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Adelheid #1

The Seventh Princess

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A Tale of Ambition and Power

A soul from Earth awakens as Seventh Princess Adelheid of the Vuldar Empire. With a weak body but a monstrous reservoir of mana that threatens her very life, Adelheid engraves an oath into her very soul. She shall seize the throne no matter the sacrifices. Never again, shall her birthright be stolen.

Experience Adelheid's journey through victory and loss to achieve her deepest desires.

377 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 10, 2022

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About the author

D.C. Haenlien

14 books44 followers

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5 stars
456 (55%)
4 stars
223 (27%)
3 stars
99 (12%)
2 stars
26 (3%)
1 star
20 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
Profile Image for Gavin.
1,054 reviews440 followers
February 23, 2024
I was a tad disappointed with this Isekai style reincarnation fantasy. It played out like a bad anime which was a shame as the premise did have a lot of potential.

The plot was intriguing enough. Adelheid, the young Seventh Princess of the Vuldar Empire, has just awoken from a Sleeping Beauty style curse. The twist being the fact she does not remember her life as a child princess but rather has memories of a whole other life lived in a place called Earth!

The story followed the main POV character Adelheid as she used her Earth knowledge and experience to help in her own political aspirations for the throne. She also had to learn to control her powerful mana/magic before it killed her…or worse.

It could have been a fun tale but for some reason it all came off like a very average reincarnated in another world anime. We learned next to nothing about Adelheid’s life on Earth and next to nothing was made of the fact that an adult suddenly found themselves stuck in the body of a child in a bizarre new world where magic, monsters, and weird creatures were real things.

Meh…I doubt I’ll move onto the next instalment as this one was a tad uninspired and dull but at least it was not an actively offensive tale.

Rating: 2.5 stars.

Audio Note: This was performed by Diana Richardson but she had the support of Blaine Maddox for the male voices. I felt like this worked well for the audio and that both narrators did a good job trying to breathe some life into this tale.
Profile Image for Arty.
114 reviews8 followers
August 17, 2022
*Audiobook review*
Everyone is giving this book an amazing review. Trust me when I say that the Author made reincarnate/isekai boring. On paper, reincarnation as a royal on fantasy world is an old hat. People have done this tons of times before. However, for some reason they made the MC (Adelheid) unimaginative and dull. Usually, right off the bat, after reincarnate the MC would be showing off their intelligence, make mad money by selling earth products, introducing earth pizza to the world and picked up magic like a sponge. Instead you get a super slow girl who takes months to make a wand. This is 3 hours into the audiobook.
Heck, most of the book doesn't even follow the MC. The first chapter is just talks about the daily life of the attending maid. It was 20 minutes longs. They spend chapters talking about the history of the world and about the other characters which had little to do to the overall story..long winded paragraphs where the the MC could have just summarized. Also, even though the character reincarnated...the character talks about it as if, it is an afterthought. "Oh yea, I was a some woman from earth...that's how i made mayonnaise."
The Seventh Princess is long winded and spends hours building the world and the characters are royals...so they are hollow with their stiff upper lip. Also, the anime like maid abbott and costello comedy routine...was not funny at all.
2 reviews
April 13, 2022
Acceptable, but needs work

First of all, I must say I did enjoy the premise. The world building in the book is also spot on and allowed me to become invested in the story and finish the book. That said however there are two fundamental errors of writing that must be addressed.

First, show, don't tell. The book very jarringly transitions between the characters talking and a passive narrator talking. This is a big no no, and was especially prevalent in the explanation of the magic system. In the first page you have Adelheid and her teacher explaining it, but then the words flow into the passive narrator who goes on for several more pages explaining it. Who exactly was talking? Why? The explanation needs to be more dynamic, with a clear indication of who or what is conveying the information. This can be done through practical application. But if you want to do a broad info dump, keep the conversation and interaction between the characters going. The author needs to show us the world. The moment the author is explaining it the story breaks.

The second major flaw is the cavalier way in which time and space is treated. I was seriously jarred for example, by the description of the training field IN the castle compound being 5,000 square meters. That is Five Square Kilometers! Just how big is the imperial palace? Or it's surrounding city? They must be huge! If you meant for that level scale, it needs to be conveyed and explained. Every description is a piece of whole, and you can't hand wave it away. Can also be fixed with your choice of word. Instead of "In" go with "out". Language like this is critical for conveying your idea.

Finally we get to the issue of Time, namely, Adhelheids age. There is being a precocious 7 year old, and then there is running a financial empire and drinking wine with older crown princes sent by their father to seduce you as a 10 year old. Setting aside the obvious issues there, you can't rely on Adelheid being an Old Soul solely to explain this situation. She might be a 30 year old in a 10 year Olds body. But nobody else knows this. No effort is done to address the discrepancy of why everyone just goes along with it. This causes the story to blow right past power fantasy, and into Mary Sue territory. You have to address this to make it believable. Adelheid has to do "something" to convince the people around her she's not a child when everyone by the stories own admission assumes she is. Effortlessly handing success to a wine drinking 10 year old makes no sense. If you cannot address this you have to age Adelheid up by at least a decade in order to cover this major plot hole.

Beyond that very enjoyable. 1 star for world building, 1 star for good overall story arc, 1 star for interesting ideas. Minus 1 star for frequent use of the passive narrator and minus 1 star for serious plot holes and characterization errors.
Profile Image for Christian Jeffress.
472 reviews1 follower
September 29, 2022
Entertaining

I have to say that the story is an especially entertaining read, though it undoubtedly goes along the lines of political intrigue and mysterious organizations, with a light sprinkle of slice of life moments and fantasy settings with magic and swords. The main character is especially likable, but in the sense that she fits very well in her setting, kind when she Canby, but also especially ruthless when she needs to be. I think this book is definitely worth a shot as I very much enjoyed it, and I’ve already pre-ordered the second one.
3 reviews1 follower
April 18, 2022
Good story but...

It's a well thought out story and book overall but definitely needs another look at the editing and format. Gave it 4/5 for the potential and general enjoyment I got from it. I really enjoy strong female leads and this one feeds that interest. Looking forward to the continuation and other stories by the author.
39 reviews1 follower
February 24, 2023
Proofreading!

A really fun story, doesn't suffer from any of the usual issues you can find in some similar stories where there's a total lack of knowledge on nobility. Though I would say that the Princess should have guards outside her doors and following her around, especially after a declaration by the Emperor in part of the story.
The merit based aristocracy while a good concept doesn't address who then owns the land, the church? The monarchy? Interesting that business is allowed by princesses and prince's... so it follows a standard isekai let's introduce modern food style.
This story is a fun read and I liked the little snippets that follow the development of the bee farming and the stores that are developed.
Lots of misplaced or misused words, muddled sentences and extra repetitions. Needs a real good proofread but it was a top rate story nevertheless.
17 reviews
January 9, 2023
solid pick for isekai

Good progression. It doesn’t break new grounds for concept, but it takes existing concepts and executes well enough to be an enjoyable ride.

Part of its better execution is that stats are non existent; character progression is relative. I like that there’s no overtly pointless gendering of the character’s inner identity “but I’m a (gender), and now I’m a (other gender)”…I find novels that over emphasize that topic to be extremely weak and shallow. Great job.

Blatant racism against beastmen is a bit dodgy, but so are Japanese manga portrayals. I’d at least like to see more nuanced perspectives about it—especially in a main supporting character like Sofia.
50 reviews2 followers
October 22, 2023
Totally Worth It

I started reading this because I was bored and it sounded ok. Wow was I surprised. Unlike other reincarnation books this one doesn't fast track the main character to become super strong as a warrior or fast track into becoming an awesome magic user. Its a wonderful build up of intrigue in not only the past life but in this one as well. I must admit I'm not even sure if the main character is the hero/heroine or she's going to be the villain, either way this book is a wonderful read and saying that I'm off to read the next book in this intriguing story. Do yourself a favor and get this book and read it. Oh yeah make sure you don't have anything pressing to do because this book is one of those "can't stop reading till I finish this" kind of books.
12 reviews
June 7, 2022
Good slice-of-lifeish story

It was a fun read with an interesting main character who uses some knowledge from her previous Life to have a business in this one ( who wouldn't right) I noticed a few typos and at one point the author accidentally use someone else's name but those are minor problems also there is a chapter at the end of the book that for some reason got repeated and by that I mean you read the chapter and the next chapter is literally the chapter that you just finished don't know how that what happened but it was an excellent read aside from those few small things
Profile Image for Kurt Bramel.
18 reviews
August 2, 2022
A Pleasant Surprise

I picked this book up on a whim because it was on sale and haven’t been able to put it down! It has all the elements of a great fantasy to me - action, mystery, magic, swordplay, and political intrigue. Addy is such a refreshing character to follow as the main point of view in the book. She is, without ruining too much, an interesting spin on a young character and I loved it! Such a simple but unique idea for a “I just woke up and where are my memories” character made this book a treat to read. More people should read this fun book and I can’t wait for the next book!
Profile Image for Levia.
1,365 reviews15 followers
June 21, 2023
Beat my expectations

I live reading about powerful women. If they're devious or I get to follow their stories from a potentially disadvantaged start, that is even better. I'm very curious about the massively powerful being from the beginning. There are some thoughts in italics that confused me, but I think I understand better after the scenario in the woods. I have various worries, and even with the Addie being somewhat jaded, she also comes across as naive or too trusting in some situations. I do love seeing her manipulate those who think they're in control. Extremely fun and exciting story. Now, hopefully I can binge read more.
11 reviews
September 14, 2022
A decent attempt, and if you like this type of story you will have fun. I will admit I think the author tried to avoid some of the tropes of the genre to varying levels of success but one key technology the character "invent" is something that has been done on earth for over six thousand years. It's extremely unlikely that a magical/medieval society would be so incapable in this respect. It always amazes me how much stories like this disregard and disrespect human ingenuity. If something can be eaten or used as a seasoning people will figure it out.
154 reviews2 followers
February 27, 2023
Man that was good.

So often authors, forget that they really need to set the stage. What I enjoyed most about this book was the author took the time in the beginning to set the stage. Then once the stage was sad, boy did the fireworks begin. Nothing major necessarily but mystery, intrigue character growth all the things we love in books like this. Yes there were some shocks and surprises. I will spoil them, but when they happened, you did not see it coming. This book deserves more than five stars but that’s the highest review we can give it.
70 reviews1 follower
October 3, 2023
DNF'd at 17%

The writing was kinda amateurish, too many info dumps. Also, can we stop doing the whole "man reincarnates/transforms into a woman" thing? It would be one thing if we were going to have a discussion about gender identity or something, but without something tying it into the plot, the prevalence of this trope starts to make me feel like some authors can't relate to/write female characters unless they're actually men. Or, possibly, that they don't think it's worth writing. I normally avoid this trope completely, but it wasn't indicated in the summary.
378 reviews15 followers
June 30, 2022
Grabs your attention and doesn’t let go!

Do I was browsing kindle looking for a new book when I saw this. I legit only borrowed it because of the cover. But I couldn’t be happier with the content!! I love it. The world building is great! The characterization is great! I can’t wait for book 2! We start in what I am going to assume is the afterlife a young man is reincarnated into a a 6 year old princesses body. The good times start rolling and never stop!
Profile Image for Reed.
87 reviews
February 24, 2023
Fantasy, political intrigue and a brilliant main character

Despite looking like a Japanese light novel, but it's not much "light" about this story. Other than the characters being young girls. In just this first book, there were three major overarching plot points that were raised and have still not been concluded. Mixed with these three overarching story goals are countless subplots that twist everything together.
2,456 reviews67 followers
March 24, 2022
A little rough in places, but overall has a lot of potential.

He narrative stutters at a few places, it gets a little hard to read in a concise manner. But the story is great and I love the characters. It builds a solid world state that will allow for numerous follow up books. I sincerely hope to read more from the author soon.
Profile Image for Frank Bertino.
1,771 reviews18 followers
March 25, 2022
Good Read

A woman from Earth is murdered and awakens in the frail body of the seventh princess of the Empire. She is a young child who has been in a coma for years. It is interesting to watch her deal with powerful people who don't expect such poise from a little, frail girl. I like the world building, humor, and intrigue. I look forward to the next book.
Profile Image for James Riley.
1,153 reviews15 followers
April 26, 2022
Interesting book

I doubt I'm the target demographic for this book. That being said, it was well written and the story was a engaging. The MC does come off a bit as a Mary Sue at first, but she grows on you as the story progresses (no fungus jokes, I promise.) It's worth a read, but you might want to wait until the next book is released.
Profile Image for Kyra West.
1 review
June 20, 2022
Great storyline... More please!

Well paced with interesting characters and a good plot line that kept me wanting more. Lots of details on the magic system (which I didn't necessarily need so I just slipped down a bit, but if that's your thing it looked well thought out.) Can't wait for #2!
3 reviews
March 21, 2023
Great start to a new series.

Really enjoyable book, was glad it didn't turn into a litrpg weighed down with stats and numbers. I already have book 2 and will start it next. My biggest question with the book is what exactly is in the potion the MC is forced to drink 3x a day and what's its real purpose, hopefully I find out in book 2.
Profile Image for M L Brooks .
587 reviews9 followers
January 30, 2024
Surprising

So this book has say on my kindle for a while and it's taken me a long time to get around to reading it. I couldn't tell you why, but boy am I glad that I finally did. It's an interesting story with a decently well fleshed out main cast and some interesting concepts. I'll definitely be moving straight on to the sequel.
7 reviews
March 20, 2022
Enjoyable Read

I enjoyed this quite a bit. I like the fact is an isekai and reincarnation novel. The political intrigue and magic aspects are an added benefit. Looking forward to book 2
4 reviews
March 29, 2022
Great read

Man, the protagonist can't trust no one. I like that. Hoping for more of the worst betrayals to keep happening to her with a drop a despair. Can't wait for the next book to drop.
20 reviews
April 5, 2022
Loved it

Try it you'll love it unless you don't like fun and which case don't bother but tomorrow serious reviews if you like slow awesome world building a female lead / male (you'll know what I mean if you read the book) and many more than try out this fun read
Profile Image for Alan Clements.
121 reviews5 followers
April 16, 2022
Good Start

I did enjoy this story enough that I read the entire thing in one sitting. That being said it could use another editorial review. There are several typographical errors, especially in the first third. Still readable regardless.
2 reviews
April 16, 2022
Book exceeded all expectations

Seriously this book was phenomenal. Not only was it a page turner, I literally couldn’t put the book down till I finished. I can’t wait for the next addition to a hopeful series!
55 reviews
April 23, 2022
Unexpectedly Amazing

Not going to lie I picked this expecting a really bad job with a plot that was unoriginal.
I WAS WRONG and I'm glad I found a new favorite to look forward to, so to the author thx.
Profile Image for Chance.
1,099 reviews19 followers
May 5, 2022
Light novel format

The authour flips the script compared to his other series but he tray writing in a LN type of story do I didn’t really feel adventurous this was more life-style living of a princess formate’s in fantasy realm telling.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews

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