This was a really great read about how if you don’t like how your fairy tale is going you can change your destiny. Rosamund gets woken up by a kiss from her prince which is not a fun way of being woken up and she runs away finding a door of opportunity which leads her to the HEA (Home Educational Academy) which helps fugitive princess/princes escape unwanted affections, untimely ends and every bad thing that happens in their stories. The longer that Rosamund is in the real world the more she realizes that not all it what it seems at the school and they aren’t teaching them how to survive in the real world at all. This was a great story about friendship, self discovery and finding your own happy ending.

Thanks to Greenwillow Books and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

I think that this is a unique take on a Princess figuring out how to take back their story. Having all the fairy tale main characters being swept away to school where they are being “kept safe” and supposedly being taught ways to integrate themselves into the modern world therefore escaping their fairytale fates. Yet something is amiss at the school. Nothing is what it seems. I love that sometimes the characters we know, and love are not running from their fates so much as respecting that the fate prescribed to them maybe is not always a fate they or other main characters in their story want. I think it is fun to look at what if there was a choice and you didn’t have to live everything so to the book. I think readers are going to enjoy this modern look.
Thank you so much to HarperCollins Children’s Books, Greenwillow Books, and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book.

Overall, I really enjoyed the premise of the book and read it in one sitting. I think there were some elements that became repetitive- yes, we know that she asks lots of questions, so you don’t have to keep telling us that. I also think that some younger readers may not fully understand the older fairy tale references because they’re described more subtly and with the Grimm’s version, which many middle schoolers won’t know. I think there should have been a bit more context throughout the book as it was a quick read but was a bit superficial with some of the character development.

I wanted to like this book but it fell flat for me.

It was an interesting concept but written in a way that did not appeal to me at all.

I found The Princess Protection Program to be a sweet story about friendship, self discovery, and finding your own happily ever after. I didn’t fully understand why the evil villain turned evil, but otherwise it was a really fun, quick read!

I really like this book. It's very interesting, and Rosamund is such a good main character! I really enjoyed reading this and hope for a sequel! My only issue is that it can be a bit slow at times. But other than that, great story and plot! I was NOT expecting those twists!

I am 23 years old. I remember the Disney Channel original movie Princess Protection Program with Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato. This was not that and I foolishly went into this believing that it was that. This book was very good for what it was. It just definitely was not what I was expecting it to be.

Sleeping Beauty wakes up from her prince's kiss, but promptly stumbles into a different world, one where the fairytale characters can work to keep their story from an unhappy ending.

I think this book worked pretty well for what it was - a fairytale middle-grade that twists the happily ever afters and the expected outcomes of the tales around, complete with unicorns, memory erasing, not so witchy witches, fairy godmothers, and a school setting.

It doesn't have a lot of depth or humor that isn't juvenile, but it could be cute and sometimes clever with fairytale incorporations. The villain's motive didn't make the most sense to me though, but I guess sometimes villains just be crazy. The LGBTQ+ addition was minimal but I found unnecessary in a middle grade book.

CAWPILE SCORE
C-6
A-6
W-6
P-6
I-6
L-6
E-6
TOTAL-6/10

A good story for Middle-age readers with enough complexity and simplicity to keep them interested and learning about things without pushing too hard.

CAWPILE
Characters
Fun characters, a little bit stereotyped, but that’s too be expected and they weren’t complete cookie cutter characters.

Atmosphere
Well written, definitely captured the vibes of Teenage girls

Writing
Good writing, fits very well with middle-grade

Plot
Good plot with good progress and change and just enough tricks to make it worth it.

Investment
I was very curious as to where the story would go and how the Princesses would resolve the mess.

Logic
I liked that cleaning was the method for forgetting.

Enjoyment
The Unicorns were fun and unexpected. I’m glad that the school ended with a change in policy about how to “fix your stories.

Misc

tl;dr
A fun fairy tale romp about taking control of your own story.

Thoughts
Fairy tale "twist" stories are almost as ubiquitous as as fairy tales at this point. Retellings, the "true" version, or even lightly inspired editions grace many a shelf (mine included). But Princess Protection Program is not a retelling. It's a what if? What if the characters from those tales saw their futures and wanted to opt out? And what if the opt out was just as restrictive as their original stories? When Rosamund decides to opt out, she learns she's not the only one - in fact, an entire school has been created for characters who want to avoid their preset, often tragic, endings. But the school feels more like a pause button than an escape, and Rosamund quickly finds herself wondering if her story will ever truly go anywhere. And therein lies the heart of this book - a tale not about escaping destiny, but taking control of it. I appreciated that the story also spent time discussing how everyone has their own story to pursue, even as we often are supporting cast in someone else's tale. All of it is written in a quickly-paced, whimsical book with lots of fun references and some playful pokes at life in "the real world." A great book for any middle grade reader who enjoys a good twist on an old classic.

This book was great! It was a twisted fairy tale that was completely different from all of the ones I've ever read. I really enjoyed how all the stories were woven together, the plot twist at the end, and how you had to figure out what character was what.

Such a fun idea that was well written. I was hooked by the summary and it delivered. Students will love this book. They are familiar with the characters but will see them in a different light. Such a fun story.

What a fun piece of fluff. A nice easy read with humor and girl power. Rosamunde, aka Sleeping Beauty, knows the power of questions and curiosity and used it to save herself and the other princesses of the world's fairytales. And Unicorns as well to top it all off.

An absolutely adorable, breezy, and fun middle grade book - I think this one is guaranteed to please young readers. It moves fast, has fun characters, and manages to stay sweet and charming throughout.

What a cute story!! Admittedly, I had to keep reminding myself that I am not the target audience and put myself into my students’ shoes, but once I was able to do that, the story was much better.
That said, this is definitely written for a primary school student, but some of the topics are a little mature (consent to kiss, etc.) so should be accompanied by some discussion.
I almost wish that the author had pushed it a little farther in the maturity and created it for middle school - I could see the story leading to a lot of great discussions and I could use it in lessons about perspective, point of view, reliable narrator, etc.
My only “complaint” would be regarding Charlie .. there was so much innuendo about his sexuality, but they never come right out and have him identify or “confirm” - it felt cowardly and a bit insulting to any child who may not be cisnormative.
All in all, it’s a short, quick read that I think upper primary kids would enjoy.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Children’s Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

I’m so glad I got to read this, it had a great concept overall and I enjoyed the twist in the fairy tale concept. The characters were everything that I was hoping for and enjoyed how they worked in the fantasy world. Alex London has a great writing style and creating a unique concept overall.

Fairy tales are so often viewed as "fixed." That's in two senses of the word: the traditional happily ever after is settled and immutable, and the story only goes one specific way. But the truth is, fairy tales are fairy tales because they're constantly evolving, and variants of all of them exist all around the world - that's what the ATU classification system is for. But when we try to force them to be only <i>one</i> story out of thousands of versions, what do we do to the characters?

That's a very academic way of saying that this book is awesome. <i>The Princess Protection Program</i> takes the idea that there's only one way to tell a fairy tale and runs with it, starting with a prince waking Sleeping Beauty and her freaking right out about some random guy kissing her awake and proposing to her. Rosamund runs away and finds herself outside a school called the HEA (a pun romance readers will appreciate), where she can escape the fate her story has in mind for her by learning to living in the real world. But things very quickly become...just a little bit <i>off</i>, and Rosamund and her friend Rana (The Frog King) start to realize that stagnation is stagnation, no matter what the story or who's telling it.

Even if we don't talk about how cleverly Alex London incorporates both the idea of variants and the variants themselves (Rosamund's monster has one yellow eye and one silver one, a reference to an Italian version of her story, "Sun, Moon, and Talia"), the idea that we can shape our own stories is present throughout and not overdone. Name drops (Perrault and [Adam] Gidwitz, author of <i>A Tale Dark and Grim</i>) add a layer and one character is queer-coded in a way that the kids who need to see it will be able to. It's just a well-written, fun book on many layers, and I can't wait to make everyone I know read it.

This unique, fast paced story weaves popular fairy tales into a fun, original story.
Rosamund, our main character, wakes up to a sweaty prince's kiss. Horrified, she runs away and ends up at HEA (Home Educational Academy), which is a Princess Protection Program where wayward princesses escape their happily-ever-after destinies. Here they take classes and learn how to adapt to the real world.

At first, Rosamund is pleased with her new home, but as time goes by, she starts questioning a few things, such as no one seems to remember anything, and wonders if things are as perfect as they seem.

Strengths: this was fast-paced and a very quick read. I loved that the author provided context clues, without telling you who each princess was. Anyone who loves fairy tales, will enjoy this book.
I think this would make a terrific read aloud, especially if someone is doing a fairy tale unit. Reluctant readers will like the fact is has an appealing cover and is a quick read. I will purchase for my middle school library.
Thank you to NetGally and HarperCollins for the ARC.

The Princess Protection Program is an exciting twist on the typical fairy tale tropes. When Rosamund is awakened after 100 years of sleep, she finds that she is, quite frankly, not all that excited about being kissed by a perfect stranger. She runs away and finds herself in the Home Education Academy (or HEA for short) surrounded by other princesses (and a prince) who have escaped their stories, as well. This fast-paced story turns fairy tales on their heads and asks important questions like “What does happily ever after really look like?” It would be a great book for elementary readers who like their princes with a little edge and choose to question authority.

All that being said, I would have preferred this book if it were twice as long and did more to flesh out the characters and the story. There were times when the plot felt rushed and backstories were poorly fleshed out, like how the villain turned evil. Given that the princesses are teenagers and that some of the challenges that they encounter are more mature, this could have been an even better middle-grades book.

This is a perfect magical little read that gave me vibes similar to the school of good and evil. But this book has feminist and queer representation meant for those who are queer and grew up loving all of the princesses and princes from our childhood fairytales. Overall, this book is very whimsical and comical and just awesome.