Book Review: The Forest Princess by Thea Stilton (Princesses of Fantasia #4)

 

   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 Principesse del Regno della Fantasia #4: Principessa delle Foreste.

We return to the realm of Fantasia once again! Spoilers ahead.

While prince Gunnar and princess Kalea go north to visit Nives, princess Samah visits her sister Yara in the Wood realm, all of them together trying to prevent Herbert from doing more evil in the future. Yara's realm is facing their own issues with the local tribes not all liking her rule. Yara will have to solve this issue while also having to protect her stanza against Herbert, AKA the Nameless Prince, in yet another one of his disguises.

This one is possibly my favorite of the series so far. I liked book three as well, but this one is the first time I was legit really into the story. This is largely because this book ditches the formulaic aspects the previous three had going on (princess meets a mysterious stranger, Herbert appears in one of his forms and may or may not be the mysterious stranger, two characters fall in love, Herbert tries to steal each realm's respective stanza, Herbert vanishes, etc.). 

This book instead has more of an ongoing and less of an episodic feel, which is good because by now we're really getting into the meat of the story. Gunnar and Kalea's part of the story was interesting as they arrive back at Arcadia where Nives is now frozen in ice, but I especially liked Yara's and Samah's part of the story. Yara is so far my favorite of the princesses, even beating out Samah (though they're both great and I love their interactions a whole lot). Yara isn't the stereotypical princess. She's a bit childish, abrasive, impulsive and not the perfect ruler, but it's also clear that she loves her kingdom a whole lot and will do whatever it takes for them. She also stands by her decisions and promises (even if a bit foolish) once she makes them, which is a bit of an admirable quality, though she should definitely work on being less impulsive to make those. So she's a very flawed but because of this likable, and she feels quite real.

She also had a rather wholesome arc with Vannak. I'm not usually one for enemies to lovers stories (and I don't think they're technically together by the end of this book yet) but it was wholesome to see Vannak and Yara sort out their rivalry and become close friends (and possibly more) thereafter. They never downright really wanted to hurt the other or anything back when they were enemies, Vannak was honestly more of an antagonist than a true villain to Yara. So I liked their interactions as well. Honestly this book is quite full of great interactions, whether it's Yara and Samah, Yara and Vannak, Kalea and Gunnar... So props for that.

So yeah, this is definitely one of my favorites of the series so far. I really hope the series can keep up these great characters, interactions and the less formulaic plots in the future. Looking forward to whatever comes next!

Rating: 3.5/5