Whenever the heir to the throne comes of age, the priests divine what providence the next princess will come from. A Princess Academy is then set up to teach and prepare the noble girls to meet the prince at the Academy Princess Ball. After the ball, the prince will then decide what Princess Academy graduate will be the next princess. When the priests divine that Mount Eskel is where the next princess is from, many in the kingdom are outraged. Mount Eskel is not even a providence, just a territory. It is a small town full of uneducated, and very poor people, without any nobles. When the people of Mount Eskel learn that their daughters will be taken away from them for one year, fear grips their hearts. They barely have enough to eat, how will they survive through the winter without so many workers in the quarry, their only source of income. Miri is scared to go to the academy too, she has never been away from her family before. However, once at that academy, Miri is taught to read and she discovers a love of books she never knew she had. She loves learning, and learning opens up secrets that she never knew, and may actually save her village in the end.
I first fell in love with The Princess Academy over a decade ago. I am thrilled that the third and last book has finally been published, it has been a long time coming! If you know me at all you know I have an obsession with Shannon Hale and all of her novels, and these three books definitely did not disappoint. I devoured them and lost many, many hours of sleep over them. They are brilliantly written and can be enjoyed by people of all ages.
