Title: Rogue Princess
Author: B.R. Myers
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Date Published: January 21st 2020
ADD TO GOODREADS
A princess fleeing an arranged marriage teams up with a snarky commoner to foil a rebel plot in B. R. Myers’ Rogue Princess, a gender-swapped sci-fi YA retelling of Cinderella.
Princess Delia knows her duty: She must choose a prince to marry in order to secure an alliance and save her failing planet. Yet she secretly dreams of true love, and feels there must be a better way. Determined to chart her own course, she steals a spaceship to avoid the marriage, only to discover a handsome stowaway.
All Aidan wanted was to “borrow” a few palace trinkets to help him get off the planet. Okay, so maybe escaping on a royal ship wasn’t the smartest plan, but he never expected to be kidnapped by a runaway princess!
Sparks fly as this headstrong princess and clever thief battle wits, but everything changes when they inadvertently uncover a rebel conspiracy that could destroy their planet forever.
Ever since I read The Kiss Quotient on Spooks, an audiobook library by Spotify, I found a new love for audiobooks. I saw the cover of Rogue Princess and the synopses and I just had to read it.
Delia is a princess who must get married to save her planet, Astor. She decides to run away by stealing a ship and in doing so, encounters Aiden, who is also trying to run away. Together, they discover that a rebel conspiracy is trying to dismantle the monarchy and they aim to stop it.
Delia and Aidan
Delia is a great protagonist, she’s independent and a strong character who’s diligent. Aidan is a sweet character but didn’t particularly stand out to me. I do think both of their personalities bounced off each other well though. It was fun following their story of trying to stop the rebel conspiracy from dismantling the monarchy. But I also think that their relationship seemed quite insta-lovey. I would’ve thought that they would acknowledge their feelings for each other and leave it like that, but it goes further.
The Characters
One thing I realised I was thinking while listening to The Rogue Princess was that there were so many characters. There were so many princes mentioned and only a very select few that were actually relevant to the story or added substance to the plot. With so many side characters, I would’ve liked to see them being implemented to the story rather than just being there. For example, there were twin princes whose importance to the story was just being twins and princes.
Granted, my favourite side character is Delia’s sister, Shania. She’s bubbly, funny and a hopeless romantic, adding a light element to the story!
How Myers Writes the Story
I found Myers’ writing quite slow-paced, which made it difficult for me to get invested in the story. I think aspects such as world-building should have been fleshed out more to compensate for the slow pace, I don’t think I would’ve been disappointed with that. Despite this, The Rogue Princess has excellent foretelling that I didn’t even realise until the end of finishing the book! The hints are so subtle and yet so obvious at the same time. One thing I’m certain I took from this story is that you can’t trust everyone you think is dear to you. An important life lesson.
The Rogue Princess is a very interesting gender-reversed Cinderella retelling with sci-fi elements. Seeing as it’s on Spotify I would definitely say have a go listening to it!
