It was better than the first book, I think.
And such tensions! And there's a promise at the end.

VERDICT: Give it a Twirl! ( )

Princess At Sea by Dawn Cook is a mix of action, adventure, fantasy and romance as the story of Tess, the decoy princess comes to a conclusion. I found myself wanting this book to come to an end quickly as the personality of Tess was irritating me. Considering how intelligent she was supposed to be and that she was now acting in the role of an ambassador, she was a very bad judge of character. She constantly backed the wrong person and her stubbornness and blindness got her in hot water over and over again. She always felt that she should be the one to fix any problem and blindly would jump to an assumption, often the wrong one, and end up making things worse.

It’s difficult to enjoy the story when all you want to do is give the main character a shake. I enjoyed the first book, and hoped that Tess would play things a little smarter in this second book, but obviously she hadn’t learned any life lessons from all her experiences. The story was full of action and adventure as pirates kidnap the new Queen, her husband and Tess. Loyalties are tested and the plot gives us a few twists and turns but overall, I wasn’t surprised by the outcome. In fact my biggest surprise is that the author says there will not be a third book, I thought that the romance angle was lacking in this book because it would be addressed in the next one.

Princess At Sea ended up as a book with all the right ingredients, but somehow the recipe just didn’t come together properly. ( )

{Second of 2: Decoy Princess duology. Fantasy, YA} (2006)

Continuing a few months after the end of The Decoy Princess, Tess has settled into her new role and Contessa is newly married; the story opens on board a ship as Tess accompanies them on their honeymoon. Unfortunately they run into pirates and the ensuing adventures see the sisters in deadly danger.

Meanwhile, Tess has a dual role as an apprentice to a master player in the game of power but she has to contend with the danger while away from her master and in the presence of a rival player. And she’s still a young lady, subject to the vagaries of her heart.

I really like the background premise of this duology of an international game of power. We only see it in relation to Tess’s country of Costenopolie and I would like to see it in the greater context of the world it is set in. Although the ending wraps up this episode it leaves the possibilities wide open and I really hope the author comes back to this world to explore them (Dawn Cook, are you listening?) although her website indicates otherwise - at least, for now.

Although I liked Contessa and enjoyed her burgeoning romance I feel that her character isn’t fully conceived but fluctuates as the situation demands. However I did like the fact that the author didn't take the easy route of giving either girl straightforward romances but tested them with decisions more akin to real life.

4.5 stars ( )

Tess is a princess and a player in the Game. She uses venom to increase her magic while protecting her Queen, fighting off pirates and other players in the game. There are two possible candidates for romance, if she will allow it. I missed the first book and I may have appreciated this book more if I had read the first. Read stand alone it was an ok read.
( )

This is the second, and final, book in Cook's Princess series. I ended up enjoying it, although I though things wrapped up much too quickly.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was well done. I am still not a huge fan of the narrator, I just don’t like the voice she chose for Tess. However, she does a fine job differentiating between character voices and conveying emotion. This is one of those audiobooks I could take or leave; I think it would read the same in paper.

In this book Tess is assigned to take Queen Contessa and Prince Alex on their honeymoon. Along the way they are abducted by pirates. Through a series of events Tess’s involvement as a Player is threatened, once again spiraling her into self-doubt and forcing her to question who she really wants to be at heart.

I love the characters and enjoyed watching Tess struggle to understand who she is and survive her adventures at sea. This book is full of adventure and political intrigue. There is a heavy theme of love helping people to accomplish things that aren’t normally possible.

The end felt very rushed to me and was a bit unsatisfying. I felt like this might have made a better trilogy than a duology. Still, all the major plot points were wrapped up...if quickly.

Overall this was a decent conclusion to the Princess series. This was a fun book full of easy to love characters, adventure, and some light romance. I enjoyed the continuing theme of trying to find one’s place in the world. I thought the ending felt very rushed though. This is one of those fantasy series that was fun to read and I am glad I read it. The story is very engaging and it was hard to stop reading. However, there isn’t anything super unique in here and, despite being well done, it’s fairly forgettable. ( )