I received this book for free from Netgalley, Random House in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
This Princess Kills Monsters by Ry Herman Published by Random House Publishing Group on June 17, 2025
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Humorous
Pages: 416
Format: ARC
A princess with a mostly useless magical talent takes on horrible monsters, a dozen identical masked heroes, and a talking lion in a quest to save a kingdom—and herself—in this affectionate satire of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale The Twelve Huntsmen.
Someone wants to murder Princess Melilot. This is sadly normal.
Melilot is sick of being ordered to go on dangerous quests by her domineering stepmother. Especially since she always winds up needing to be rescued by her more magically talented stepsisters. And now, she's been commanded to marry a king she’s never met.
When hideous spider-wolves attack her on the journey to meet her husband-to-be, she is once again rescued—but this time, by twelve eerily similar-looking masked huntsmen. Soon she has to contend with near-constant attempts on her life, a talking lion that sets bewildering gender tests, and a king who can't recognize his true love when she puts on a pair of trousers. And all the while, she has to fight her growing attraction to not only one of the huntsmen, but also her fiancé’s extremely attractive sister.
If Melilot can't unravel the mysteries and rescue herself from peril, kingdoms will fall. Worse, she could end up married to someone she doesn’t love.
I laughed so much while reading this book. Such a fun and adventurous story of a retelling of a Grimm Fairy Tale story.
Melilot is such a typical middle child personality that it just adds to the humor when she’s annoyed by her sisters, mother, and the situation she’s in. The growth that Melilot goes through in recognizing how she’s mythologized her parents and how her stepmother just wanted to love and care for her was great to read. It’s always interesting how growing up we have this idea that our parents are these great beings and as adults we recognize they were just human. With Melilot, they died before she could see them as an adult, so going through this journey of a fake marriage and some death threats has her reevaluate the relationships around her. Even with her sisters, she believes they are all competing against her, when all they want is to help her and want her to be happy.
The relationship between Sam and Melilot was adorable and gave me all the feels. I love how Sam reveals he and Jacqueline (Jack) are identical twins, revealing that he’s a trans man. Plus, the sibling relationship between Sam and Jack is so adorable with how much they support each other. The ending with Sam supporting Melilot by going with her to confront her mother but staying outside the room while they talk. Supportive but letting her have her own autonomy and face the situations by herself. Just so, so perfect!
The plot and world-building was so well done, imaginative and immersive. This kingdom that’s conservative in how it handles gender issues due to this talking lion and not looking into the context of some issues. All of the gender issues and conservative attitudes gives the villain’s motivations some validity. Of course, “cool motive, still murder” but it is understandable why they act the way they do, and thankfully, with Jack and Gervase on the throne it seems like they’ll move things forward.
An absolute wild ride with hilarity, romance, and adventure!
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