I thought this was a spectacular book caught somewhere between “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Twelve Darling Princesses”.  The Princess Curse was full of mystery and tricks which left me taking the book anywhere my parents allowed (and also getting up in the middle of the night to read)!

The book is about Reveka, a herbalist apprentice.  It is her dream to become a kingdom known as herbalists but she is very poor.  Once day, she gets an idea…she hears that the princesses in her kingdom are suffering from a puzzling curse and there is a HUGE reward…if she can solve/cure the princesses she would have enough money to become a master herbalist.   While on her mission, Reveka meets Dindina, a worker at the palace who givers her a paper holding the ingredients that create invisibility to anyone wo wears the cape (so you know, of course, Reveka creates this cape).

One night, Reveka follows the princesses in the land of Thonos where they dance with a zema (a dragon).  It is there and then that her father is taken prisoner and Reveka knows that she would do anything asked of her to make sure he was safe.  She is told she has to eat five pomegranate seeds and say that she will return to Thonos to stay.

I really enjoyed this book.  I admit it, I LOVE fairy tales because anything can happen.  I also happen to really enjoy reading about mythology and this book had a bit of that (Thonos is part of the underworld).  The origin of myths date back to the Greeks and Romans who assumed dead souls are guided by Hermes, God of Trickery)…and that is where the princess go.  I believe the moral of The Princess Curse is that we need to be able to sacrifice yourself for the good of the greater others.  Here Reveka sacrified herself to save the princesses and her father.  Makes you wonder … what it would take for you to do that?!?