Tina's Top Book Picks - A True Princess - Diane Zahler

I have found that most of the books I receive to review from the big publishing houses deserve a read and sometimes a rave.

Such is the case with the fantasy middle grade novel A True Princess by Diane Zahler, (Harper - February 2011.)  I was expecting the usual princess, knights and fairy kind of fantasy; what I got was an action adventure that never stopped and was so well written that I had to read it in one sitting.

This is a GREAT book.

It opens with the almost thirteen year old Lilia, a servant girl, overhearing plans to sell her to a miller in the village.

Lilia will have none of it and decides to run away once and for all, even though it means leaving the only home she has ever known and the friends that she grew up with, the children of her employer.

Traveling North, Lilia searches for her people of darker hair and violet eyes. But her journey is interrupted by a the arrival of her sheep dog Ove, and her friends, the farmer's teenage children Karina and her brother Kai, who refuse to abandon Lilia. They stop at a friendly tavern for the night and sing for their supper. A group of traveling noblemen are so delighted with their group that they give Lilia directions to the North, arm Kai and warn about staying on the road to avoid the evil Elf-King and his daughter. It is obvious to Lilia that one of the noblemen is smitten with the beautiful Karina.

The forest turns out to be dangerous and full of thieves and cut-throats. In their haste to escape, the travelers come upon an amazing site: elves celebrating and feasting in a glen and waited upon by slave human children. They are soon discovered and Kai falls under the spell of the beautiful Elf-King's daughter. With no way to save him, Lilia makes a deal with the Elf- King to exchange Kai and the human children for a hidden jewel that the Elf-King's daughter desires.

Lilia has two weeks to find the hidden lost jewel, Odin's clasp, or Kai will be enslaved forever. With no choice but to leave Kai and Ove, Lilia and Karina set out north to the palace of Dalir, in hopes of finding the jewel. At the kingdom they come upon one of the noblemen from the tavern, who recommend the girls for jobs as maids in the palace. Lilia and Karina search as they clean but get caught up in the betrothal of the prince. The prince has reluctantly agreed to wed if a Lady can pass his test and is a "true princess."   Day after day noble women come and fail the secret test.

For Lilia, time is running out to find Odin's clasp and things get complicated when the kind nobleman who was smitten with Karina turns out to be the prince. Karina and the prince spend more and more time together, though he could never marry a farmer's daughter. Lilia cautions Karina not reveal their quest for the jewel. Then one night they decide to  search the one locked room left in the palace where the true princess test is held.  Lilia finds more than she bargained for in that room, but time is running out for Kai and Lilia must make a descision to either leave her new life behind and face the evil Elf-King for Kai--or lose him forever.