This Princess Totally Slays

This Princess Kills Monsters
(the misadventures of a fairy tale stepsister) 

by Ry Hermann

If it wasn’t clear from the title that this novella has a fairy tale slant, it is very quickly apparent from the opening pages. The writing is delightful, at once homage to older fairy tale stylings and crackling, near constant, send up of the same.

The prince - who proclaimed and declaimed rather than merely said (see what I mean about sending up the language) - has turned out to be [spoiler] a bit of a cad regarding the princess to whom he was swearing his undying love not long ago. Or rather proclaiming it. When he throws her over, inevitably, her ensuing rage is such that her father promises her literally anything if she will simply stop smashing the crockery.

I will leave you to discover what she asked for and let you meet the stepsister and find out where she fits into this topsy turvy melange. The language is assured and the characters sparkle (some literally). There's some nested subtext about feminism and power imbalances but this is first and foremost a lark that should come with a 'beverage alert' label on every chapter. 

 

This lively little fairy tale is full of derring-do and disguises, brave and foolhardy exploits worthy of love and laughter, all propelled by the most contemporary of fairy tale princesses. 

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The Resistance Daughter is personal, passionate, packed with detail

 
An ambitious debut by Canadian author Joanne Kormylo. 

The daughter of the title is Anna, a younger sibling in Nazi-controlled Poland whose father and brother are both involved in smuggling weapons, aiding Allied spies, and otherwise thwarting the regime. Anna is deliberately kept out of things until the younger neighbour girl she walks to school is taken by the Nazis because of her Aryan good looks. That loss sets Anna off on her own type of underground war work, trying to recover and smuggle out stolen children. 

After circumstance introduces her to Johnny, an allied airman, the plot unfolds with plenty of realistic wartime and camp details. The depth of research is evident, and the author‘s personal connection – her father was a prisoner of war – infuses the writing with passion and focus. Anna’s family members and Johnny’s friends are used to illustrate different aspects of daily life during the war, and the conflict's impact on different populations. Mistakes and vengeance by both the Nazis and Russians, and by citizens of the liberated nations as they struggle to find normality, are all touched on in the war’s aftermath. 

For all the political issues and the inevitable disasters of sorting and repatriating millions of displaced people while holding accountable those who committed the worst atrocities, the focus remains firmly on our two lead characters, Anna and Johnny. Their bond, forged early in the war, survives past its end and acts as the continuing thread of this love story set against the vast canvas of World War II that has the power to expose a whole new generation to the horrors of unbridled warfare and the triumph of the human spirit.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hodder

Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 29 2025 (North American release)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Print length ‏ : ‎ 384 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1399744887

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1399744881

#NetgalleyUK #Netgalley #WW2 #lovestory #romance #resistance #war #POWs #prisonersofwar #Polish #Poland #spies #smuggling #nazis #ConcentrationCamp #Ravensbruck #Vatican #airforce