This was a wonderful debut novel, a true breath of Fresh Air. Having both of the main characters point of view was a great choice for this story. Getting to see how our two main characters go from strangers to friends to lovers and knowing what they're both thinking about each other made this a really heartfelt love story. I was rooting for both Clia and Ronan individually and as a couple the entire story. Their cast of loveable friends added depth to the story as well. It was nice to exist in world with queer characters for several hundred pages, I loved seeing all the representation this story had to offer. It's also filled to the brim with quests, magical items, and mythical beasts based on Irish folklore, which I found to be particularly charming.

TLDR: this is a Legally Blonde retelling set in a fantastical Celtic world. It drops the worst of dated views in the source material but also loses much of the charm.

Clía and Domhnall are the princess and prince of neighboring kingdoms,

Princess Clía both dreads and welcomes Prince Domhnall’s expected proposal. She fears disappointing her parents and her kingdom, but Domhnall has been a longtime friend. However, Domhnall declines to offer his hand in marriage– with war on the horizon, he views Clía as weak and frivolous. Determined to prove him wrong and win him back, Clía enrolls at the same military academy as Domhnall and his friend and guard captain Ronan.

Even if you didn’t see my TLDR, you likely recognized elements of the 2001 movie Legally Blonde. Here’s that same story retold, occasionally scene-by-scene. The original title was Medievally Blonde. There are some superficial differences– the Pauline character is sort of a tailor, Bruiser is a magical otter– and some larger ones. The accumulated differences substantially change the end of the book, despite hitting some of the same notes. Ronan, the substitute to Emmett the handsome TA from the original movie, plays a much larger role. He has POV chapters, and his subplot is probably the most interesting. Romance plays a much larger role in this version than the original, which is unexpected. I rewatched Legally Blonde after reading this, and I was struck with how relatively unimportant romance is to the plot and Elle’s character development.

I’m sure this was a blast to write and a lot of readers will get a kick out of it. Because I knew it was a retelling and it followed the original story so closely, I found myself rather bored rather than looking forward to learning what would be different. I think the success of Legally Blonde was in large part due to Reese Witherspoon’s charm and energy, and unfortunately Clía doesn’t bring the same verve.

The Princess Knight was a fun read, overall pretty stereotypical romantasy (not in a bad way).

It is clearly heavily inspired by Legally Blonde, even to the point that some of the scenes are almost identical to the movie. Honestly, I think changing the title from Medievally Blonde did the book a disservice. I think leaning into the similarities and inspiration would have drawn the right audience. I also am a little confused about the "knight" part because she isn't a knight? Nor is she becoming one?

I also feel like this would have been better off with a Young Adult classification, I'm honestly unsure why it's in the Adult section.

Where it begins to struggle is when it diverges from the Legally Blonde inspired plotlines - the pacing starts to lag and the plot suffers. It was a struggle to get through the last 20% which should have felt high intensity and high emotion.

The romance was just okay, they were both very cute together but I never got the "omg omg" moment that I love in romance when they finally give in to their feelings.

There is chronic illness rep but it felt like it was done in a really strange manner - Ronan is almost ableist? I am not someone who has experienced chronic illness so I am not speaking from firsthand knowledge but parts felt off to me.

I loved that Clia was unapologetic in her desire to want to be strong but also still be interested in fashion in beauty - to her the two were not mutually exclusive and other's couldn't force her to act like they were.

A final note though: the book relies heavily on Gaelic-type words which are difficult to read for English speakers so a full pronunciation guide would have really helped early on.

Wow, I loved this more than I expected to, I think. I fell for the cover, stayed for the synopsis, and fell head over heels while reading this book.

Princess Clia does exactly what is expected of her - and that includes marrying her friend Domhnall for the good of both their kingdoms. On the day they are to make their engagement official, Domhnall suddenly shatters any hope for a union by breaking things off with Clia, telling her he needs more than just a pretty face by his side. Clia, determined to win him back for the sake of her kingdom, follows him to an intense military academy. Wanting to prove she is more than a pretty face, Clia asks Ronan, Domhnall's best friend and personal guard, for help. While training, the two grow close, and start to uncover deeper secrets within their group.

There's definitely some Legally Blonde plot similarities - it seems more closely related to the musical than the movie, but still similar either way. Girl gets her heart broken, girl chases after boy, girl realizes shes more than she thought she could be. Outside of the bones of the plot, The Princess Knight stands alone on its own. There is one bend and snap reference that I noticed, though!

I loved the growing affection between Ronan and Clia, and while I thought I would have a hard time disliking Damhnall, he makes it easier as the book goes on. The twist was a little predictable for me, but still made me want to see how it would play out. Overall, I really enjoyed The Princess Knight and look forward to seeing more from Cait Jacobs in the future!

This was a good time!! This book definitely gave me legally blonde vibes mixed with medieval times. There were times where I feel the similarity but never felt too heavily borrowed. I enjoyed seeing the character growth from Clia and Ronan. The plot was predictable but a fun time nonetheless. The pace could be a little quicker. And it’s a standalone?! I wanna see more stories about Niamh, Sarait, and Kian! Love the Irish folklore and mythology in the book as well.

All in all, a wonderful debut novel!

Thank you to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for the ARC!

The Princess Knight by Cait Jacob’s was a semi-familiar Rom-Com. You can see the slight similarities between The Princess Knight and Legally Blonde.

However, The Princess Knight gives more characters depth. I loved Clià. She was such a wonderful main character. What brought me intense delight though was the side character given so much life. And Ronan actually having a rich and vibrant back story.

This cozy medium stakes book will hit all the feels.

4.25 ⭐️
Thank you NetGallery for the eARC!

Truthfully I don’t feel I have much to say about this one. I had initially requested it as I thought it was sapphic, so there’s that. I did enjoy the romance between Clìa and Ronan, but I fear that was a disappointment I couldn’t get over.

I was throughly grateful for the amount of diversity in this read, however! I am always grateful when a story has queerness going on in the world and it is normalized. Especially in this day and age (cough, cough, US bs politics), it’s nice to think there are worlds that accept and love people equally. Would love to see more of Kian tbh…

I enjoyed the setup of this novel, and I love a good training arc. I was, however, a little disappointed by the motivations of the antagonists. I am still confused as to what the motivations were to betraying the kingdoms. I thought it had something to do with the jewel/mythical items but that felt lost as the story continued. And the reveal with Clìa having the jewel was anticlimactic, and I wish that had been explored further. The same goes with O’Connor’s betrayal, as I predicted his actions relatively early on. Really I think this novel could have been longer (or made into a duology) to expand on these points more.

Otherwise! I enjoyed the action sequences, the romances, and overall vibes this book as to offer. Definitely worth checking out.

It actually devastates me that the title for this book is not medievally blonde. It would have been perfect 😭

This was a very light and fun read. Perfect for getting me through a reading slump. I do think there middle dragged a bit, and the chemistry could have been better between the two love interests but I think the twist on legally blonde was enough to keep me hooked.

The Irish folklore and language was hard for me to follow and grasp. My copy did not have a pronunciation guide for the character names and there were many times were I spent hours reading up on Irish lore after first trying to figure out now to say someone's name. Not knowing how to correctly say them kept pulling me out of the story. I hope the finished copies include pronunciation guides for more than just the kingdoms 🥺

I'd honestly pick up a sequel if there ever is one. I'd love to see how Clia comes into her own as a ruler after becoming a knight.

The Princess Knight was a fun and light fantasy read with a mix of romance, rivalry, and adventure. Clía was an entertaining heroine, and I enjoyed her determination to prove herself at the military academy. The romance developed nicely, though some parts of the story felt predictable. Still, it was charming, and the playful tone kept it engaging from start to finish.

I would love to interview Cait on my podcast, Raise Your Words. I love the Mamma Mia x Legally Blonde vibes that this book has.

The Princess Knight - 4.5 stars

First of all, let me just say: how cool is it that I just entered Cait Jacobs’s own book in the reading tracker template that they made?! I’ve been following Cait for years, so it was a delight to read their debut! And what a marvelous debut. I had so much fun reading this book, especially as a theatre kid. The influence of Legally Blonde the Musical was clear (I see you, Cait), and I loved that there were so many specific moments I could attach a song to.

I really appreciated the talent Cait has for moving through time. The novel unfolds over many months, but the timeline never dragged it down; if we needed to skip weeks, we skipped weeks, but I never felt like I was being tossed around in time. The pacing was perfect. The characterization was also so well done. At first, I wondered how I would grow to hate Domhnall; he didn’t seem slimy at all. Then over the course of the novel, there were little things that made me irritated with him for reasons other than his betrayal of Clía. I thought that was really clever. And Clía was so endearing - so Elle Woods but somehow better.

And the amount of representation! I wouldn’t have expected anything less from Cait, but it was still wonderful to see. Clía is some of the best neurodivergent representation I’ve seen (as an AuDHD person myself), and Ronan’s chronic pain was depicted so masterfully. Plenty of queer rep, of course, but I especially appreciated the amount of nonbinary rep, particularly that there was a whole nonbinary god. Seeing queerness normalized in a fantasy world is one of my favorite things, and this especially I loved because it was not only normalized for the characters we see a lot of, but also there was a nonbinary character meant to be worshipped and revered. That was fantastic.

On a more serious note, I thought this novel dealt really well with the weight of death and killing. A lot of fantasy books move quickly past it and take it as normal (I as a writer am definitely guilty of this), but Cait really took the time to let it sit with their characters. It wasn’t something to move on from easily; it was something that deeply affected the characters, especially Clía, and I really admired that.

I had only one small gripe with this book. It almost felt like Cait used the songs of Legally Blonde the Musical as a beat sheet, which part of me loved, but part of me wanted the story to diverge more from its inspiration. It was obviously its own story, and Cait is a fantastic writer, but I think the best reimaginings use their source material as a jumping off point rather than a map, and this felt a bit more like the latter.

Overall, I absolutely adored this book, and I cannot wait to see more from Cait in the future!

"You need only to be yourself, and that's enough. Anyone who makes you feel otherwise is a waste of your time."

A princess desperate to win back the prince who broke her heart follows him to his kingdom's prestigious military academy—and in doing so, falls in love, saves the realm, and continues to look fabulous in this delightful debut fantasy.

Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: none / closed door

After spending ages knowing she's to be engaged to Domhnall, Princess Clía finds herself at a loss when he announces that he won't be marrying her. Needing his countries allegiance, she finds herself following him to Cordislean - an elite military training school. Will Clía find her footing and prove herself to be a good ruler, as Domhnall wants, or will she find herself bested?

This has been such an anticipated read since it came across my instagram - I felt so fortunate to get to read this as an ARC! The noise I made when I saw it in netgalley! I knew it followed some points in legally blonde (another beloved favorite) but I feel like Jacobs makes the story and world her own. There were moments that were of course recognizable (the bend and snap reference! it works every time), but there are also twists and turns to keep you captivated.

You are thrown into the world, and it's clear that so much was thought-out and planned, and it took me a while to get oriented with the different countries and their allegiances. Getting to see Clía grow and thrive at Cordislean was such a treat, she was such a cool and inspiring character. And I love that that she clung to who she was - that pretty can be deadly and competent, that she is more than what the world told her she was. And she was such a great match with Ronan, I loved all their scenes together and getting to learn more about him (how he is shaped by his past and the pain that has followed) - and, the training scenes! And of course I loved Murphy as well, he was the cutest. The family they find together was so sweet as well, I enjoyed all the side characters. As things wrapped up there were a few moments that I thought could have been fleshed out more or expanded upon, and some things I was left wondering, but that did not take away from my overall enjoyment.

This is definitely a must-read for anyone who loves historical romance, strong and pretty and badass female characters, cute monsters, a brooding knight, and a princess that can handle anything.

Tropes & Tags:
💖 medieval princess x knight
⚔️ legally blonde retelling
💖 grumpy x sunshine
⚔️ only one tent
💖 slow burn
⚔️ cute but deadly animal sidekicks
💖 slow burn
⚔️ lgbtq+ rep & disability rep
💖 dual pov
⚔️ found family

[I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review, thank you so much NetGalley and Harper Voyager! 📖]

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an early e-arc copy for my honest review.

Legally Blonde is one of my favorite movies so to retell it into a medieval fantasy retelling is something I never knew I needed. What I will say, however, is that some scenes in the book felt forced, like it was trying too hard to be Legally Blonde, but I enjoyed it never the less.

This was cute and easy to read. I would 100% recommend.

Okay so this was a cute, fast read, but I wouldn't really call it a stand out or anything. I'd give it a 3.25-3.5ish?

So just right off the bat, this is absolutely not an adult book, it feels very firmly YA. So much so that I probably would have loved it if it had come out 10-15 years ago, but ultimately it just came off a little too juvenile.

Everything felt a bit...flat. The characters all seemed pretty one-dimensional - even Clia, and the whole story was about her finding herself. The world building was uneven. The book's pacing felt off. The big plot twist about who was the villain was, and how a bunch of students figured it out before the seasoned warriors felt really silly (and again, is a point on the "this is a YA novel column"). The romance didn't feel like there was the right chemistry there - they really felt more like best friends than anything else.

I did enjoy that there was queer rep everywhere and it was just totally normal. There was also disability rep which was nice!

There is heavy use of Irish mythology, and this was both fun but could also really grate sometimes. What's a dobhar-chu? No clue, the book never actually explains what the heck Murphy is actually supposed to be beyond the name! How do you pronounce *any* of these names? Like, I am very familiar with Irish myths and pronunciation and I just ended up with a headache sometimes.

(And, let's be real - naming your badass warrior chick Morrigan is just lazy.)

But yeah. Cute book, it wants to be heavier and more grown up than it actually is.

The Princess Knight is a charming and clever romantic fantasy. The princess protagonist is witty and lovable, and the slow-burn romance is genuinely satisfying. While the pacing lags slightly in the middle, the clever world-building and charming characters make it a truly enjoyable read.

This book exceeded my expectations, it was such a fun read and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I thought it was well balanced and appreciated that it was a slow burn in the romance department. I loved the folklore elements, especially the Dobhar Chu! The characters were relatable, especially Clia! I enjoyed this book so much I preordered a special edition already!

Thank you for the ARC!

I loved this! The Legally Blonde vibes, the folklore/mythology of the world, the ladyknights, the humor and the romance and the found family.

I really liked it! The characters felt fully dimensional and the plot was interesting. It lagged a bit around the halfway point but the end had perfect pacing. There was a few reveal that I predicted and one I did not so it was nice to be suprised.

I wished the chemisty between Clia and Ronan at the end was the same throughout the whole book. The only mention of sparks or chemistry bertween them comes after the 70% mark making the intial build up of the romance feel more platonic.

Overall great read and I didn't think the legally blonde aspect was over done.

This has been a highly anticipated read for me for a while. I have been following this book since the original name drop (RIP Medievally Blonde). A Legally Blonde inspired medieval story was very much something I was interested in. I really enjoyed seeing the Legally Blonde influence ( saw that bend and snap reference) while the book maintains its own unique voice and concepts. I think the world was so interesting and I loved the politics side of everything a lot. The time jumps also were very smooth. I liked the lore and the mythology elements. I was also pleasantly surprised by the fact that this was closed-door. Overall, this was such a fun story to read and I was hooked. I also see the potential for a spin-off later.

Spoiler thoughts: While I was suspicious of the general the whole time, I was NOT expecting O Connor to betray her. I definitely cried when she killed him. The reveal that the prince himself chose to break off the engagement and not his father was wild. I also guessed about the god's jewel when Clia was in the mountains, but it was very interesting to see that all play out.

The only things I would change: I would like some more of the lore of the world and I did struggle with pronunciation so a more in depth pronunciation guide would've been nice.

4.75/5 Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

As a millennial who is ride or die for early 2000s comedies and romcoms, I lost my entire mind when I found out this was a romantasy retelling of Legally Blonde. I was squealing. Actual serotonin. BUT once I started reading, I realized the concept had changed a lot. Like... if no one told me it was a retelling, I probably wouldn’t have guessed.

That said, Clia is a really fun character to follow. She's your classic perfect princess on the outside, but it’s all for show. Behind the sweetness is someone desperately trying to keep her parents and the court happy. When her engagement falls apart because she’s “not fierce enough” (how dare he?!), she snaps and decides the best way to prove herself is by enrolling in a hardcore military academy to win her prince back and reclaim her dignity. As one does.

What I loved was how lighthearted it all felt while still being grounded in surprisingly good worldbuilding. I loved Niamh, such a great character development. And obviously Murphy the beast is the best boy.

Is the storyline familiar? Absolutely. But that didn’t make it any less fun. I’d happily read a sequel - there’s so much potential here, especially with the looming war setup. Overall, this was just such a feel-good, comforting read with a fun twist on a classic.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC!