Princess For Hire by Lindsey Leavitt

February 2010, Egmont

416 pages, Paperback

Review Copy

Children's, 10+

Cushions: 2

Smiles: 5

Tears: 3

Yunaleska's recommended rating ♥♥♥♥♥+

Summary from Egmont

Wanted: teenage girl to serve as substitute princess. Must be willing to travel. Please call Meredith. Ever wanted to be a princess? To float away from your ordinary life and swan about in a tiara, with everyone telling you how fabulous you are? Desi desperately wants to escape her boring, unfulfilling life in Hicksville, Idaho. And now she has the chance - she's got a job substituting for various real princesses when they need a holiday. But not all princesses live in a palace, and not all princes are gorgeous... plus the whole fairy godmother thing is seriously misleading. Thrown into the job with little training, Desi finds that she'll need an awful lot of luck - and a bit of magic - to get by. Maybe having your wishes granted isn't always as straight forward as it seems..

Everyone should read this just because of the cover. It's pink! With bubbles! (Or, if you take my first attempt of typing the word, pubbles! Which could be hybrid word for pink bubbles)

I hadn't read this blurb before I received the book. I didn't realise there was a fairy godmother. This raised the book's coolness factor. Magic doesn't solve everything. It can cause a lot of problems. Like Cinderella's pumpkin coach, there are limitations to magical objects. Desi follows the rules some of the time, but situations occur which means she can't always make certain deadlines. Cue hilarity and mild peril for Desi.

If you think fairy godmothers are perfect, please think again. Poor Desi doesn't have the ideal fairy godmother. Meredith has issues of her own. She isn't like the other fairy godmothers. This is a little tricky for Desi, for without a full knowledge of being a princess for hire, how can she do her job properly? The answer - Desi is Desi. She is herself. Even knowing the basic rules, she follows her heart. Doing the right thing threatens Desi's princess career forever. If you want to know if she can be a princess double again - go read this book!

Princess For Hire is a feel good story, showing how even small gestures can make a large difference to setting people on the right path in life. And that fairy godmothers are human too :) Well, in appearance...if you ignore their radical hair!

Lindsey Leavitt can be found on her website, which does have a tiny bit of pink on it.

For another book with a princess in, try Castle of Shadows by Ellen Renner