“Don’t cling to the familiar to avoid potential pain of the unknown. It will come for you whether you are ready or not.”

This was a very enjoyable read! The characters were very well rounded and relatable despite the setting. The language was gorgeous especially in the more emotional scenes.
I however struggling with the pacing, this book is long and a lot goes on but sometimes it focuses too long on certain aspects and not enough on others.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an honest review. :)

The Princess Knight is an interesting combination of chick-flick esq romance/drama, royalty politics and fantasy. After suffering from a failed engagement, Clia seeks to prove her almost-bethrothed wrong, by attending the same military school as him, and prove that she is more than just a Princess.

On paper, this book sounds really cute, fun, with the added bonus of being in a fantasy setting, and I think a lot of readers will enjoy it. I unfortuantely could not emotionally connect with it; I found it strange that a character who otherwise appears smart and logical, would think it was a good idea to join a military school (and she got accepted?) when she had never before held a sword. I can see how this links in to comparisions with the popular film legally blonde - where a character sets off to get a law degree to prove her ex wrong, but as the book wasn't humurous, it didn't really work in the same way for me. I would have much rather that Clia have proven herself as an excellent royal partner, by staying true to herself, and proving herself in other ways or if not that, that the writing leant more into humour and she took herself less seriously. Saying that, the writing style is good, and plot moves relatively quickly.

I think it would make for a cute, quick romantasy read, that most readers will enjoy. I'm grateful that I got the opportunity to give it a go.

I devoured this book, and it has definitely become one of my highlights of the year. The characters are wonderfully written, and their development was fantastically portrayed. The relationship between Clía and Ronan, and how they got to know each other and grew as individuals, was also incredibly written. Both of them won my heart, and I quickly grew fond of the other characters, too. Thank you to Cait Jacobs, HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction, and NetGalley for this ARC!

2.5⭐️

What can I say... I really wanted to love it. I love Legally Blonde, and this was supposed to be a medieval retelling set in a military academy. I wasn't expecting the story to be identical, but I was at least expecting the same funny rom-com vibes, with war-time fantasy on top of it. Sadly, in the end, it didn't fully commit to either of these things.

The story felt... bland. The romance too. The military academy made no sense to me, everything Clia learned was because of Ronan's private lessons.

I do think some readers will enjoy this book, especially because the writing is good, but it was not for me.

I also think marketing it as Adult and not YA is a huge mistake.

The moment I saw that gorgeous cover I knew I had to read it. (Honestly, I even prefer the original title Medievally Blonde—such a fun nod to Legally Blonde!)

On paper, this had all the ingredients I love—give me princesses with swords any day!—but the execution didn’t fully click for me. Half rom-com, half war-time fantasy, it ended up feeling a bit in-between.

And while I loved the idea of a princess joining a military training camp, it was hard to buy into when she’d never even held a sword, yet somehow managed to stand out (not to mention getting admitted in the first place). Add to that the fact that I didn’t get attached to the characters, and the story just didn’t sweep me away the way I hoped.

Clía is determined to prove everyone wrong: just because she's into fashion and can cut into fabric doesn't mean she can't cut her enemies as well.. So she enters a famed military academy wholly unprepared. Is there any resemblence to you-know-which movie with another blonde? Sure, seeing the cover and first paragraph of the blurb there's no doubt the writer is hinting to its inspiration. But unlike the ultimate legal girl power movie this book misses one big thing: a sense of humor.

What worked for me:
- In general it's not a bad story at all. It just suffers from the comparison that's hard to miss. There's some lore, some worldbuilding and charming characters. The romance was fine as well: nothing special, but also not the forced trope-y kind I've gotten to know and hate from romantasy books. The friendships were lovely, even if I would've liked some of they to have developed more. (Really, there's no reason why Clía and Niamh couldn't have become besties or at least friends much sooner). There's a strong female friendship featured, but I wished there were more! The story and premise was practictically begging for it.

What didn't work for me:
- I feel like the writer didn't quite know what kind of story to write: is it a war college story in which the characters face trials and perils? Somewhat I guess, but not much is focused on the actual learning if you discount the private training sessions between Ronan and Clía. Is it a lighthearted girl power story in which the main character finds her strength within? I guess, but it's quite shallow at that. There's some strange and unnecessary clash between Clía and Niamh wich is never truly explained. There's not a lot Clía actually overcomes except her lack of prior martial knowledge. Despite all the hinting it's not quite a medieval Legally Blonde. A shame, I would've loved it if the story was funnier and leaned more into the heart of its inspiration.

All in all I can see why people would find it entertaining, but for me it's just scraping by with a pass. I'm glad I finished it, but if there are any sequels I won't continue the series. Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing me with an ARC, all opinions are my own.

i thought this was going to be a new favourite, it has lots of things i love—princesses, knights, folklore—and i love legally blonde & anything medieval. i liked the characters well enough, and the world-building, and the disability & chronic pain rep is really well done. i was pleasantly surprised by this being queernormative which is usually hard to come by in a f/m romance (especially with both of the mcs being bi).

unfortunately, though, a lot of this fell a little flat for me. my biggest issue with the princess knight is it’s reluctance to commit to anything. it didn’t fully commit to being a silly & fun rom-com, or a more serious war-time fantasy romance, so it ended up feeling like a watered down version of both. the stakes are high… but they are also low.
clía and ronan both change their minds about each other and their relationships with other people with little to no explanation (they like a character, and then they hate them for 60% of the book and then suddenly everything is fine again). i have no issue at all with people suddenly changing their minds, it happens all the time! but with no explanation it’s a little jarring and almost made all of the conflict before that feel meaningless. if they can forget so quickly then why did i care for the last 300 pages?

i would have loved to see more of the training & be more involved with everything that was happening at caisleán cósta. one of the things about legally blonde that i like the most is seeing elle progress & excel & become very good at what she does. in the princess knight clía is bad, and then we’re told about her training but don’t actually see much of it, and then suddenly she’s really good (with the help of a magic sword). i don’t want to unfairly compare the two, i know that the tagline is ‘loosely inspired by legally blonde’ and its not supposed to be a direct copy, but they are of course very similar and this unfortunately makes the princess knight’s flaws stand out more. i had such high hopes which i think is why i’m left disappointed. while this didn’t end up being for me, i do think that a lot of people will love this book and i am excited to see what cait jacobs comes out with next :)

2.5✩

4.5 ⭐️

I absolutely LOVED this book. At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to get stuck in as the FMC was a bit annoying, but I was soon proven wrong. I loved the dynamic between our two love interests, but was really sold me was the fact her feelings didn’t diminish her growth and she became a feisty, independent woman! Clía was easy to relate to, easy to love and easy to root for. Ronan was my favourite character from the get go- I loved that he wasn’t portrayed as this perfect knight. His storyline with his chronic pain and him coming to understand the truth was a breath of fresh air in unrealistic male characters. If you’re after an uplifting and easy read, this one is for you!

I really liked this book. It was a fund and interesting read.
I really liked Clia as a main character and her character development over the course of this book.
I also liked the romance even tough I thought that it was a bit fast.
And the plot twist surprised because I didn't see it coming.

I was over the moon when i received an arc of this one. I mean look a the cover- it’s gorgeous!! And premise seemed so exciting. There was a lot of potential but it did not deliver for me. There’s a lot of representation- queer, disabled characters and chronic illnesses which we love to see. i think it’d be better if this book was targeted as YA rather than adult.

3.5⭐️

This was a fun and romantic story, with fast-paced action scenes and lovable characters. The romance swept me away and I could really feel the tension between the characters. It’s a fairly long book but one that’s easy to read quickly.

For me, I wish that there was a bit more atmosphere and more descriptions of the medieval setting. At times it was easy to forget that this wasn’t set in the modern day, as the way the characters speak is fairly modern and the settings weren’t particularly well fleshed-out. I couldn’t tell you what the setting looked like at all, actually. I think if more time was spent on this then the whole reading experience would have been elevated.

Overall this was an enjoyable read and would be great for anyone looking to start their fantasy journey off, perhaps coming from a romance-reading background or for a YA audience.

Unfortunately, this missed the mark for me! I do think there are readers out there who will adore this, but I found it incredibly dull and it frustrated me because I feel like the book had so much potential to do something truly unique.

Things I enjoyed: I liked the queer-norm world. I liked the captain of the guard and the prince. I liked her little monster pet.

I really don’t think this should have been an adult book. It read like a YA, the characters WERE YA, and felt even younger than their ages. In fact, I would say this should be a young YA book. Nothing about this screamed adult to me. I would have gone into this with different expectations, and I think it would find its fan base with younger readers! (obviously adjusting for the younger demographic e.g. romantic scenes). I think comp titles like ‘Lady Knight’ and ‘Gwen and Art Are Not In Love’ would have helped.

My other main issue is that the book actually wasn’t Legally Blonde enough for me! It sat at a weird mid-point where it tried so hard to go Legally Blonde but didn’t go all the way enough to make it work, and the plot points felt weirdly forced. This should’ve been camp!! I wanted to laugh! Legally Blonde is a rom-com! I didn’t giggle or smile once in this book. It should’ve gone full ‘My Lady Jane’ vibes and I am truly disappointed it didn’t. And I think some of the marketing sets itself up to fail on this front - e.g. the Locked Library edition has a humourous old english quote on the back which made me believe that would be the writing style. And I think that would’ve worked so much better and allowed the author to really lean into the ridiculous-ness of the plot! Not doing so meant certain plot points just didn’t work.

For example, Legally Blonde centers around a girl who is proving to her misogynistic boyfriend (ex?) that actually she can be a really good lawyer! And a woman! In this, the main character is turned down because she’s not a warrior queen. So she joins his military warrior academy with him to prove him wrong. But you know what? SHE’S BAD AT IT! And you know what else? HE HAS A POINT! I actually sided with the prince on this situation because it’s not about misogyny, and actually the fmc NEEDED to go to this training to learn how to become a warrior because otherwise how else would she know how to lead wars? It didn’t work at all because he was actually right! Not to mention that in Legally Blonde you hate the boyfriend, but in this, I actually really liked him!

The actual military training camp didn’t make much sense either because the only training she underwent was the training on the side of the training with the captain of the guard. The ‘training’ they had was just quests and trials.

The stakes felt very contradictory. We’re led to believe this is a cozy low-stakes fantasy and the writing leads you into this false sense of security. Then you have more high-stakes situations like battles and I found myself not caring at all because of the writing style.

Finally, I truly couldn’t bring myself to care about the characters. And that really hindered the book for me. I wanted camp medieval legally blonde and instead I got a slow dull cozy fantasy.

While there were some aspects I did enjoy, like the creatures they encounter, this wasn’t the book for me. But I do think there will be readers out there who do enjoy this!

This book is a medieval twist on Legally Blonde, something I wish I had known going into it.

I think it should be marketed more as a YA style book and for that reason it wasn’t massively for me, as I tend to prefer darker more angsty reads.

However I had a fun time reading it, it was a good easy enough to follow book that I enjoyed and could see the parallels between the movie, whilst also appreciating elements of an original plot.

I think for a lot of people they will love it, however just due to my personal tastes it wasn’t a 5🌟 read for me.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for the e-arc!

This was a very enjoyable read! Loved the representation in this book and had fun with the classic tropes (MMC training our FMC, academia setting etc). I'd say the first 50% was a lot stronger for me, but I am a big fan of slow burn romances and always prefer the will they won't they energy which this book had more of in the first half.

The reason why I've given it a 3 star rating is because I didn't feel hugely connected with our main characters and found parts of it a little slower. Overall though, a good debut novel, and if you like the sound of a medieval legally blonde inspired romance book, then do give this one a go!

3.5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for the e-arc of this fun romantasy.

The premise sounded like a retelling of legally blonde but in medieval times (previously titled “medievally blonde”) and that’s why I decided to pick this book up.
The story though evolves, and the its characters as well. You will find plenty of likable characters here, and diverse too.
The romance aspect of it all, is present and central to the story, but there is plenty of space for plot as well. The end product is a perfect mix. It felt a bit rushed towards the end, but still well done.

Would recommend it if you are searching for a fun easy romantasy (there are tutoring fight scenes 😌)

“After years of practice, she knew how to be exactly what they wanted her to be, and she was excellent at donning the mask.”

I was super hyped by this one and I’m sorry to admit that it didn’t make it for me, for several reasons.
The writing is fast paced, but lacks in immersivity, especially during battle scenes, and I caught myself drifting out several times. It’s not that it’s bad, just that it doesn’t work for me, as I want to feel things more than seeing them, and I prefer stories that take more their time —but if you like self paced ones, you should like the writing style.
It also lacked fantasy to my liking, as the book is more centered around the medieval universe. The book is political before anything else, and it’s rarely what I prefer —again, if you like political plots, then you should enjoy.
I liked the FMC however. She’s devoted to her realm and if it means appearing as a superficial blonde, then be it. But the day she decides —no matter her motivation— to join the military academy, she gives it her all too, even though things aren’t easy for her… at all. I liked that aspect too, that she had to work hard for it, and loved seeing her relationship with Ronan develop as he’s training her. Regarding his character, my favorite thing was the depiction of chronic pain in a very relatable way, and I adored his resilience.
In the end, the book had some strong qualities, but it unfortunately lacked a bit of magic to me.

Thank you to the author and Magpie for the access to the eARC on NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

The Princess Knight was a decent book, funny at times and that helped with my reading slump, but it wasn’t something new, original, or flawlessly executed.

The writing style and characters read more YA than adult, which at times frustrated me because the characters are supposed to be 21! The writing can feel juvenile at times, you can tell it’s a debut, but it’s also clear the author genuinely cares about the story. The plot was okay, with a bit more political intrigue than I expected, but overall it stuck pretty closely to the plot of Legally Blonde, so nothing particularly new and quite predictable.

The characters felt a little bland. I didn’t like Clía (sorry!), and I just can’t wrap my head around how someone with zero experience gets accepted into the best war college. I mean, I can, she’s the princess ,but how is she suddenly besting fighters who have trained their whole lives in just a few months?

What I really enjoyed were the nods to Irish mythology and culture, even if I didn’t fully understand them 😂. I also loved that the author included some disability rep, good job!

Thank you to the author, the publisher and netgalley for gifting me this arc in exchange for an honest review. 3.25 stars rounded down

Oh how I adored this book! The Princess x bodyguard aspect of this story was my favourite part. Getting to read as Clíodhna changes from becoming someone everyone sees as a bratty spoilt princess to respected and brave warrior had me absolutely gripped from page to page. With a forbidden romance aspect woven into the story of Clía being promised to a Prince who doesn't see her as worthy while slowly becoming closer to and lusting after his bodyguard. Honestly, the layers of this story weave together so perfectly that it will keep you reading long after the sun has gone down. I am firmly in my lady Knight era and this book was perfect with its medieval theme and celtic mythology influences.

Prince Domhnall and Princess Clía have been promised to eachother for years in a union designed to fortifying the relationship between their kingdoms. However, despite how perfect the pairing appears from the outset Prince Domhnall waits until the last moment to pull out of the engagement, ruining everything Clía had established the rest of her life upon. With a broken heart but still having plenty of fire in her belly Clía decides she is not going to give up and follows Domhnall to the military academy he's attending. She plans on showing not just him but everyone around him thay she can protect her kingdom and to once again secure the proposal her kingdom needs. She knows the academy's brutal reputation but thinking it can't surely be that hard she is about to get a rude awakening. Ronan, a warrior and captain of the Princes guard always promised himself he'd never lose his focus. He fought for his place not only at the Princes side but at the academy, meaning he has no time for a blonde bratty princess who has no business in his opinion being there even if she is particularly attractive. He doesn't want to be interested in Clía but he sees a hunger in her to prove herself that he knows only too well, which sees him beginning to train her which only causes the forbidden feelings between them to grow. However, with a real war looming on the horizon will they be able to figure out what they mean to eachother in time to save the kingdom and get their happily ever after.

I cannot fully express how amazing Clía is as a character, she finds herself on her journey to ascertain an engagement she doesn't truly want or, as she eventually realises, needs. She becomes an absolute badass, a warrior in her own right that fights for those she loves and what she believes in. Never afraid to be herself she becomes stronger, while sticking to who she is in her core, a Princess that loves the colour pink and to sow. Her snark and wit makes for some funny moments that had me chuckling out loud, she is sassy, something that I fully relate with. Ronan constantly pushes through the pain he suffers on a daily basis, believing that he deserves the punishment. As much as Clía grows, Ronan grows too, he comes to realise he doesn't need to bear the full weight of the world on his shoulders. He is a perfect balance to Clía while still meeting her banter and wit move for move, he pushes her and she pushes him so they both grow together as their feelings for one another continue to grow. Ronan is insanely loyal and trusting, however, that doesn’t lead to naivety, he adapts, becomes smarter and continues to both overcome and endure.

The story itself was a perfect balance of mystery, political intrigue and forbidden romance. A big part as I have aforementioned is the character development, especially for Clía, but there is a mystery surrounding who is vying for war within the kingdoms and to cause such destruction and death. I was plenty surprised as the story twisted and turns with actions taking place that I didn't see coming. The worldbuilidng is phenomenal and has a depth that utilises clear descriptors to provide vivid details of the areas in which the characters find themselves. Speaking of the level of detail, this also shows in the careful way the sparring, fighting and training is described, how even these repetitive actions of the characters feel important and hold meaning for the development of the characters. The found family aspect within the story solidifies the academy dynamic that the characters find themselves, but once again this is balanced with the high stakes nature of the world being on the brink of war. I could of stayed wrapped up in this world for so many more pages, I fell in love with the characters and their journey to find themselves and one another.

Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me an e-ARC to read and review.

Spectacular. One of my top books of the year the perfect fantasy experience! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

I unfortunately was disappointed with this book. When I first started reading I initially thought I wouldn’t like it, but I’m not one to have one bite and immediately decide it’s not for me. So I read it all, and it just didn’t satiate my hunger for a rich fantasy plot.

It felt more like a romance with fantasy as a sub-plot. The character of Clía seemed very pathetic at the beginning, although this got a little better towards the end. However, the plot remained juvenile. She went to school to learn how to be a warrior and we just didn’t get enough of that. It felt more like she was chasing after boys than she was actually immersing herself in school - which don’t get me wrong, is fine, that’s why she was initially there - but a little more focus on her dedication to actually learning would have been nice. Fantasy needs a lot of action - epic battles, gruelling training, grit and drive. It didn’t really feel like the FMC channeled those emotions enough for this to be a successful plot.

One thing that particularly grated me was that the author seems to equate that being a strong leader for your country directly correlates with being a warrior. There are many good leaders who have never even seen a battle field. Yes it may help when it comes to strategy but it’s not always the case.

We need solid world-building, less predictable plots and detailed explanations. I don’t think the author executed it well in so few pages. I think if the book had been longer, with more of these elements it would have strengthened everything.

Furthermore, it reads like these characters know what iPhones and iPads are. I wouldn’t have been surprised if one of them pulled one out. Perhaps the writing style could have been a little less colloquial. This was a generic fantasy. It doesn’t leave a lasting impact on the reader; as a reader I love to read books I will constantly be thinking about after and this book will not be one of them.

Overall, a great premise. Poor execution. Great experience reading this arc. Thank you to those who approved.