I’m excited to read more of Desi’s adventures and see how the loose ends are tied up.

With just a hint of romance Princess for Hire will keep readers wanting more in the sequel. Princess for Hire was a perfect mix of magic and realism and is an overall solid debut.Īll in all, Lindsey Leavitt wrote a great debut novel that will appeal to readers ages 10 and up. Maybe not as much as I would have liked, but still enough. Readers also got a good look at Desi’s personal life.

Although Desi only had three missions it was enough to keep the reader intrigued but it wasn’t overkill.

I wasn’t sure how Leavitt would balance the plot because of the two sides- Desi’s real life and her work with the agency. In a way that wasn’t rushed, but made me really want to know what was going to happen next. Not only because it’s short (under 250 pages), but because the plot kept moving at a great pace. She made Desi an even more believable character. Leavitt has a great writing style that goes right into the head of a fourteen year old. There were so many little details that mattered a lot, like their mode of transportation- a bubble! Princess Progress Reports, the wild hair colors, Magic Potential… all of these added a lot to the novel. The whole idea of the agency was fantastic. There were quite a few extraneous characters, that will hopefully play a bigger role in the second book. Desi’s family was kind of in the background. She almost seemed to know Desi better than Desi knew herself. Desi’s best friend, Kylee, didn’t have a huge role, but I did like her. You had to pull back the layers to find out more about her. Her “agent” Meredith was a strong character, that was like an onion. Other than Desi, the other characters didn’t play very big roles. Luckily, Desi learns a lot about being herself and the importance of being who you are, that by the end of the book I was satisfied. She also desperately wanted to be a part of the popular crowd. Hayden was obviously not the guy for Desi and yet she insisted on liking him. Throughout the novel, while Desi was impacting others lives, she was also changing her own for the better.Īt first, I wasn’t sure about Desi. She could stand up for herself, but not always to the mean girl in town. She was outspoken, yet didn’t have many friends. Desi was also a character many girls could relate to. Desi is fourteen, so there isn’t a romance so to speak, but she does have a crush on a local boy and this changes throughout the novel and by the end it’s done a complete 180. This was a fun, sweet debut and although it is young adult, it will appeal to younger readers as well.

Princess for Hire by Lindsey Leavitt