Ultimate Blog Tour Review: Undercover Princess (The Rosewood Chronicles #1) by Connie Glynn

Hey everyone!
Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Rosewood Chronicles by Connie Glynn, and I am excited to be sharing my review of book one in the series, Undercover Princess, with you all.

A massive thank you to @The_WriteReads, and @penguinplatform for allowing me to be a part of the tour.

Title: Undercover Princess
Author: Connie Glynn
Release Date: 2nd November 2017
Page Count: 441
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin
Buy It Here (affiliate links): Amazon UK, Waterstones, Book Depository

Book Blurb:

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…

A thrilling world of parties, politics and bad ass princesses, this is the first book in the brand new series THE ROSEWOOD CHRONICLES.

My Review:

Going in to Undercover Princess, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, as it is completely out of my usual comfort zone, but the book blurb was so promising that I had to give it a try. Also, I know if Dave @ The Write Reads is doing a tour for it, then it’s guaranteed to be good! I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book, and it exceeded all of my expectations.

The story begins with Princess Eleanor Prudence Wolfson, sole heir of King Alexander Wolfson, and next in line to the throne of Maradova. She’s not your typical Princess, she doesn’t want the life she has been given, she doesn’t go to public engagements, and the public have no idea what she even looks like. She just wants to have a normal life. When it came to choosing schools, Princess Eleanor is determined to convince her parents to let her go to Rosewood Hall, and she is not prepared to take no for an answer.

Chapter 2 then takes us elsewhere, to Cornwall, where we are introduced to our main character, Lottie Pumpkin. Lottie lives in the attic room of a house above a bakery, with her stepmother, Beady. She could not be further from the Princess lifestyle if she tried, and the immediate contrasts between Lottie and the Princess are obvious. However, Lottie is about to embark on the most exciting adventure of her life, she is about to start school at Rosewood Hall.

Lottie’s arrival at the school leads to her meeting a real mix of characters, the first being exceptionally smart Binah, who takes her under her wing, and shows her around. But the most exciting first meeting is when Lottie arrives at her dorm room, and meets her new room mate. Ellie is dark, moody, and unbelievably messy, the complete opposite to everything Lottie is. This instantly makes you wonder how these two are going to coexist, let alone be friends. Despite their first meeting not being totally positive, I immediately liked Ellie, probably because I feel like I could relate to the dark and moody vibe.

The way Lottie gets herself into a difficult situation immediately, because she is too shy to correct people is also totally relatable, I feel like I’ve done that myself on so many occasions. However, Lottie’s misunderstanding somehow leads everyone to believe that she is the undercover Princess of Maradova! I’ve certainly never had people confuse me for a Princess… But Lottie’s room mate is particularly angry about this misunderstanding, because Ellie Wolf is in fact the real Princess Eleanor Prudence Wolfson. How people didn’t put that together is beyond me to be honest, because she’s barely even attempted to change her name! But, people believing that Lottie is the Princess works for Ellie, so their solution to the problem is to continue to allow everyone to believe that, unbeknown to them this is the start of everything they know spiralling completely out of control, and there is nothing they can do to stop it. This is where the story really begins to pick up the pace and sucks you in, and from here there is absolutely no going back.

There are so many important characters to this story, and I loved every single one of them (even the ones that weren’t great people). They were so well written, and there was a great mix of different personalities and styles. I liked that we got a little background information on all of them rather than just the main ones. My obvious favourite had to be Ellie though, I saw so much of myself in her. She didn’t really open up, she was protective, fiesty, a little angry at times, a little moody, but still such a joy to read and so likeable. I feel like we could be friends. I also enjoyed the way that Ellie brought Lottie out of her shell a little and made her a stronger person. I loved watching their relationship grow throughout the story.

From the moment that Jamie entered the story, things got really serious. There were so many shocking things happen along the way, some of which had me on the edge of my seat. It all came together in an exciting ending, that solved all of the mysteries that had appeared throughout. The perfect way to end a fantastic book. This story was unexpectedly thrilling, while at the same time being a ray of sunshine, and I loved it. This certainly wasn’t what I had been expecting. I’m now going to HAVE to read the rest of the series, because I am completely invested in Lottie, Ellie, and Jamie’s story.

I give Undercover Princess an easy 5 star rating!

About The Author:

Connie Glynn has always loved writing and wrote her first story when she was six, with her mum at a typewriter acting as her scribe. She had a love for performing stories from a young age and attended Guildhall drama classes as a teenager. This passion for stories has never left her, and Connie recently finished a degree in film theory.

It was at university that Connie started her hugely successful YouTube channel Noodlerella (named after her favourite food and favourite Disney princess). After five years of publicly documenting her life and hobbies to an audience of 900,000 subscribers on YouTube, Connie closed the book on the Noodlerella project in a bid for more privacy and to pursue her original passions in the performing arts. Connie now writes music and fiction full- time.

YOU CAN FIND CONNIE HERE:
YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, GoodReads

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