Princess Ninjas is the first of a projected series of graphic novels, this one containing three loosely-linked stories all set in the kingdom of Chiyome, which is currently enjoying years of peace and prosperity after the king long ago vanquished an ancient evil from the land. Sadly, before said evil was banished, other nearby kingdoms fell and the Chiyome king and queen had suddenly found themselves raising three baby girls as their own - the first-born princesses of the fallen kingdoms, as well as the last of their people of survive. Flash forward to the three foster siblings in their tween/teen years, the princesses laughing and playing and squabbling like any other set of sisters, not knowing of their true powers or destiny as the Prince Ninjas ... until pushed into service when its learned the ancient evil formerly driven from their land is growing stronger and about to make a comeback - the Princess Ninjas, along with their sidekick Turtle-Bear, in his sights. Princess Ninjas was a cute, fun read with strong messages about acceptance and family love and sibling loyalty (especially when your siblings aren't siblings by blood, though family nonetheless), but overall the three individual stories weren't exceptionally original, at times the dialogue so long and intrusive it felt the words were smothering out the images fighting for space in the same panel. Am wondering if perhaps my disappointment came from expecting, maybe, a slightly darker or more sarcastic vibe from something entitled Princess Ninjas; if so my bad because this is strictly for younger kids, who should definitely enjoy it. Princess Ninjas isn't bad, by any means; you just get the impression, reading it, that it could have been so much more. 3/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars.

I would love to thank Diamond Book Distributors, Dave Franchini and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is a fantasy graphic novel that presents the amazing story of three magical sisters and a cute bear in their path of discovering their destiny.

In their path, two of them are kidnapped and their sister saves them!

They actually kinda reminded me of Powerpuff Girls. Discovering their magic tiaras, they could put them on their heads and they would become powerfull!

I'm looking forward for the next book in the series!

While I found Princess Ninjas to be fairly silly (it kind of felt like a goofy Saturday morning cartoon), I can absolutely see the appeal for young readers and so I will still be purchasing it for my library's juvenile graphic novel collection.

This book was okay, my daughters got bored with it. The story is a little unreal, but overall it's okay. I like how it teaches that girls can be strong and not always soft and fluffy.

I like the concept here, girls being able to be princesses and warriors at the same time. That liking something "girly" doesn't have to mean that you're soft and fragile and useless. It also makes the point that they're all princess warriors but still have different interests, that people are complex. The plot, though, is fairly contrived. We have the leaders of a country raising the orphaned children of warring factions in the name of peace, not to mention magic and a dark sorcerer lurking in swamps and dungeons out to take all of the magic for himself. Add in stiff dialogue and indistinct character voices and it simply isn't a compelling read.

Princess Ninjas is a fun and sassy adventure! When three princesses are taken to a foreign land for protection, they grow up to be fierce protectors themselves. Using their magical tiaras, they fight to keep their kingdom safe from the evil Bogymn.
Fantastic artwork, great writing, and loads of action make for a fun and thrilling read.

Thank you the Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions are my own.

'Princess Ninjas' with story and illustrations by Dave Franchini is about three princesses who also have martial arts powers. And a turtlebear.

A dark power came over the kingdom many years ago when three princesses from neighboring kingdoms were born. They were gathered and kept safe, but now the evil has returned. Using their magical tiaras and their training, they are ninjas who will save their kingdom. In a second story, the princesses are tricked by a village of elves and turned in to unicorns to be sold. In the final story, the princesses make a new friend, but she may not be all that she seems.

It seems to borrow from other ninja-type titles. The characters wear different colors and one is a bear with a turtle shell. The art is decent, and the story may appeal to younger readers.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Zenescope, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

A darkness has risen in the land but three princesses from three corners of the land are prophesied to overcome the darkness. They are raised by one king and are secretly trained as ninjas by their nanny. With tiaras that give them superpowers, they battle the evil Bogymn when he arises and other injustices.

I have a niece obsessed with being a ninja right now and was curious if this would be a good book for her. From the premise I thought this book would be mostly about the princesses learning to use their powers and work together to fight off the Bogymn (which was really hard not to read as Bogeyman). In reality, though, there are three stories which mostly focus on how each one of the princesses make a mistake in turn and the others come to her rescue. Yes, they fight off the Bogymn in two of those stories along the way, but when you really sit back and think about the book as a whole, the good vs evil part of the story took a back seat to the princesses dealing with family squabbles and reconciling. It’s a good message, and readers with siblings will identify with sibling squabbles but the fact that they still can love each other despite those. That said, it was not the overall direction that I thought the book would have. The focus seemed a little random, the girls’ distinct powers are introduced but then it seems like they can do whatever from there on out, the middle story had nothing to do with the battle against Bogymn at all, and certain characters just would spontaneously show up. (Where did Turtlebear come from??? He’s cute and all, but I would’ve liked even a little info about him in the intro.) It is ok and has a decent message as is, but I feel like it could have been fantastic with a little more editing. (And maybe that’s true of the final edition. I am just reading an ARC.) Recommended to readers with siblings and middle grade fantasy graphic novel fans.

Notes on content [based on ARC]: No language issues. No sexual content. Some battles in which some things say ouch, and one person just disappears in a magical battle and it seems they died, but no blood.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

*thank you to Netgalley and Diamond Book Distributors for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

3 stars.

While I did enjoy this story line, the illustrations are not my favourite and I don't think really match for age group this is for. It's aimed at younger readers than I originally thought. Turtle bear is pretty adorable and the 3 girls are pretty great characters. Overall, this is a take it or leave it book. It's good and worth reading if it sounds like something you would like then go for it.

Review to come to various sources tomorrow.

I received this graphic novel from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

Ninja princesses? Evil that lurks and wants to take over all the magic and power? A pretty nice cover? Yes, yes please.

Sadly, in the end I didn’t have as much fun as I hoped I would have because there were just so many stupidity moments that had me rolling my eyes.

I loved how it all started with how the princesses got together and how that King and Queen got to take care of them. It was all very exciting and I was eager to read on.

I loved that each girl had something they specifically liked. Megan was more for the pranks and running around, Elyce loved books, Megan loved dressing up.

A recap which felt unnecessary to me, but I guess it was needed to let the girls know about their heritage and ninja powers.

How did no one notice that about Dorman. I would think that he is quite suspicious at times or that he slips up, but no one noticed.. Wow.

Why did the girls just run after a freaking unicorn? I get that it is OMG a unicorn, but you guys know that there is evil lurking, just yesterday you tried and failed to defeat it… and now you are just wandering of to dark forests to find that unicorn. *rolls eyes*

Plus that they would just believe someone they encounter. Oh yes, he is an elf, oh he can’t lie. Well then it should be OK, right? No, you couple of nitwits. No. These girls are way too trusting, which just seems odd given what happened the other day. It is like they don’t even get that evil is truly around and trying to destroy them.

What is up with their facemasks btw? You can see right through them, like it is just a bit of gauze, but that doesn’t seem logical. It looked real silly now and maybe it would have been better if there was no mouth mask at all, or even better make it without the visibility aspect.

The turtlebear? Who was called Sensei and Master depending on which page you looked that gave him his time to shine? I wasn’t a big fan. I don’t tend to like mascot characters who are just there but don’t do much special, though I am already happy that he cannot speak, dear Lord he would have been even worse.

And then there was the fact that these girls instantly knew how things worked. They haven’t had any training, the most they heard is what their skill is going to be, but that is all.

I did like the trickery that the girl did to the elves (or whatever they were). That was very smart of her to think of this. Asterix & Obelix magical stew/potion for the win. :P

Plus, what bothered me as well was how everything was episodic. Which works at times, and works best on TV, but doesn’t work too well in this one. As I already said, one moment the girls are in epic battle and the wizard is alive and well, the next they are running after unicorns without a care in the world, and the next we see them together with that goblin princess yet no mention on how they met or how they got so close, and then boom things get messy… whut?

The constant bickering between the girls. Well, especially between Bridget and Megan. Dear Lord, these two are constantly bitching about anything and everything. And then when in one story Bridget get kidnapped Megan makes this remark: “You know what, she deserves this. Serve her right for what she did.” What the hell? This is your sister… that is not how you treat each other. I was sad for Elyce who was constantly in the middle of everything and had to be a mediator constantly.

*rolls eyes again* “But Gabby, he’s evil, why would you do this?” Um, because she is evil too? Was even made by Bogymn from mud, grossness and evil and a dab of magic (no power puff girls here, no sugar spice and everything nice). But I guess they had to add that, though I wonder if she is truly x or if she is just pretending.

I guess there will be more Princess Ninja books in the future given the ending to this book + the fact that the evil is still not defeated. Will I be reading them? Not sure. Probably not.

The art was pretty decent, not always a favourite of mine though, but for most I did like the style.

All in all, this one was promising but I just didn’t have too much reading it due to various reasons.

Princess Ninjas tells the story of three princesses who have hidden ninja powers. Yup, you heard me. Ok, so there's bit more to it than that. Let me expand slightly.

Once upon a time there were five kingdoms. And a bad guy called Bogymn. (I honestly don't know why they just didn't say Boogeyman. Is it copyright? This seems like a weird rip off.) Bogymn took over three of the kingdoms, but before he did, each of them snuck out a princess of the royal family and took them to a fourth kingdom. The royals of the fourth kingdom couldn't have children, so they adopted these three as their own and raised them. The three princesses are also the only three 'champions' in a prophecy that could defeat him. And they have secret ninja powers.

The book has 3 comics in it, that are about 46 pages each. I will say that the art is really lovely, definitely the best thing about this story. The story itself is a bit cheesy, and really fast to set up. There is definitely not a lot of time spent on exposition here. The pace and storyline of the three comins in this remind me of Saturday morning cartoon plots from my childhood. This is definitely a middle grade, or possibly younger, story, and maybe someone of that age group would have enjoyed it better, but I just found it immature in age, but also plot and character development.

Two outstanding thoughts: what is happening with the fifth kingdom? And what is Turtle Bear? (I didn't even realise he couldn't speak until the third story.)

"When the kingdom is under attack who do we turn to? The king and his guards? A knight of myth and legend? Or the prophesized, chosen Princess Ninjas who battle evil and will save the day?

I think we all know who!

Working together to protect their home, adopted sisters Bridget, Megan, and Elyce along with their sidekick Turtle-Bear, will find out that being a ninja isn’t all about sticking to shadows, magic, and cool karate moves. Sometimes it’s about honor, loyalty, and finding out what being a family truly means."

This book reminded me of a childhood TV show titled Totally Spies around early 2000. This was a fun read and great for kids 8 years and up.
5 star read!!!

Not bad, but not terribly exciting either. Modern drawing style, nice but not extraordinary.
All in all, a decent solid read, without much new content.

Loved it! Action packed but not choppy or overly done, love the back story and how the girls are diverse in looks and personality (and powers), and how cute is turtle bear!?!?

Liked the idea, some interesting elements to it. Good read. Will review fully in next few weeks. It’s worth check out!