I got this softcover, the first volume of a series based on a webcomic, at a local Newbury Comics, during their buy-one-get-another-for-half-off sale.

This one riffs on the royal-marriages aspect of fairytales - as well as the issue of curses, and what happens to those whose curses can't be removed. It's mostly light-hearted and often goofy - the setup involves the three daughters of the king of the Pastel Kingdom, who wants them to marry the three sons of his best friend (and ruler of the larger Plaid Kingdom), and for a change, all of the young people are eager to meet. But the princes saw a portrait of all FOUR of the king's kids, including his ridiculously pretty son (he sparkles!), and the youngest prince fell for what he assumed was another princess. When he meets the actual youngest princess - who, inexplicably, has green skin and pointed ears and cute little fangs, very much unlike the rest of the characters (I'm guessing she either takes after her mother, whom we don't learn about in Vol. 1, or is adopted!) - he's terrified...

Meanwhile, Gwendolyn, the green-skinned youngest princess, stumbles across the Cursed Princess Club - a group of princesses (and one prince) who meet in a house deep in the forest, to bond over their respective issues. Their curses are varied: one had her eyes replaced by apparently-boundless holes, another who looks like a woman with huge lobster claws but was a lobster-princess cursed by someone jealous of her lobster boyfriend (!), yet another cursed to look like an old woman despite being in her mid-teens. At first Gwendolyn is sympathetic but not really involved - but as events transpire, she might find she has a closer bond with the club than she thought.

The princes and princesses - all of them suffering from too-restrictive parenting - do their best to enjoy their time together, with two of the three pairs apparently very happy and more than willing to wed on the spot. That youngest prince, though, Frederick... due to a series of comic misunderstandings he's sure that the weird-looking Gwendolyn means to devour him, or... something else sinister... and can't understand why everyone else is behaving as if she looks just like her sisters.

To complicate matters: Frederick, after sampling some of Gwendolyn's delicious food, begins to think he's been hasty. But as soon as the Pastel King realizes that all the kids want to get married at once, he - does a prompt about-face and decides they are moving much too fast. What's going on? [I'm beginning to suspect something sinister in the family, though - so far - all the Pastel kids seem to adore their father. Hmm.]

Throw in a palace guard with a crush on one of the sisters (whom he only knows by her voice, as the king won't allow the guards to look at the princesses), Gwendolyn's pet 'possum - and the mysterious cracks that appear in mirrors when she looks at herself, an ill-advised group date to a local house of horrors (!), and yet another wake for the beautiful prince Jamie, who apparently gets cursed by a witch on a regular basis and requires true love's kiss to awaken him (I won't say where that comes from but it was very funny)... It's quite a mashup. Rather fun, if often silly - but with hints of some dark subplots in the background.

[There's a TV Tropes page on the webcomic, with some entertaining tidbits.]

I left this book in the Little Free Library on this rainy day; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

Released for:

** 2024 May Royalty challenge **

** 2024 April Showers/May Flowers challenge **

** 2024 Never Judge a Book By Its Cover challenge. **