Review: Princess in Practice

Princess in Practice
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

As they return to Rosewood after the dramatic events of their first year, Lottie and Ellie are hoping for a peaceful term.

But strange things are happening at Rosewood. Pupils are being poisoned. 

Is the threat of secret organisation Leviathan growing closer?

Lottie and Ellie are determined to find the culprit; but danger could be closer than they think... 

We're baaaaack! I really enjoyed the first book, and I've been itching to get back to Rosewood and see what's going to happen next with our characters and with the threat of Leviathan! I have to say...the opening is rather ominous. It was at that point that I decided it would be best to make myself comfortable, with a blanket, hot chocolate and some biscuits, and anticipate not moving for a while. I'm not going to lie, I read this in one sitting, it was just so easy to whiz through! 

The cast continues to be diverse and I love Connie for that! But not only that..they're also entertaining, relatable and intriguing and I can perfectly picture each and every one. Particularly the twins....even though the mental image...or rather video, of them speaking at the same time creeped me out a little bit. Binah seems so mysterious to me still!? I'm itching to learn more about her and we do get to spend quite some time with her this book, which I was pleased about. She joined our little trio trying to work out what was going on at Rosewood and so on. 

Poor old Lottie though, she's struggling with her family situation and not knowing all that much about her family's history and there are a couple of "OMG" moments involving her and her family history in this book! Jamie.....he's struggling too, and honestly, I'm getting such foreboding vibes from him. A lot of the time this book we've got Lottie and Ellie and Binah, and  he kind of...distances himself a bit. Or maybe that was just me reading in to it, but I do feel like something's going to happen with him. We do get a new character though, Percy! He provides some intrigue, and a new ship for me, I'm not going to lie! 

I'm so awful with this book and shipping characters, there is not a ship in this book that I don't like and speaking of shipping...the romance takes an interesting turn! Hello f/f romance, I am ready for you! I mean...this is yet more LGBT rep in this series and I'm so here for it. 

I do really love how all of our favourite characters came together to solve the puzzle in this one, and I'm SO looking forward to them working together more. I'm waiting for them to bring the others in on everything though. I'm so ready for the team up! 

I like the writing style, there's just something about it that makes it hard to put down, and makes it so entertaining and fun! Although I do wish that we got a more even distribution when it comes to the POV switches, mostly because I want to learn more about the other characters because Connie has made me so curious about them! That being said, we did get to learn a bit more about the secondary characters in this book so maybe I'm just greedy? 

I loved the reveals about the school, I loved the reveals about Lottie's family, I loved the world building, it's continued on brilliantly in this book as we expand on some things. We get to know more about Maradova and what it's like, as well as more about the school. I do get Harry Potter vibes with this one, mixed with kind of....Scooby Doo/Famous Five mystery vibes! 

OH I did get super excited that they visited Hampton Court Palace because that's 10 minutes up the road from me, and I went on at least 3 school trips there and I was reading like "Yaaaaasssssss, this was literally me [REDACTED] years ago!"...although they're more excited than I was by the third time. 

But don't get me started on the ending because....oh snap. I feel like the next book is going to be more intense, like this one upped the intensity but the next one is going to go even further. I feel like Connie's building the series up, the first book acquainted us with the cast, and the school and the basics we needed for the series, this one's expanding upon things and I know these books are going to just get better and better! This is one series that I look forward to the next instalment in! 

Review: Undercover Princess

Undercover Princess
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

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...

Okay so, I picked up a copy of this at YALC back in the summer and the time finally arrived for me to read it! I need a little pick me up and this seemed like the ticket and I figured I'd do a little review for it because why not! I do actually watch a few of Connie's videos, and I've been pretty hyped for this book! 

Undercover Princess is so much fun, plus it's imaginative with a magical quality to its setting. It's a quick read, or at least....I breezed through it! Like it's so easy to binge read it in one go! It's a mood lifter, it's got heart warming moments and there's a really nice mystery element to it, and yes...it is a wee bit cliche and cheesy in parts but that's okay because sometimes you need something like that. The book definitely gave me Harry Potter vibes, with a bit of Princess Diaries thanks to Lottie and her lessons, aaanddd this book is saturated with Fairy Tales, particularly Cinderella. The Cinderella is strong with this one but then I wouldn't expect anything less from Connie! 

Now, I completely and utterly loved Ellie. She was so much fun! She was so different to everyones idea of a Princess, and she was determined to do her own thing and be herself. I genuinely had a lot of love for her too, she was good at maths and science and stuff too! Jamie...the deadly killing machine aka Ellie's bodyguard and fellow teenager was kind of hilarious. I really wish he'd take out the stick that's up his butt and loosen up a little bit. He needs to have a laugh, bless him. Lottie is the one character I had an issue with. I wasn't that keen on her in the beginning, but I did end up quite liking her. However, I spent a lot of the time wanting to shake her or shout at her for quite clearly being an idiot and making stupid decisions. I don't know if I'd quite call her selfish because she's doing this thing that's all to help Ellie, but she does make some questionable decisions and I seriously was just like *sigh* oh Lottie. 

The setting was fun, and vivid. There was a nice amount of detail and world building that brought the setting to life. The mystery element kept me guessing and I fully admit that I did suspect the wrong person, although I worked out who it was right before the big reveal. I really did find myself sucked in to this book, and I enjoyed it a lot although Lottie took a while to warm up to! The character development was on point, and the growing friendship and bond between Lottie and Ellie was heart warming!