Saturday, April 16, 2011

Giveaway + Double Review: Princess for Hire & The Royal Treatment

Check them out on goodreads

Lindsey Leavitt's website

Lindsey Leavitt is a delightful, fun-making genius! I haven't had this much fun since I read Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls series. In fact, these two series share a few traits, making it easy for fans of one to pick up the other with confidence.

1) Duplicitous, but exciting careers involving undercover gigs
2) Teen girls capable of extraordinary feats
3) Confusing, twisty romances where nothing is what it seems
4) Realistic family relationships and problems (given the fantastic circumstances)
5) Plenty of awkward teen moments
6) Plenty of reasons to cheer!

Princess for Hire starts off the planned series with a POP. A bubble pop. That's the way Desi's talent agent gets around--in a magical bubble. And the talent Desi didn't know she had? Magic!

What girl doesn't wish she could be princess for a day? Desi signs up for the seemingly glamorous job of substituting for modern day princesses in much need of a vacation. But she really has no idea what she's getting herself into. Through pretending to be somebody else, Desi discovers who she really is--that she's a girl with impact, like Grace Kelly in Casablanca or Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday.

Desi is only thirteen, on the young side for YA, but as the book explains, people with MP (magic potential) tend to be mature for their age. Still, she struggles with bad hair days, armpit sweat circles, and unrequited crushes. She's an every girl. At thirteen, I would've escaped happily into Desi's world and learned a few things about myself right along with Desi. I'm sure girls of all ages will eat up the magical escapism and relate to the real life, day-to-day to which Desi must always inevitably return.

The Royal Treatment continues the series with a fabulous new development! No spoilers here, but I'll just say that it gave me more than one reason to cheer. Only a few months have passed since Princess for Hire and Desi still has her braces on, but she's not the same girl who jumped out of the bathtub, screaming at a rogue bubble. She's learned how to make an impact and she's eager to take her do-gooder-ing to the next level.

I loved Lindsey Leavitt's sometimes bizarre settings, and words like 'technomagical.' The world building is pure delight. Another thing I loved was the characterizations. Desi's best friend, Kylee, is especially multi-dimensional. And I appreciated that Desi never backtracked. That is, the lessons she learned from mistakes in the first book stuck, and she learned from new mistakes in this book. But even though Desi does make mistakes and misjudgments, she is consistently true to herself, which makes her the quintessential Disney princess, even though she isn't a princess at all.

The potential for this character is exciting, and I very much look forward to future installments of the Princess for Hire series. Five stars for both books.

While Princess for Hire is available right now, The Royal Treatment is due out May 3, 2011. So if you haven't read the first one, I recommend buying the first and pre-ordering the second. It's perfect timing to get sucked into Desi Bascomb's technomagical world of princesses and duplicity.

If you'd like to win a copy of Princess for Hire and an advanced reader copy of The Royal Treatment, comment below: which royalty, modern-day or fictional, would you like to be for a day! 


  • 1 point for your comment with the answer to the above question.
  • 2 points if you're an old follower
  • 1 point if you're a new follower
  • 1 point if you tweet (with links)
  • 5 points if you blog about this contest (with links)

Contest ends April 21, 2011 at 11:59 EST.

17 comments:

Michael Di Gesu said...

I'd like to be Fictional Royalty. In some wonderful by-gone era. +1

Old follower +2

Tweet- link-http://twitter.com/#!/DAK86 +!

Theresa Milstein said...

Old follower +2. I will share this on Facebook and link a blog author.

I think I'd like to be fictional royalty. I liked Mia in The Princess Diaries.

Danah said...

Same here. I'd like to be a fictional royalty too like Princess Mia of Genovia. Or perhaps, the late Princess Diana.

-Danah
icrave13@hotmail.com

Danah said...

+1 New GFC Follower

icrave13@hotmail.com

Danah said...

+1 Tweeted:
http://twitter.com/Peppermint1013/status/59676967808675842

icrave13@hotmail.com

Stephanie said...

LOVED Gallagher Girls!! Still gotta read that last installment...it's on my TBR pile!!

Princess Mia popped into my head first too, but I will try to think of someone else! :) It would be fn to be Princess Tiana, well, after she turned back into a human, anyway!!

I am an old follower, I will tweet it and I will go blog about it too!!!

Stephanie said...

Oh, my email is haefner9191 @yahoo.com if you need it! :)

Ashley said...

Royalty for a day? I would want to be Cleopatra. But ONLY for a day or two! She's kind of amazing, but I wouldn't want to be her long term.

basicallyamazingbooks [at] gmail.com

Jennifer Shirk said...

Oooh, I'd like to be the late Princess Grace or Princess Di for a day.
New follower. :)

Jennifer Shirk said...

Ooops. I meant old follower. :)

Unknown said...

I'd love to be a Royal Fictional Character because you can really be anything you want to be. I would choose the character I wrote (only because it's fair, lol) Duchess Stella who is soon to fall in line to become Queen since the Prince has an eye on her. She lives in quite the magical kingdom!!!

Great contest!!! I LOVE LINDSEY LEAVITT I was so upset that I was out of town the minute she arrived in Houston! I am dying for The Royal Treatment!

I'm an old follower and I commented! I'll add you to the sidebar as well!

J.L. Campbell said...

Princess Diana's wedding was such an elaborate affair that I've never forgotten it, so yeah, who wouldn't want to be her for a day?

Here's my tally 1 + 2 + 1 = 4
Tweet link @ http://twitter.com/#!/JL_Campbell/status/59969799618433024

John Sankovich said...

I'm down with these books, they sound great.

I don't know if I qualify as a new or old follower.

So I think it might be 2 or 3 points.

Eliza Tilton said...

Fictional definitely!
comment +1
old buddy +2
tweet +1

Sophia Chang said...

I would want to be Hollywood/celeb royalty - Paris Hilton for maximum moolah and notoriety

comment
old buddy
tweeted (RT your tweet) http://twitter.com/#!/OpAwesome6/status/59678967984173057

+4

Writer Tessa said...

I wanna be Kate Middleton because she's marrying Prince William! :)

Comment + old follower = 3 points

Rebecca said...

HA! Writer Tessa and I agree. I would love being Kate Middleton for the day. Or in a fictional world, Princess Mia!

I'm an old follower. No tweet. No blog.:)