Princess of the Wild Sea,  a pleasant teen coming of age, that’s come before

I wanted to really enjoy Princess of the Wild Sea. It’s from Megan Frazer Blakemore and I was a big fan of her previous release, The Story Web. That book had its hooks firmly in the realm of fiction, with just enough power behind the character’s relationships that you wanted it to be real, or at least possible. Princess of the Wild Sea has planted its seeds firmly in the garden of fantasy, with a side dose of magic, heroes, and expectations. It’s mglit that will speak to those who want a patient, lyrical story of a once-magical place that’s now populated by hope.

It’s the hope that the evil they’ve heard about doesn’t rear its head, as well as, the hope that the hero that they have heard about makes its presence known. Princess of the Wild Sea deals with a curse that’s been put upon Princess Harbor Rose. Her aunts all have some degree of magic that they can wield, but she doesn’t seem to have any. To make matters worse, Harbor Rose is sequestered on an island, away from the rest of the world until her 13^th birthday. It’s around this time, the prophecy says, that a hero will come. Mind you, she’s not alone on the island, there are people who know what they say will happen, and those who were around when it was all originally said.

There’s a mysterious place on the island that the residents simply refer to as “the place where things wash up”. One day, Peter, a young boy appears on the sand in that area and quickly forms a friendship with Rose. Is he the hero that the island is waiting for? Is there anything else that appears on the beach? This leads the folks with magic to slowly reveal some of the secrets that they know. There’s a parallel world that’s just beyond their island. Sometimes things pass between the two, and despite their close proximity, they’re worlds apart and are completely alien to the other world.

The crux of Princess of the Wild Sea is for audiences to determine how Harbor Rose fits into the world. She’s been told all of her life, through numerous stories, that a hero will arrive around the time she turns 13. Our issue with the book is that it was quite obvious how she fits into the story after a handful of chapters. When the plot reveals finally happened, at about 75% through the book, most readers will think “of course that’s what happened.”

Princess of the Wild Sea has an old soul. It’s the sort of mglit book for readers that are as interested in the setting and mood, almost to a higher degree than the story. Those readers will be pleased with the payoff, relish at details within the friendships and find the action that happens in the final quarter right up their alley. It’s a fairytale about a teen, her choices, and expectations. If this is the first book of this sort that mglit readers are diving into then they’ll love every minute of it. If they’ve read other books that sound like this, then they’ll mildly enjoy it and perhaps should seek out The Story Web instead.

Princess of the Wild Sea is by Megan Frazer Blakemore and is available on Bloomsbury Children’s Books.

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