3.5 stars ✨ thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the ARC!

Of Princes and Promises is the second book in Sandhya Menon's St. Rosetta's Academy series, a series that combines a touch of magical realism and a dash of modern fairy tale retellings with my long time literary love: boarding schools. This book focuses on two characters we were introduced to in the first St. Rosetta's Academy book (Of Curses and Kisses, if you're interested in starting there!): Caterina and Rahul.

Rahul has a long time crush on Caterina -- but as one of the most popular girls in school, Caterina has never given Rahul the time of day. Until Caterina suffers a humiliating break up at the winter formal, and Rahul steps in to dance with her (and maybe get her to see him in a different light). When Caterina comes back from winter break and needs Rahul to step in at another fancy gathering, Rahul does it -- with the help of a pot of hair gel.

The fairytale loose retelling (read: very loose, more like the fairy tale inspiration) was The Frog Prince, which isn't a fairy tale I'm super familiar with and I found myself getting a little lost with that. I also found it to be a little more tell than show and tell, so I found that a little cumbersome at time.

But I love the way Menon writes teenage characters -- with all their deep hopes and dreams -- and the setting of a boarding school was excellent. I also love the way Caterina softened throughout the book, and loved falling a little more in love with her and Rahul.

Long story short, I liked it and I'll read the next one, but it wasn't a wow or one I'd try to put in all my friends hands.