Margaretha has always been a romantic, and she hopes her newest suitor, Lord Claybrook, is destined to be her one true love. But then an injured man is brought to Hagenheim Castle, claiming to be an English lord who was attacked by Claybrook and left for dead. And only Margaretha—one of the few who speaks his language—understands the wild story.
Unable to pass his message on to her father, the duke, Margaretha convinces herself “Lord Colin” is just an addled stranger. But when Colin asks her to spy on Claybrook as repayment for retrieving a lost heirloom, Margaretha discovers that she might be very wrong about both Colin and her potential betrothed.
In The Princess Spy, Melanie Dickerson takes "The Frog Prince" and adapts it into a compelling novel about deceit, treachery, faith, and love. After reading three or so pages, I was completely hooked. The point of view shifts between Margaretha and Colin, and it's nice to see the events developing from both of their perspectives. Their relationship is sweet, moving first to friendship, then to love.
The villain is sufficiently evil, and the danger is real, yet nothing is graphically described, making this novel appropriate for even young teens. Adults, too, will enjoy this novel. It's one of the only YA novels I've read that I can wholeheartedly recommend to everyone.
Some of the protagonists of Dickerson's other novels appear in The Princess Spy, but I didn't discover this until I'd finished reading. I had no knowledge of her other novels when I read this one, and it functions completely as a stand alone novel. But now I would like to go back and read the others in the series—if they're anything like The Princess Spy, reading them would be time well spent! 5 stars.
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Melanie Dickerson is the author of The Healer’s Apprentice, a Christy Award finalist and winner of the National Reader’s Choice Award for Best First Book. Melanie earned a bachelor’s degree in special education from the University of Alabama and has been a teacher and a missionary. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Huntsville, Alabama.
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Out of all of her books I have read of her's thus far I liked this book and Captive the best.
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