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Sarah lost her parents in an accident when she was twelve , but her distant relative’s closeness to the royal family, combined with her uncanny resemblance to Princess Hermione, led to her making her home at the palace as Hermione’s maid/stand-in. All seems fine for six years, but when a losing war with a neighboring country forces the king to send Hermine to marry the king’s brother, Sara finds herself forced to perform her duties in a way she never imagined. Can she find happiness by pretending to marry her enemy?
The Princess’ Smile
Translated by Jenny Murphy.
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Review: |
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Sarah Lost her parents to an accident when she was twelve, but her distant connection to the royal family, combined with her uncanny resemblance to Princess Hermione, made her a home in the Palace as Hermione’s maid/stand-in. All seems fine for six years, but when a losing war with a neighboring country forces the king to send Hermine to marry the king’s brother, Sara finds herself forced to perform her duties in a way she never imagined. Can she find happiness by pretending to marry her enemy?
The Princess’ Smile
Translated by Jenny Murphy.
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Review: |
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Some people just don’t understand and take a break. Sara appears to be one of them – orphaned at the age of 12 shortly after her family’s financial collapse, she was taken in by King Saraiya, both because of her estrangement from the royal family and because of her Looking strikingly similar to his daughter, Princess Hermione. Touched by Hermione’s kindness, Sarah happily served as Hermione’s maid and double for six years until the unthinkable happened: the king asked Sarah to replace Hermione Min marries a foreign prince.
If you start to smell rats at this point, you’re probably more perceptive than Sara. But you also have the benefit of living away from her; for six years, Sarah believed, she was totally grateful to the Princess for giving her a home and a place to belong. However, she is not a complete fool, which both saves the first half of the novel and sets the stage for the final act – although Sara agrees to be sent to the Isle of Ferrier to marry their king’s brother Richard Prince, but she also begins to figure out that maybe nothing is as good and kind as looking in the palace of Saleilles. Admittedly, her boyfriend’s extremely lewd behavior over the past two years was a pretty important clue; once Sarah agreed to cheat, she and Hermione switched places, and Hermione was sent to a mansion in Sarah’s name. When boyfriend Fermin shows up there, ostensibly looking for Sara, well, let’s just say he’s not entirely displeased with what he finds in her bed.
Part of what makes a satisfying book – and it absolutely is – is the way the author 200 Yuuri Seo300 to set. The novel basically ends with the events that happened in Sarah’s hometown of Saraiya, the main action of the story takes place in Ferrier, and Sarah is sent to the island country “Hermine”. The opening act of Saleilles sets up the life of Sara married to Prince Richard and sets the stage for the closing act, which also takes place in Saleilles, and Seo does a good job of giving us a clue of what’s going on outside of Sara’s view . She’s not stupid (this can’t be emphasized enough), just raised in a particular way for the benefit of others, and the more time she spends in Ferrier, the more she unleashes Saleillean prejudices and gets along with valuing her With people of individuality, the world becomes clearer to her. It’s a natural development of her character, and we have a very solid sense of who she is as a person, which makes us invested in her happiness.
This also helps create a particularly good romance between Sara and Richard. Entering a political marriage, both Sarah and Richard carry a lot of baggage. Some of Sara’s points are blind prejudices that the people of Saleilles were taught – Ferrier is unique in that it doesn’t actively kill people with supernatural gifts, who now make up the majority of the population. Known as “mutants” by the rest of the world (and occasionally by themselves, reflecting the global culture of the novel’s setting), the people of Saleilles especially wish to be wiped out forever. Even within Ferrier, there are some powers to fear, and it doesn’t take much guesswork to determine that someone close to Sara possesses one of them. Coupled with the fact that Richard’s mother’s mental illness traumatized him deeply as a child, and that Sara faced an uphill task in overcoming her new husband’s defenses, it made their love story So sweet: Richard and Sara can both see each other’s strengths and worth, and they have to make an effort to appreciate themselves, even though they love each other. While the romance isn’t without its angst (if it were, there wouldn’t be tension), it’s also missing many of its more annoying romantic tropes, the antagonist character being one of them. Sarah and Richard were already their own worst enemies; they didn’t need anyone else messing around there.
Seeing our protagonists thrive in each other’s company is the main draw of this light novel, but it also comes through particularly well The translation caught our attention via Jenny Murphy 200. Translations from Japanese to English may sound stilted due to different grammatical structures and language conventions, but Murphy’s translations are natural, fluent and highly readable. There are occasional missteps, but this is truly one of the best translations/adaptations I’ve read recently. Combined with Seo’s writing, it makes for a very positive reading experience.
is not perfect – the big twists aren’t that hard to figure out ahead of time, and Sara’s extraordinary sense of smell could be a Ferrier-like force It was never hinted at, which is a shame because it could have explored more worldbuilding. But even with its flaws, it’s a very good read, a sweet story well written in a fun fantasy world.
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