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Benevolence is the beloved only child of the royal family. When the king (her uncle) and the princess (her mother) are killed, Ben's life takes a terrible turn. No longer is she allowed the cozy, unpretentious, rough-and-tumble childhood she so enjoyed. Instead she must live in the palace with her aunt, the queen regent, who is so controlled and controlling that it nearly drives Ben mad. Her only solace is learning magic on the sly. After a disastrous ball, Ben embarks on an adventure by turns h
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This was a cute story. Very fairy tale-esque, but with a feminine twist. Ben might be the heir to the throne, but she is bitter about the deaths of her parents and the new rules of her aunt, the Queen Sophia. In defiance, she learns magic so she can sneak into the larder to glut herself on food and behaves like a petulant brat. How she becomes Princess Benevolence and worthy of the crown did have some twists and turns while still following conventions of the fairy tale - true love, a kiss to wak
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Okay, so this is a book about Princess Benevolence (or "Ben"), who becomes the heir to the throne of her kingdom because of the death of her uncle (the king, who has no children) and father (the prince). She'll become queen when her aunt dies. She's not your typical princess. She's quite chubby because she loves to eat! And she is STUBBORN. Her aunt tries to turn her into a REAL princess by giving her lessons on etiquette, dancing, etc., etc., etc., but she just doesn't want any part in it, so s
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There are a lot of things to recommend this book - fun twists on fairy tale motifs, a heroine who manages a realistic transformation from slightly annoying to strength of character, and villains who turn out to be three-dimensional characters and not what they seemed to be at first glance. But something didn't quite come together for me, and I can't quite put my finger on what it was, because I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and didn't want to put it down till I'd seen how it ended. Maybe it was
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Has a really cute and heartwarming moment at the beginning, but then it gets depressing. Apparently there is a happy ending but ... meh. Not in the mood for this particular flavor of unhappy middle.
I liked this enough to read all day when I should have been working but I did not feel it had the warmth or charm that Shannon Hale or Elizabeth Bunce have demonstrated in recent books. However, the title didn't work for me: I kept thinking of the bear Gentle Ben...
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Pretty amazing, just all over. Reminds me of Shannon Hale.
May 05, 2008
Krista the Krazy Kataloguer
marked it as to-read
Shelves:
to-read-interloan-my,
to-read-sci-fic-fantasy
May 30, 2008
Tara
marked it as to-read
Aug 18, 2010
Lisa
marked it as to-read
Sep 29, 2010
Sharon
marked it as to-read
Apr 18, 2014
Jessica
marked it as to-read
Aug 28, 2017
Shauna
marked it as to-read
Jul 31, 2020
Bryn
marked it as to-read
