this book. On Youtube she funny, energetic and genuine, and all of this translates into her writing. I'm probably a bit older than the intended audience for this book, but I still enjoyed it regardless. I have always love books about boarding schools and fantasy, so this was a joy to read.

The writing feels very young and fresh; you can tell this is someone's first attempt at lengthy prose, which is easily forgivable because it's such a lovely story. I believe we'll see Connie's voice mature with her books. I've seen other reviewers rip this apart with the ferocity of an English professor, holding it high standards precedented by Classics. I choose to focus on the wonderful, vivid descriptions of Rosewood Hall, something so easily imagined as you read.

The plot is well thought out, with a strong sense of direction. Perhaps too many characters introduced, like Lottie's childhood friend Ollie, who we hear so much about in the beginning. Obviously he will play a bigger part in the later books, but he seemed to be sacrificed for other characters.

I really liked Lottie and Ellie's relationship from the start. I think the way they have been written is very entertaining but you can tell Connie wants to convey certain life lessons to her young audience through her characters. This is refreshing to see, as many books that come from Youtubers do not always reflect their true selves, rather, pandering to an audience.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this book, but is has issues. Some of the writing is a bit stilted, and there is a fair bit of telling-rather-than-showing. A fair number of characters are introduced but not fleshed out much. Some of the plot elements are not really looped into the narrative properly and just sort of appear with no seeming connection to anything else, and for even some of the basic premises, it requires a greater suspension of disbelief than I'm really comfortable with.

That said, the story might lead somewhere further in sequels; some of the setting and the characters are interesting. But I don't think I'll be following.

There is intrigue, secrets and betrayal galore in this book which keeps you turning the page, desperate to find out what will happen next. Lottie must cover for Ellie and she finds herself posing as the princess. There's a little romance too. I really enjoyed this book. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

I recieved this book from Netgalley for an honest review. So Thank You Penguin Random House UK and obviously Connie Glynn.

Let me start off by saying I went into this book thinking it might be a little young for me. Being the ripe old age of 26, however that was so not the case this book engrossed me so much I read it in one sitting. I loved the character development, the relationship between Ellie and Lottie was just so cute. I adored the entire concept of this book.
I was not expecting this book to have a mystery element but my gosh was it a good one.
Really excited to see where this story goes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for giving me the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an open and honest review.

I have quite a lot to say about this book, but I'll try to summarize my thoughts (without spoilers because this book isn't released until November 2017). I'll preface this by saying this wasn't my cup of tea. Overall, it read younger than the books I prefer to read despite (to my knowledge) being classed as young adult, but I felt it read on the younger side of that (like only one little step away from middle grade). It's a possibility that younger readers, or readers who enjoy middle grade, would've enjoyed this more than me. There were still parts I liked, and I think there is value and potential to this as a series. Keep this in mind when reading this review, and that I know this is a debut novel and the author is sure to improve with each installment of this series.

Characters

I don't know where to start with this paragraph, so I'll jump in with my two main problems.
1. A lot of these characters read like stereotypes in either YA or anime. Jamie was the brooding boy with a soft heart, and Lottie was the doe-eyed protagonist. They all felt pretty one-dimensional to me and didn't bounce off the page.
2. A lot of this felt like self-inserts for the author. This will probably not be a problem for people who don't know Connie from her youtube channel, but as someone who has watched a fair few of her videos a lot of things were glaring. Lottie loves pink, a decorated room and cute accessories. She loves princess (especially Cinderella, who is referenced throughout the book). Connie has also mentioned on her youtube channel that she likes girls with a rebellious streak, who are darker (watch her Gay Childhood Crushes video so you can see what I mean) aka Ellie. It's so obvious they'll be together in the end, and I'm totally for that- as we need more reputation for younger readers- but it reads like Lottie is a substitute for Connie and Ellie is the fantasy dream girl in the authors head. Maybe this wasn't on purpose, but it's how I saw it when reading and wasn't a fan.
3. I really didn't like Lottie. I wonder if this is meant to be a Cinderella retelling, as a few details felt that way- as well as the fact Lottie was a very Cinderella-like character. I know Cinderella is Connie's favourite princess, but she is far from mine. Lottie is even more-so how I remember the live-action version of Cinderella. A near mary-sue who is obsessed with being sweet and kind and becoming the embodiment of a stereotypical princess- which I guess is meant to be the irony in this book, but I found it insufferable. Her little mantra she had about being brave, kind and unstoppable felt more like a way of telling over showing and irked me like Cinderellas inner matra irked me. 4. The bonds that grew at the start of the book felt way too convenient for me, it sped past the details, and I wasn't convinced that they were truly bonded, and though I think this is meant to be a big school, it felt very small with only the characters immediately connected to Lottie being mentioned in the slightest.
I do, however, think these characters could go to good places as the series goes on, as I said, there's potential, and this is her debut- so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Plot

I'm sorry, but overall, I didn't find the plot engaging. The mystery side of it held little interest, and I felt no sense of danger at all until the very end of the book. I will say, the ending was a surprise, I didn't guess the ins and outs of the mystery and who was behind the threats and notes. Everything felt skimmed over, scene to scene was jumpy and the story didn't flow easy. I found the school scenes uninteresting. I kept waiting for another layer of the story to present itself, for something truly magical or special to happen, but it never did to the standard I was expecting.

Setting

Rosewood Hall is the main setting for the majority of this book. While the author done a good job of describing physical aspects of a place, the feeling never hit home. Lottie, the main character, would go on and on about how "special" and "different" the school was, but that wasn't conveyed to me as the reader at all. I've never been to a boarding school (and Connie Glynn has) so I don't know what is normal or different, but other than being fancy and pretty, the school itself held no real intrigue. There's a note at the end of the book by Connie, about how there was supposed to be a magical feeling to the place- despite being no magic. I didn't get that, and was hoping for something truly usual to occur.

Dialogue

I love writing dialogue, and I love reading it, but here is read as so unnatural. Like how you'd expect people to speak in a TV children's show. Conversation felt fake and inorganic the majority of time. In my opinion this was the weakest part of the whole novel, where a lot of the other things you could put up to personal taste or preference.

Writing Style

The writing was easy to follow (sometimes too easy, skimming instead of absorbing what was going on), but in some scenes and paragraphs I could go so far to say the descriptions could be "juicy," her word choice suiting the novel. However, there was often repetition. The word antithesis appearing at least 5 times, and a metaphor comparing a character to a puppy used around the same amount of times. She was a little too generous with her adverbs, and was quick to tell over show. The writing jumped from pretty to cliche every few paragraphs. Though this is her first novel, and something I could see improving vastly as she continues to publish books.

Overall vibe

This book often read like an anime on paper, a lot of the imagery reminded me of the Slice of Life or younger magical girl anime, or at least gave me the feeling some of those anime used to give me as a child, and honestly, if it gives those vibes to younger people- that's awesome! This could also be a negative, falling into cliches of anime- like the classic falling into them then on top of them troupe (and if I remember right, there's a scene at the beginning where she's late so shoves bread/toast into her mouth as she's running out the door- but I could've mis-remembered that). It often slipped into a sugary princess vibe which I didn't like as much, often becoming cheesy and educing eye-rolling.
However, despite this, near the end the book takes a turn for the violent. Guns and knifes coming into play for one thing. This felt sudden for me, and a bit out of place tone-wise from the rest of the book, though it's possible darker themes could become more prominent in later books.

Conclusion

Overall, this book had a nice vibe, and would suit a lot of young children wanting to move from children to young adult. It has a sweet vibe to the majority of it and has a lot of potential in future books. I found this quick to read, and easy to pick up even when my kindle ran out of charge for a couple of days. Even though this wasn't for me on the most part, as I had a lot of problems that boils down to Connie not being an inexperienced writer. I could see why other readers may enjoy it- especially if they didn't pick up on all the problems I had above

This is the prefect book for all teenagers and adults who loved fairy tales when they were younger. This has all the hallmarks of a fairytale: a princess, a villain (although their identity is unknown), a beautiful setting and an unsuspecting girl who gets swept up in it all. Lottie has dreamed of attending Rosewood her whole life but nothing can prepare her for what happens when she finally gets there.

Although most of the plot is obvious it didn't matter, its an enjoyable read and makes you want to keep turning the page.
There's so much more to come from the characters that the future books will have their pick of direction - for me there is a hint of lust between to the two main characters which will be interesting if it develops as its rare to find a Young Adult book that covers the same sex relationship topic for a main character, especially when talking about princesses.

A fantastic book with strong characters, friendship and mystery - loved it!

Eleanor is a princess and knows what she wants, to go to Rosewood School but it's at first against her parents approval until she wins them round.

Lottie is a girl from St Ives who's also heading for Rosewood after losing her mother but keeping alive her princess like thoughts and attitude.

When Ellie meets roommate Lottie she's amused where as Lottie takes a dislike to her new roomie after she shows she doesn't respect her or her belongings, it's clear they're opposites and will have to work through their issues.

This later involves Lottie taking the place of Ellie as she desires a normal life and not the forced one of being a princess!

Then Jamie, Ellie's childhood friend shows up to fins out what exactly is going on as reports fly that the princess isn't his friend Ellie but a stranger.

With boys and balls as well as royal duties including princess lessons, the girls could never have imagined their lives becoming the way they have or forming quite such a unique bond.

This book was a really great and anticipated read, as a follower of Connie's online platforms I expected this to be a Disney style tale and wasn't disappointed at all. A modern twist to the tale and being set around a boarding school added to the delight as the two main girls were forced into a strange bond which created tension, drama and lots of fun for us to read about. I got absorbed into the book and couldn't put it down it felt like I was there watching all the drama happening!

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

A great YA novel of fairytales and cunning. Lottie is the first student in years to get into Rosewood on a scholarship, when she finds she is rooming with Ellie, the complete opposite to her kind warm personality. Ellie and Mottie become firm friends with her becoming Ellie's Portman. A story with lots of twists and turns, I look forward to reading the second book in the series.

I really enjoyed this book, I was pleasantly suprised. As I started reading it, I wasn't too sure what to make of it, I love ya stories but I was wondering is this perhaps too Ya for me...... But alas no I throughly enjoyed it, it was a tiny bit predictable at the end but the story was good, the characters well rounded and I loved the undertow of something supernatural happening at rosewood and I am truly excited to read the second book in the rosewood chronicles.

IN SUMMARY: UNDERCOVER PRINCESS is a fun, adventurous tale with charming main characters and an intriguing mystery. Its downfall is the underdeveloped supporting cast, juvenile prose, poor world-building and contrived plot.

MY THOUGHTS:

I’m an absolute sucker for preppy boarding school mystery stories, so when I heard Glynn was writing THE ROSEWOOD CHRONICLES, I was hype immediately. I’ll preface this by saying I don’t religiously watch Glynn’s videos, but I do enjoy her content occasionally, and I was still hoping for this book to be a juicy read.

There’s a lot of heart, and the main trio are adorable, funny and charming in their own way. Lottie and Ellie have such a sweet friendship, and it’s a real driving force behind their shenanigans at the school.

I loved Rosewood Hall. I thought it was wondrous and magical in its own way. The secret passages, the houses, the lore; it was easy to be swept by it, and it gave me Harry Potter vibes. The descriptions are lavish and rich, and help you visualise the school well. Slightly disappointed it wasn’t featured more, if I’m honest.

However, the voice is juvenile, unpractised and clunky. Very tell, not show, in places where showing would be more appropriate than telling. The prose is stilted with “Lottie did this. Jamie did that. Lottie felt this”. Adverbs are rampant when there is usually a better verb that could capture the emotion of the speaker more efficiently. Dialogue is jarring with amateur mistakes like spamming capslock for entire spoken sentences, or restating people’s names over and over again. Inconsistency in use of British or American spellings. Incorrect grammar. Characters often overreacted and it made melodrama more than good conflict.

Some parts are just all out weird, like the intimacy between Lottie and Ellie. It’s fine if they're love interests to one another, but the narrative glosses over it entirely. They act like this behaviour is normal when… it’s not…?

The plot is confusing and incoherent. Most plot-relevant situations had me more bewildered than intrigued, because there was no meatier explanation to bridge the gap between how they figured things out.

In addition, plot points are contrived, convenient and lack foreshadowing, particularly the puzzles. They weren’t at all relevant to the overarching plot, so reading about them felt tedious more than exciting.

Other plot conveniences include: randomly figuring out problems; characters being interrupted before saying something possibly plot-important; a workshop being held at Rosewood, rather than literally anywhere else in the world; bumping into someone and all their things falling out from her bag.

The climax, as such, was a total disappointment. Sure, it was intense, but it lacked coherence. I didn’t fear the villain because the explanation behind their villainy was flimsy, and they made ‘amateur villain’ mistakes.
I think the problem with some parts was the ‘magic’ wasn’t explained well, or at all, really. This book is set in the contemporary world, which is why explanations of ‘magic’ are necessary as to not confuse the reader and think it’s some sort of delusion on part of the protagonist.

Likewise, the world-building of Maradova is poor. We have no idea where it is, except somewhere up north near Russia. Fair enough, they keep English as a language, but why wouldn’t Maradovans have their own accents, their own culture or traditions? At the moment, the country is utterly indistinguishable from England, and both Ellie and Jamie act exactly the same way that Lottie does, despite being from two different countries between them. It unfortunately seemed like a lazy world-building shortcut.

For some reason, there’s an actual maths problem in the book. I understand its relevance, but it’s a waste of words when most, if not all, readers will skip over it (including myself).

Most of the supporting cast are unnecessary and underdeveloped. There’s heads of year, sports captains and teacher’s assistants that are all named but have literally zero relevance, so them being named is pointless. The teachers’ descriptions are all info-dumped in one go and it makes them forgettable. Lola and Micky could be mushed to create one character or removed entirely and nothing would change. Raphael, Saskia and Edmund are infuriatingly underdeveloped.

Binah, Anastacia, Ellie and Jamie are the only three-dimensional characters, and even they lack coherent descriptions of their appearance. Jamie is at least half-, if not full, Pakistani and it’s not mentioned until near the end of the book, by which point, the reader already has a mental image of him that is difficult to uproot. All it would take is Lottie to think “He had brown skin, possibly from Pakistan” or something.

Even Lottie herself is poorly described; it was at least twenty chapters before I learnt what colour hair she had. I don’t have a clue what she looks like, still, which I think is apparently the point, but readers need some grounding for characters descriptions.

Lottie made some stupid character decisions that made her more annoying than endearing. Lottie made questionable decisions that made me rolled my eyes.

Also, the only confirmed black character smokes, swears and encourages trouble. Also, using food words to describe skin colours is yikes.

WILL I READ ON? It’ll really depend on the summary for the next one. This is a clumsy opening of a series and it doesn’t give me much hype for the next one.

Will I recommend this book to my students - definitely. I'll also be eagerly awaiting the rest of the Rosewood Chronicles series, as Undercover Princess combines many features I enjoy. It could be shelved next to the Harry Potter, Princess Diaries and even Divergent series, as it features a fairytale, boarding school, royal setting with intrigue, danger and strong characters discovering who they really are underneath the various labels society and their school gives them. I read it in a few hours because I genuinely couldn't put it down, and hope my students will feel the same!

'Undercover Princess' is the first book in Rosewood Chronicles. It's a novel about an unlikely friendship between a real princess (Ellie) and a girl who loves fairy tales (Lottie). They both meet in a prestigious (and a bit magical) boarding school in England. But even though it's a book about princesses, princes and kingdoms it's definitely not what you would expect. 'Undercover Princess' surprises you with suspenceful turns of action and scenes of danger. The book is highly focused on emotions connected with friendship, loyalty and loss. I give it five starts for the great approach towards the topic of outstanding morals, immaculate behaviour, but also for focusing on being brave version of yourself. Beware that there are also some swooning moments thanks to Jamie who is a total gent. I highly recommend to all age groups of readers!

I almost felt like I was somewhere I shouldn't be reading and reviewing this book as I am way out of the target audience by, ummmm, well more than a few years! But I don't care! It was really great!

My 6 highlights from Undercover Princess:

Lottie and Ellie's friendship and bond, beautiful to witness firsthand,

School setting...it's like I was there!

The message this book gives, lets actually support each other,

Plot twists, never saw them coming!

The mystery! Who doesn't love a mystery?!

How hard it made me think of what will happen next for this series.


This was like a breath of fresh air to read. Fantastic writing, fantastic story and I am hoping we see a little bit of romance in book 2, Lottie deserves it!!!

I intend to expand on / improve this review before cross-posting it to my blog in the near future, but this is the version currently on Goodreads.

Ehhh. This was probably a 2.5* read. The plot was plenty enjoyable: mistaken identities, friendship, secrecy and mysterious fictional kingdoms all combined in a boarding school setting. The characters, too, were interesting enough, although I might have liked to see more of Lottie's backstory before she came to the school because that seemed to drive her a lot. But the writing felt... weak. This was exacerbated by the fact that the eARC still seemed to have a bunch of editorial notes in there, occasionally emphasising errors I might not have noticed otherwise. But even without that, the writing style was disappointingly simplistic and felt like it needed a lot more work to be convincing.

Although there were some background queer characters (and I'm fairly sure Ellie is meant to be gay, but it hasn't been discussed on-page yet), it felt like the narrative between Lottie and Ellie was veering strongly into "no homo" territory, which was a shame, as their relationship felt easily like it could have drifted into romance -- and that would have avoided a couple of irritating sideplots involving men. There was also a minor plot reveal that, as well as seeming kind of pointless because it didn't go anywhere, bothered me somewhat (I won't go into details because spoilers, but there was a strange implication of a character being trans that just kind of felt... insensitive).

Mainly, though, it was the writing that let this down. The concept was fine, but the execution let it down and I felt it could've used more editing. Then again, since the ARC I read still seemed to have edit notes in it, it's possible there's work to be done before it's published.

When I first heard about this novel, I was excited about the storyline as it sounded like something I would have loved to read when I was younger. After finishing this book, I was certainly right; I probably would have loved to read this book when I was around the age of 12-15. On the surface, this book is a cute, fluffy, sugary piece of writing but underneath I think the author had good intentions about this novel. The two main characters who I think are so cute, bring out the best in each other and they are such lovely friends. Overall, I believe that this is a great debut novel from Connie, and I look forward to seeing more from her.