Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Review: The Princess and the Bear by Mette Ivie Harrison

He was a king, but 200 years ago a wild magic man turned him into a bear as punishment for his cruelties against animals and magic. He's had two centuries of loneliness to think about the pathetic ruler he was.

She was a hound who lived as a human for a year in the body of a princess. Now she's a hound again, and she's found companionship in the oddest of places: an enchanted bear.

The two live in peace until a strange death of unmagic plagues their forest home. The only person who can help them is the wild man who turned the king into a bear. When they find him, the answer is not what they thought it would be. He will return them to human form and send them back in time to the day Richon was turned into a bear. It is there that they must risk everything, even each other, to battle the evil magic that will destroy everything: animal, human and magic alike.


This is the sequel to The Princess and the Hound. The title is a little misleading because even though Chala inhabited the body of a princess, she never actually was a princess.

I enjoyed this installment better than the first. The chapters alternate between Richon and Chala's point of view. It was interesting to see the characters battle within themselves. Chala is a hound but finds she's also human. Richon is a human, but after being a bear for 200 years, he's bound to pick up on some of the mentalities.

The love story is simple and sweet and genuine.

There was a lot more gore than I expected. Richon and Chala find themselves in a battle between kingdoms as well as a battle between magic and unmagic, so there is a lot of killing and gory death.

Like I said, I enjoyed this book better than the first in the series.

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