Book Review: The Secret of the Prinsesses by Thea Stilton (Incanto #1)

 

 Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Incanto: Il Segreto delle Principesse.

Remember how I started reading that series Princesses of Fantasy Kingdom a bit ago? Okay, so I picked up this book by the same pen name because it looked promising. What I did not know going in is that it featured the same characters as Princesses of Fantasy Kingdom but in a completely different universe where the previous continuity has little to no bearing to what's going on. Let's review this thing. Spoilers ahead.

In the world of Incanto, five young girls attend the School for Princesses. They each are secretly the Guardians of the realm, each having a unique talent and magical animal companion. When spring spontaneously starts to turn into winter again, however, the sisters have to band together in order to solve a riddle and bring back the former season in order to stand against the powers of Egor the Dark.

So like I said before, despite me not knowing this going in, this book series is about the same girls as those featured in Princesses of Fantasy Kingdom. At first I thought this was a sequel or prequel series or something, but it really is neither. It's just the same characters in a different setting, universe and story. It's also aimed at younger readers than Princesses. The writing style is closer to resembling that of the general Geronimo/Thea Stilton books and the tone is much more juvenile, with a rather mundane conflict.

However, I did like it okay. I really should've read the back cover and looked inside before reading it so I knew what this was going in, but that's honestly on me. And the book is still fine. I'm sure younger readers (particularly girls) who like the general Thea Stilton books but want to get a flair of fantasy will get a kick out of this.

For me it was just a bit too rushed and basic, however. The main character girls all have rather basic personalities and traits and I think I'd have preferred it if each of the princesses had one book to focus on a single character, rather than all five at once. That worked in Princesses of Fantasy Kingdom, so it probably would work better here as well. They generally feel kind of same-y personality wise here, with only really their one or two quirks setting them apart. 

The pace, like said before, was also really fast and the conflict solved rather easily. I know this is a book for younger readers but even then I don't think we need to go at a lightning-pace. We're thrown from one part of the riddle straight to the next and the conflict (bringing back spring) is over so soon that it feels like we read the book on fast forward. 

The story was just overall mundane and while that's totally fine for a fantasy series for younger readers I just would've liked a few extra chapters to properly establish the characters and get a little bit of a slower pace. The concept for the series definitely works: five princess sisters who attend a princess school and are secretly Guardians of the realm, having to stand against a dark wizard. That makes for a good basic conflict for children's fantasy books. But the execution so far was a bit too rushed and basic for me. I especially would've liked to see one girl get the central focus to properly develop her. Nives is on the cover but she's equally featured in this book as all the other sisters. 

Overall just a fine book. Nothing offensive, nothing bad, but nothing all that great either. I think I'll stick to the Princesses of Fantasy Kingdom series, which is aimed at a more tween/teen audience. I may still pick up future books in Incanto as well, however, if they have them at the library.

Rating: 3/5

Also, just a quick note: The pen name the authors writing this series (and others) uses has multiple spellings, with it being Tea Stilton in the original Italian and Thea Stilton in most other regions from what I've seen. Because I'm trying to keep my book review blog as English-centric as possible, I'm going with the international "Thea" spelling. Just to clear up any confusion as to why I use this spelling and not the original. It's not a real person, anyways, but rather a pen-name of a fictional character.