Undercover Princess is a book written by Connie Glynn aka Noodlerella. I will honestly say that although I have seen a few videos by Noodlerella I wouldn't say I really know anything about her, I definitely think this helped going into the book. This story has serious Princess Diaries vibes and I was down for it!

This, for me, was by no means perfect. A lot of the story was predictable and after a while Lottie became very whiny and repetitive. I also feel like the book tried very hard to put you off the scent of the 'bad guy' and for me made it clear the person the book was hinting to wasn't our culprit.  However, this was still a cute and easy retelling of the famous Prince and Pauper tale. I did really like the writing style. I found it flowed really well and made reading this very enjoyable. I liked Jamie a lot, to me he was the right balance of broody and sensible and young to be both believable in his role as a friend but also for his job. The setting of the book has Harry Potter like vibes for me and brought me back to the times when I was younger and has wished to be whisked away to a remote boarding school in the country.
The one thing I really wished for with this book was more Ollie! He was introduced as such a funny and lovable character and then Lottie essentially abandons him, such a shame!

I would definitely pick up more of Connies books (especially Princess themed ones!)

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!!*

I got this physical ARC from deptcon3, which seems like ages ago! And I had really wanted to read it in time for its publication, but I didn't get to and since I went on an unintentional hiatus for November, you're getting the review now!

First of all, the cover is gorgeous. I saw quite a few other bloggers talking about this book and mainly taking pictures of it, and I didn't know what it was about. But when I got the ARC and read the blurb - it sounded like something that I would love. Because I love when royalty is incorporated into books and this didn't disappoint.

I loved the mystery threaded throughout - I'll admit it wasn't something I was expecting but Glynn manages to pull it off perfectly that I could barely out it down before having to pick it back up again!

As well as that, I found myself slightly obsessed with our two main characters - Ellie and Lottie. I think they were both brilliantly developed characters and I loved the contrast between them, and even though they were two very different people, they instantly became the best of friends and I liked seeing how their friendship developed, even with all the ups and downs thrown in throughout the book.

However, I did feel like this book came to a rushed ending and some of the questions I wanted answers to weren't explained the best they could have been. I'm pretty sure this is the first in a series so I will be definitely picking up the next book to see if there are more answers in the future instalments, but I did enjoy Undercover Princess.

Lottie - a driven, princess-mad orphan - has won a scholarship for the infamous Rosewood School, a posh boarding school where blue bloods, rich kids and royalty intermingle. There she meets Ellie, her new roommate, who has a secret. She is the hidden princess of Maradova - unfortunate to her because she just wants to be a normal teenager. Together, they form a bond as they navigate themselves through the perilous waters that is high school.  


To be perfectly honest, I did not get on well at all with The Rosewood Chronicles. I was put off by the cliche plot, thinly drawn characters and mediocre writing. It read very much like a first draft effort from a teenager who had read a few boarding school books and decided to give it a go. I fail to see what was special to prompt publishing, if not for the name of the author. It seems clear to me that the book deal was made on the basis of branding and assured sales. That so much money is being put towards basically what amounts to a vanity project, when it could be going towards more rewarding efforts, is infuriating. If I had known it was a YouTuber book I would never have picked it up in the first place. 

But anyways, I requested this one because I was a big fan of The Princess Diaries and there seemed to be some hype behind this new release. I wanted to get ahead of the game and read it for myself, especially as I was in the mood for a cute contemporary to wile away the cold evenings. It definitely had potential and I did enjoy parts of this novel. I appreciated the diversity in terms of the representation of some of the main relationships, particularly for a novel geared towards a younger age group. I think Glynn really has an eye for writing relationships. Unfortunately, I think it was a disservice to her craft to be published so early on in her development. 

It is difficult to review this one because I do not like writing negative reviews, and, of course, opinions are subjective. The most infuriating thing is it is not actively awful. It is bland and unimaginative, with wasted potential - and that makes it worse. It is too mediocre to even be a hate read. I am also tired of this increasing mindset of the publishing world towards publishing names instead of voices. It has detrimentally affected the quality of the recent output in YA especially.  

Lastly, no fourteen year old girl moving to boarding school for the first time takes with her a Disney nightgown. 🙎💩

Thank you to Penguin and Netgalley for providing me with a copy to review.

This is my first time reading the author and will be my last. 

It’s been a long time since I disliked a book as much as Undercover Princess.

I feel that nothing worked about this book. I definitely won’t read the rest of the series.

Let’s start with the characters. They are all flat, one dimensional cardboard cut-outs with the emotional depth of a scone. It’s been a long time since I came across such boring, insipid characters. Lottie and Ellie were the worst. Seriously. I’ve never been so irritated in my life. They acted like such special snowflakes but just got on my nerve. They were so happy and positive all the time. If something upsetting happened they were like oh well, everything is super fine, let’s have a cookie/cake/biscuit. Argh. They were tedious. I didn’t engage with any character and cared nothing about what happened to them. 

Let’s move onto the plot. What little there was. Undercover Princess had absolutely nothing original or interesting about it. The book is riddled with clichés that superior authors know how to avoid with a barge-pole. Nothing remotely interesting happens, just Lottie and Ellie being irritating for MANY, MANY, MANY pages. The book is twee and nauseating and not engaging on any level.

Finally, let’s move onto the actual writing. Which sucked big-time. If I read one more over-used adjective I’d be tempted to punch someone in the face. Everything is explained. Nothing is shown. The writing is stilted and flat (i.e. Jamie did this, Lottie thought that). Adverbs, adverbs everywhere, please God no more. The dialogue is awful. British and American spelling is used inconsistently. Characters over-reacted. Irritating snowflake girls having a temper tantrum does not make drama. What is the deal with Lottie and Ellie. They acted like love interests at times rather than friends (stroking one another, nuzzling each other’s hair, taking the icing from each other’s cheek and licking it). This is glossed over in the book and I just found it creepy. 

Oh, and a final word about the quality of the ARC. I never comment on this because I accept that I’m not reading the final version. However, Undercover Princess has editorial comments inserted a random in red text (i.e. change slung to strung). This is not okay and really unprofessional.

This was awful. I literally only finished reading it so that I could increase my feedback ratio on NetGalley. 

I’m not onboard with hating on Youtubers for the sake of it, but I genuinely feel that if this person didn’t have a built-in fan base to buy this book it would never have been published. It’s unoriginal, boring, and badly written.

Great fun book. A few holes in the plot but didn't stop my enjoyment of the overall story. Recommended.

An enjoyable story that I would definitely recommend to a young teenager. I must say that Lottie did drive me mad at times and I wanted to shake her and tell her to stick up for herself! I'm hoping that there's more to the series and we get to see Lottie grow as a character!

How a mistake about identity can be made through shyness, which then led to friendship and opportunities which would never have come about otherwise. Two girls sharing a room at boarding school, one there on a scholarship and the other to get a taste of real life before taking on royal duties. A rumour goes round about a princess in school, and without giving away too much of the plot, one girl gets mistaken, wrongly, as the princess, with all the difficulties this entails. A good read, moves along quickly, I enjoyed it.

Amazing. I loved it.
And yes I maybe 28years old but I like to support New Authors and Youtubers/Booktubers :) 

I don't really follow Connie much, as in I don't watch all her videos on YouTube, but I was excited about being accepted to.read this via Netgalley. 

I think I enjoyed It more than I thought I would because growing up I was a secret reader, I never read for Fun...I was always labelled "Too Thick To Read" and so I was always embarrassed when seen with a book...and so when it came to the times in school where the whole class read the same book I cherished it. My Main Favourite book I reading and what sparked my "Secret" obsession on reading again was 'The Secret Garden" I think I was 8 years old when I read that and oh my I loved it so much.

I now consider myself a book worm, I carry a book with me every where I go and I don't care either where I read. 

then came the Harry Potter books, to which I found again not "Clever enough" to read a book, and so I only ever got through the 1st book...until I hit 16 years old and began the 2nd/3rd and then life became quite difficult, I had a major breakdown Blah blah blah when suddenly BOOM in 2015/2016 I re-read all the HP books (the last 4 books being my first time) and OMG I soooooo wish I'd read them as a child, (I grew up on the films and books) 

what I'm trying to get at is that I feel this book would be great for anyone around the ages 8 upwards, and I would've loved hiding in the local library warm and cosy with this to read...

and no, it's not all about how little princess didn't get her Pony for Christmas...

it has Attitude, Hormones, tantrums, undercover stuff, fighting both verbally and physically and I sooooooooo  want Lotte and Jamie to get together 😊

It's just a great read, and as you can read in more depth in other reviews about it, I just delved in not knowing anything but the name on the Cover...and km so pleased I did. 😊 

you don't need to be into princesses etc to enjoy this book. Just pick it up and give it ago. and if you have a Son or Daughter...read it with them 😊 

I gave it a 3 stars, due to the fact my Ebook copy from Netgalley was messed up and it was showing me the edits of wording/sentences and it frustrated me.

I received an e-arc of this book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

“be kind, be brave, be unstoppable.”

I must admit that this is a slightly late review for this book as it came out at the beginning of November and I should’ve gotten around to it sooner but I wasn’t in the mood to constantly read review books so I kinda got off track…

From what I’ve seen on Goodreads reviews for this book, it doesn’t seem like many people actually enjoyed this however I absolutely ADORED reading this book. I realise some people might read this book and see that it’s cliché but I thought it was a cute read and I loved the characters!

This story is about two girls, Lottie Pumpkin, an ordinary girl from Cornwall who loves princesses and Ellie Wolf, an actual princess. They both end up sharing a room at Rosewood Hall where Lottie gets in on scholarship because she doesn’t come from money and Ellie just wants to try and blend in so that she can have a bit more of an ordinary life before having to become the princes.. We mainly read this from Lottie Pumpkin’s point of view but occasionally you get to read some of Ellie’s P.O.V and also Jamie’s. The two girls pretty much end up swapping identities as the students in the school mistakes Lottie for being the undercover princess, it remains this way after Lottie finds out it was really Ellie so that she can help Ellie live a more ordinary life and Lottie’s dream can pretty much come true by playing princess, however someone in Rosewood Hall knows their secret and is sending threatening messages so the two girls end up trying to figure out who it just might be.

For me this story just flew by, I couldn’t put it down I enjoyed it so much! I loved reading along and joining in on Ellie and Lottie’s year at Rosewood Hall! The book itself even has a BEAUTIFUL cover. It leaves you with questions and wanting more so therefore I highly recommend this book and I for one cannot wait for the second instalment in the series.

I admit – I love Princess/Royalty/Aristocracy based novels. Who doesn’t want to flounce around in a sparkly dress and a tiara? I am more than happy reading YA novels focused around young royals (Princess Diaries was one of my favourite series as a kid); they hit my desire for coming-of-age plots combined with epic wish-fulfillment. So I requested a copy of this because I LOVE this stuff.

I DNFed this book at a little over half way.

While I love the general idea of this book, there was one key thing missing – plot. NOTHING HAPPENED. And the characters were dire. They giggled and blushed. For pages on pages. I know a book is bad when I start rooting for the bad guy despite them not even being particularly interesting, just so the book could end.

The positives of this book…I suppose there’s a reasonable female friendship, which is something lacking in a lot of YA/kids novels, although they did go from mortal enemies to besties in about 2 seconds. I don’t think there’s much else to comment on.

Maybe this was meant to be classed as a children’s book, not YA. That’s about as nice as I can be about this. I even deleted it off my kindle before I took a picture of the cover.

After I DNFed this book, I read a bit more about it and apparently it was written by a Youtuber.

You can tell.

Verdict: Read The Princess Diaries or The Selection instead

Read if: you’re eight years old

Undercover Princess by Connie Glynn: ★

A magical adventure that transports you to another time and place.  Each page offers the unexpected with vivid descriptions and intriguing characters.  Different to any other book
I’ve ever read the story line captures your heart and will have you on the edge of your seat.

I was drawn to this book as soon as I came across the cover for two reasons: The cover is absolutely gorgeous, and the title has the word “princess” in it. I don’t know about you, but I have been obsessed with Disney movies and fairy tales ever since I can remember. There is something magical about stories of kingdoms and royal families, whether magic is involved or not, that has entranced me since I was little. So when I saw the book, I had to try to get hold of an arc and give it a read.

I don’t normally pick up books written by YouTubers or bloggers because, more often than not, their success with getting book deals is influenced heavily by the number of their audience (followers, subscribers etc.) rather than talent; and although this book is far from perfect, I have to admit it was a joy to read from start to finish. The fact that the story was set in a glamorous boarding (with houses too!) was a major reason why I enjoyed the book so much. I’m a sucker for elite school settings so I was delighted when I came across this book as it is something I rarely see in what I read.

One of our main protagonists, Eleanor Wolf, defies every attribute we associate with being a princess. She is wild, hates dresses, dies her hair dark colours and wants nothing to do with her royal duties. It was interesting to read about a princess that challenged every stereotype attached to it. Lottie, however, is her complete opposite. She is fascinated by fairy tales, and owns a tiara gifted by her late mother that she even takes to the boarding school with her. She has the grace Ellie lacks, so it is easy to see why she is mistaken for the undercover princess. Out of the two, Lottie was the one I related to the most, due to our mutual obsession with princess tales (which is still going strong, even as an adult), and I couldn’t stop thinking about how much my younger self would have loved this book.

Friendship between the girls was something I felt was well done. Lottie and Ellie could not have been more different, yet they both grew close and helped each other where the other lacked. I also enjoyed the dynamic created with the inclusion of Jamie, a mysterious and seemingly cold boy, which made for some entertaining banter.

I don’t personally have anything against the book, however, I can see why some may find this book average or underwhelming. I personally didn’t because it is exactly my type of book. Whilst it wasn’t groundbreaking and the writing could have been a lot better, I had a lot of fun reading it. One thing I hope is that the politics of this world gets explored in much more detail in the second book (which I can’t wait for!) as I think there is a lot of potential there to richen the plot.

This is one of those books that could help you get out of a reading slump and although I would not recommend it  to everyone, I do think fans of The Selection Series, Princess Diaries, or the Princess Protection Programme will enjoy this book.

A good book but not great. I found it relatively interesting but for a younger public than me (I'm 18). I didn't really enjoy the characters, they had very child-like personalities that were not profoundly studied by the author whose way of writing didn't go well with me. Also, the secondary characters are not well developed. I thought this book was going to include some magical elements with the bodyguards/Porters, but (happily!) it did not. Quite cliché, to be honest, yet not very realistic. Reading it was not disagreeable and I was intrigued as what the next book will be about, but I won't read it, I think....

This book is aimed at Young Adult but i would say that the age category is all wrong. This book, the characters, the setting and the magicalness would be suited to a younger age range from perhaps even 8 to 12. As a young adult reading this, I felt it to be very childish and not written by an author who was older than me. It was very based  on the tale of Cinderella and just felt too unrealistic. Perhaps a younger audience would prefer the book.

I don't think this book was appropriate for me. I found it quite childish and I think its more appropriate for teenagers. Its a good read and I finished it quite quickly.

The writing is not good. While reading it, I felt I was overhearing the conversation of two 10-year olds talking about their homework. The writing style seemed juvenile, lacked an authentic voice and the phrases seem a bit too coloquial. It reads as a good school essay, but is not good enough as a novel; it needs to be polished and revised, using a wider and more imaginative vocabulary to lift it above mere teenage slang, and needs richer descriptions of people and places. There are so many loose ends, and the storyline is far too linear. There are lots of holes in the plot, and there's no proper ending to the story.

I know it's planned to be a trilogy, but I feel it isn't necessary and ought to be one standalone volume. Cut all the characters that were mentioned only once or twice, leave out the "riddles" and have more action.

Okay. That’s how I would describe this book for me. It was simply: okay.

I didn’t dislike this book but neither did I love it. The plot was okay, it did have its moments where I will happily admit to being interested and I read the book fairly quickly but it just didn’t scream ‘READ ME’ or have anything that I found particularly gripping. In fact what the plot did for me was leave lots of unanswered questions and one of those was “Why did Lottie so desperately want to go to Rosewood Hall?”

I also felt like the plot went from being super simple to having lots going on all at once rather than having one or two things happening that were really well developed which I think would have resulted in us seeing more layered characters too. I think it’s important for me to point out here that this book isn’t boring, lots happens and some readers will have loved the way it is written, I just really like layers and depth and this was definitely more of a fairytale (I appreciate this is probably intentional!)

As for the characters, I’ve kind of touched on this above but I just felt they were quite flat. I really love a flawed, layered character that I can get to really know but although I felt that I liked most of the characters in this book, I got to the end and still didn’t really feel I knew them as well as I would have liked. If I was asked to describe their personalities I would have a really hard time doing it. Ellie is supposed to be this super rebellious Princess but she didn’t feel that rebellious to me, Lottie was adorable and very Disney Princess-like but what on earth happened to Ollie?! This really pained me because at the beginning Ollie and Lottie are super best friends, then she goes off to school and just forgets all about him. Granted she doesn’t have her phone but, HELLO, write a letter? I just felt like their friendship was totally just forgotten about and then something had to quickly be written back in at the end to acknowledge Ollie.

I think the best way for me to end this review is to sum up my feelings and that goes a bit like this… Undercover Princess is a fluffy, light and Disney-like read that plenty of readers will love but if you are looking for a complex plot and layered characters, this won’t be the book for you. A lovely read and a GORGEOUS cover (had to slip that in…) but for me this book will be easily forgettable.

Ellie is not your typical princess: she is headstrong, opinionated, and unconcerned with all things princessy. She finds herself attending boarding school with the charming (but unbelievably naive) Lottie Pumpkin who dreams of being a princess. It seems like fate has brought them together so Lottie can pretend to be a royal whilst Ellie hides from her responsibilities. 

The storyline is engaging, but sometimes very contrived and unrealistic. I loved the character development, particularly Ellie, who changed and grew in interesting ways. Mostly, I found Lottie irritating. She was too naive and too willing to give away everything to be a pretend princess and risk her life for someone she barely knows. Jamie was also mainly irritating. He was too angry and predictably in love with the one character he shouldn't be. Although sometimes we get a glimpse past his hard exterior and those moments are fascinating, there weren't enough of them for me to truly understand his level of anger and distrust. 

The mystery aspect is very clever. Any one of the other characters could be the culprit, and the big reveal is very well written. The ending is clearly left for future books in this series, and although the story didn't blow me away, I'm interested to see where Connie will take her characters next

This book is such a collision of some of my favourite things. 

I heard a lot of great stuff about this book and in most cases it did live up to a lot of them.

The characters are so likeable, particularly Lottie as I felt an affinity with her from the very start of the book - Lottle is a combination of maybe, Harry Potter meets Cinderella and it is a wonderful combination of my favourite things in a character. As the book progresses the characters grow, my only issue is Jamie and Lottie are barely described within the book, Ellie is the focus oddly considering this book is about a life swap. (Edit: Thinking about it, Lottie must look like Ellie or they wouldn’t be able to swap!?) 

The plot however is a little bit sketchy, the mystery is good but the ending is a little mehh, however this book isn’t aimed at me and if I was a much younger kid I would devour this story especially one where girls support girls. The tale of friendship throughout this book is amazing and it makes for a nice theme as the story unfolds. 

 This isn’t a book for me at 25, this is a book for someone half my age and I can’t imagine someone that age not liking it - its a good transition book in to YA as it features a lot of its tropes and reminded me in ways of books such as Witch Wars  - I think this is too sweet a novel to be a YA and that’s okay. I really look forward to the second book, as this book series has so much promise.