I enjoyed the characters in The Return of King Lillian, though I felt that they all could have felt more fleshed out. I really enjoyed the overall voice of the writing and really enjoyed the concept as a whole.

As a child, Lillian wanders into the Forest of Forgetfulness, forgetting everything about her past and who she is. She is raised by an eccentric old woman and is happy enough until she comes of age and must discover her true identity. On leaving the forest, Lillian’s memories still do not return and it takes an exciting and troubling journey to recover everything she had lost.

This is a really lovely adventure story full of off-beat and interesting characters and situations. Lillian is a very likeable narrator with a quirky, informal writing style. Though this story is described as suitable for all ages, I found that the narrative tone didn’t always sit right with me. While I can understand that Lillian is very innocent and naïve due to her upbringing and loss of memories, the narrative tone seemed a little too childish for her age and didn’t always match the very occasional bad language and certain situations in the story.

That being said, this is still a very enjoyable tale. The places and magical objects of the story are very imaginative and I found myself deeply invested in Lillian finding her true destiny.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

The Return of King Lillian was an easy read. It's a fantasy journey tale. That follows Lillian, who left her kingdom. She enters a forest that makes her forget who she is, then decides she needs to know who she is and leaving the forest things to get wild. She travels those lands where she meets so many crazy people. This book feels like a mash-up of 'Wizard of Oz and Stardust" My favorite character was, Hank, the talking horse, he was funny and cleaver.
My favorite part was the Lillian was writing it her journal in what she calls book, those were some of my favorite parts of this book. Overall this was a quick, enjoyable read.

Like all books some people will love this and some will hate it. For me this was a solid, “meh”. This book reads like a children’s moral tale. It is an adventure story focused on the coming of age of a little girl who must find her way home. On her journey she meets a cast of eccentric characters who allow her to show off her wisdom and share a series of morals about how life should be lived.

I know that there are readers who will love this book, and it is one I can imagine coming back to. But leisurely beach reading this is not. So, today I give it a solid 3 stars and a pass.

*ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

This is probably one of my favorite retellings ever now. I do have a soft spot for retellings in general but Plakson just knocks it out of the park for creativity. Lillian is such a bright, enigmatic, and innocent character with a heart so full and pure that I cheered her on from page one. This has a bit of a 'Princess Bride' meets 'Wizard of Oz'/'Alice in Wonderland' feel. It's whimsical in all the best ways and though beautiful and lush with some darker moments it can fit a wide range of ages as far as reader audience goes.

Honestly, this was an incredible read.

Lillian writes in her book, and to her book, so as you read it's as if she's reading to you. She writes as she speaks so that makes from some creative spelling and word choice and it's a lot of fun in that way. Also, this has a feel of the old fantasies and tales, there's a character going on a long quest with a bunch of adventures along the way and a great slew of companions and character interactions.I'll expand on this more when I write up a review on my blog but needless to say I completely love this book.

This book didn't 100% connect with me. Personally, the writing style didn't relate well with me but that's simply just a side-effect of my own personal likings. Towards the end of the novel, I found it becoming a bit more intriguing however throughout I was wondering if the book was actually for young adults and not children. It was difficult to read and somehow the language simultaneously swung between archaic and then simple English. Either way, for the first time, a retelling based story has not caught my attention.

I have spent a great deal of time trying to figure out how to describe this book and this is what I have come up with: "The Return of King Lillian" is as if Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" careened into AA Milne's "Winnie the Pooh," Stephen Leacock's "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town," and John Locke's "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding."

The premise of "The Return of King Lillian," is that Lillian must find her way home-- but she does not know what or where home is. The book is comprised primarily of journal entries but also has some spectacular verse. The story follows Lillian and all the people she meets and is both incredibly charming as well as insightful (Lillian is horrified when Hank the horse tells her that he is a slave-- she staunchly believes no one should own another living creature).

The only potential downside of this book is that it is not one to be read all in one sitting. The language of the book is so fantastical (in the best sense) that it can only be truly appreciated if it is read in bits and pieces. This is not the sort of book you read in its entirety in a few consecutive hours. I made the mistake of reading this in a Starbucks and had to be very careful to try to hold in my laughter.

This is an incredibly fun read that I highly recommend even if you do not enjoy stories like "Alice in Wonderland" (I could not finish Alice but am so enthralled by this!)

DNF at 7%.

This book is written in a highly and specifically stylized way, and while I enjoyed it in the prologue, once we got to the main body of the book I was hoping for a more traditional style of writing. While I didn't get it, I might have been able to hang in there if the protagonist's voice, which is a strange mix of first person present and past tense (the story unfolds as Lillian writes in her journal at a time whose relation to the events is not specified), hadn't been written with such overhanded colloquialism.

Example: "That is, until them birds show up and completely ruin my peace of mind. Oh, first they harmonize, o' course, but when I tell them about the Tortoise and the Well and Mad Aunt Harriet and my imminent leave-taking, well, they proceed to alert and inform me, all in a wild, chattering bunch, that I absolutely cannot leave the Forest of Forgetfulness under nay circumstances because the Forest of Forgetfulness is a capricious forest - it comes goes, hither and yon, all over the Whirld, and sometimes beyond, and, as such, I will never find it again."

I love stylistic writing; I love it when a character has a strong, unique voice. But this was just too much. I'm sure it will work for some readers, just not for me.

This is a fun story about Lillian, who doesn't know who she is and is on a quest to find her home, and these are her adventures.

This book is told in a fairy tale like way, full of imagination, magic, talking horses, and fairies. It is reminiscent of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for its childlike stories that speak to a larger audience.

Each of the chapters is another adventure and something that Lillian must learn to become the person she needs to be at the end. Lillian herself is, for the most part, a good character, and I enjoyed Hank, the horse.

I did find the book a bit slow at times and, I hate to say it, didn't love the ending. First there was the idea that she enjoyed being a damsel in distress and and was happy being saved by a man (even though she had been a strong, take care of herself kind of character up until this point and this wish was joltingly strange), and then there was the idealization of her father who actually had treated her quite badly.

Overall, this is a cute book and I can see why many people like it, but, ultimately, it was not for me.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy.

Honestly, I do not understand this book. It’s so WEIRD and not exactly in a good way. The story itself – or at least, the idea of it – is good. I love the idea of a girl-King that gets swept away from her birthright by a Forest Of Forgetfulness.

But the execution is lacking.

Surprisingly, this book is extremely well reviewed – 4.5 stars overall on Goodreads – which is what confused me even more. I plowed through this book just waiting for it to grab me, as it had so clearly grabbed other people. Now, I do have to admit, that it got much better and more interesting about halfway through, but even then, I was happy when it was over.

The best part of this book was when I read parts of it out loud to my mom and we both laughed at it.

It really felt as though the author was trying too hard. Like, way too hard.

They were clearly going for a very distinct style, one that almost reminds me of Tolkien, but, as I’ve said several times, I felt as though it fell short.

There is – according to the internet – an audiobook of this that’s narrated by the author. Honestly? I think it would probably be better.

There were parts of this – like the rhyming sections – that I think would probably have been really cool sounding if they’d been read out loud.

Overall, this book was not for me.

I wanted to like it, I really, really did. But I could not force myself to get into it (although I somehow forced myself to finish it).

This book was inspired by the old tale of Hans Christian Anderson’s called The Emperor’s New Clothes. This tale is told by Lillian as she is writing her memories in a book. It is such an adventurous, magical tale that was such a joy to read as she is telling of her travels as she is trying to find her way home. Only, she doesn’t remember where home is after stepping into the Forest of Forgetfulness. She weaves her way into the hearts of many and winds up in a few tight spots due to certain circumstances. I highly recommend this book if you want a fun magical read! Oh! And I love that beautiful cover too!

Plakson’s debut is unusual in that it told in the form of diary entries. Our protagonist, Lillian, has a Book in which she writes about notable events that occur in her life. As a result of this, I always felt somewhat removed from the story. Everything that happens is witnessed second-hand: the event being retold after already having happened. I found this also removed me from the characters. I couldn’t create any strong ties with them because I was always told how to feel about them by Lillian, and never got to experience them as people for myself.

The fairy tale premise was interesting, however. It is clear that Plakson has a love for folklore and mythology, and I am in no doubt that a lot of research has gone into the novel. The tone also followed suit — it sounded like a fairy tale as I read it, especially with some of the vocabulary.

The world of King Lillian is bright and peaceful, which follows the fairy tale theme. I found it almost Pokémon-esque: nearly everyone you meet is kind and friendly, in a world where pretty much anything is possible. This aspect of the novel was jarring as it felt too nice. I have read so many books where there is some kind of twist or sinister undertone that the niceness of everyone and everything made me uneasy.

The friendly world meant that anything that happened to Lillian didn’t seem overly dramatic or full of action. Yes, there are hiccoughs in the road; sometimes things didn’t go as planned, but they never felt particularly meaningful. I think this was another effect of the storytelling style.

I ran into trouble judging the target age-group, but also the age of Lillian. Her language was very advanced, yet seemed almost childish at times. The slang especially made her seem young (it caught me off-guard, and was often unfamiliar to me). There are allusions to Lillian being an adult woman, yet she often responds to things in an immature way. I found her a very hard character to place.

The prologue and ‘The End’ sections are written more traditionally from a third person perspective, and occasionally speaking directly to the reader. I found these sections incredibly long and tedious. In particular, ‘The End’ felt almost completely unnecessary and, in my opinion, took away some of what made the tale interesting in the first place.

Overall, the tale is interesting, particularly for those interested in fairy tales and folklore. However if you are looking for characters and a world you can get invested in, I think you may struggle with The Return of King Lillian.

This is a wonderful read, I didn’t think I was going to enjoy it as much as I did. So much fun, a light enjoyable read but also empowering, thoroughly recommended read.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Have you ever wondered what happened after the child declared that the Emperor wore no clothes when no one else dared? Who was this brave child, and what happened to the Emperor and his Kingdom? King Lillian answers all those questions and more. A multi-layered fairy tale with a depth that can easily be overlooked; it reminds me of other classics such as The Little Prince that are similar in style and tone as well as providing lessons to learn and discuss.

What I liked:

The tone and style of writing -- diary style that was part prose and part poetry. It took some getting used to, but by the end, I appreciated that an aspiring poet would write this way in their journal - trying out some poetic verses and then going back to the more comfortable prose.

King Lillian comes with a big message; the message of doing what’s right rather than what’s easy. Lillian travels the whirld (world) and is faced time after time with hard decisions. Just as with her decision to tell the King he wasn’t wearing any clothes, she always picks the less popular path of doing and saying the right thing. In a society that likes to shame people into following their world view, this is a critical lesson and one that should be discussed with kids today.

In typical fairy tale fashion, the story left you with the hope that things will be different. As the reader gets closer to the end, it isn’t certain that it will end with hope for a better tomorrow, but ultimately, King Lillian delivers. As the title suggests, Lillian is no ordinary ruler in a less than ordinary land. The fact that she takes in the title “king” rather than the traditional title feminized, piques interest and stimulates the imagination.

What I Wish:

I wish I had been better prepared when I began the book for the journey I was about to embark. There is so much to savor and enjoy about this novel, and I feel like I did not get the full appreciation as I struggled to figure out how to label this book - what category to place it. The fact that the title is King Lillian should have told me to sit back and enjoy the ride as this was not a book that was going to fit into any preconceived category.

I also wish that parents will read this to younger kids and have discussions about Lillian’s choices. This story is a perfect read-aloud book with important lessons to learn - lessons that should start earlier than the books intended audience.

To Read or Not to Read:

This book is worth reading for all - adults and young adults - and I would recommend it to parents as a read-aloud book for younger children along with discussion. It’s a classic fairy tale for the modern age and should not be overlooked! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a huge letdown for me. I was expecting something with much more depth, this read like a middle-grade rather than a young adult. This was the main issue I had, I was expecting something a bit more mature.

With all that said this book was whimisical and interesting. The world building was beautifully done and the characters were intriguing.

I just couldn't get into this story as much as I was hoping to.

When I read the description of The Return of king Lillian i thought, wow this sounds brilliant. Unfortunately the writing style spoiled it for me. The writing seems to be the main focus here and the story suffers for it in my opinion. For the length of the book, it lack of substance and i was quite bored. It was just so hard to keep my head in the book. I didn't feel any emotions for the characters or the story. Although classed as young adult, it was pretty much a book for children 12 and under. Children in that group would most likely enjoy this more. Though I am grateful for the opportunity to read this arc.

I was given a E-Arc of this book for reviewing by Netgalley.

Mmm what to say about this books, the inner thoughts of a girly style princess as it's writing as to address the reader (book) and starts as a naive princess who believes everyone is lovely and learns life lessons on the way thought the entries of a journal.

It a little hard to get in to the flow of the book to begin with but once you get us the the flow of it, your deep within its pages and can't wait to see how it finishes

E-ARC provided by NetGalley for an honest review

I LOVED this book so much! It's magical and moving and OMG! SO GOOD!
The cover designed is what at first caught my eyes and I was hoping that the content was as good if not even better.
It did not disappoint at all! 5 stars read.

A very good fantasy, engrossing and entertaining.
I liked the well written characters, the world building and the plot.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

An excellent selection for lovers of Narnia and Hogwarts. Also those who love allegorical works such as those of Yann Martel and Paulo Coelho will find something beautiful and touching in King Lilian’s story. Good for young adult readers and those who are young at heart.