Deception's Princess (Deception's Princess, #1) (Princesses of Myth)

by Esther Friesner

[inlibrisveritas]

Deception’s Princess is a story that may now seem familiar thanks to Pixar/Disney’s movie Brave, but don’t like that discourage you it’s simply based off of the similar tale but doesn’t read like the same story. In fact this is pure historical fiction that still brings all of the whimsy of Brave while maintaining the reality of the historical Ireland. This book is part of a duology, this being the first, but it also a part of a bigger “series” which is a collection of dulogies and can be read in any order.

Our story focuses on Maeve, a young princess of Cannacht. She’s brave, stubborn, and prefers exploring over sitting in her lessons and doing needlework. Instead of focusing on a few moments in her life this book spans over a few years, as she grows and learns to juggling her duties as a princess and her hearts need to be free. Unlike Brave she has a whole host of older sisters that at a very young age forced her to prove herself. I loved Maeve, she embodies what it means to be strong and independent. Of course her stubborn attitude and her desire to be seen as important and capable does tend to cause trouble both politically and personally, but the important thing is that she learns from these mistakes. More importantly she doesn’t desire to become someone’s wife, she knows she’s worth more than just the sum of her looks and station. I loved her friendship with Odran, which was incredibly sweet and it was great seeing to very independent and different individuals find some common ground.

The atmosphere and location of Deception’s Princess is incredibly beautiful and feels authentic. There are very little records of how the ancient celtic people lived but I think Friesner did an excellent job at creating a believable society. We get to see how important their livestock are, how they celebrate their ‘holidays’, a bit of the religion they believed in, how they lived, and the fragile balance of power that must be maintained. All of these elements created such a strong and easily pictured world, not to mention having Maeve’s voice lend a certain charm and wit to everything that occurs.

The overall story is about growing up, accepting responsibility, and becoming who you are meant to be…but more importantly deciding who that person is for yourself. This turned out to be an incredibly read and my only dislike was that it was over far too quickly, I’ll certainly be looking for the rest of the Princesses of Myth books.