Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Summary: Benevolence is not your typical princess--and Princess Ben is certainly not your typical fairy tale.

With her parents lost to assassins, Princess Ben ends up under the thumb of the conniving Queen Sophia. Starved and miserable, locked in the castle's highest tower, Ben stumbles upon a mysterious enchanted room. So begins her secret education in the magical arts:mastering an obstinate flying broomstick, furtively emptying the castle's pantries, setting her hair on fire... But Ben's private adventures are soon overwhelmed by a mortal threat to her kingdom. Can Ben save the country and herself from tyranny?

My review: I really liked this book. I love novelizations of fairy tales, and this was a good one with a bit of a twist. It was part Sleeping Beauty, part Cinderella, some Jack and the Bean Stalk thrown in for fun, and then something all its own. Princess Ben is not your typical princess. First of all, her name isn’t pretty and feminine – it’s Ben, short for Benevolence( don't get me wrong, Benevolence is a beautifully name and there is absolutely).  Secondly, she is chubby (once again there is absolutely nothing wrong with begin chubby) and graceless. And her life is far from perfect, especially after her parents and her uncle, the king, die on the same day. I love that the story is told from a future Ben’s point-of-view, as she attempts to set the story straight on the events that made her famous. If I being honest: Princess Ben is one wicked awesome princess. The book has four parts. Part one,  went slow to me,even though they were explaining the fantasy world, it was still slow. Part two kept me interest and made me love Ben so much! Part 3. Whole thing was an adventure that I would go on again.  Part four had awesome laughs, good adventure, and some funny but interesting scenes. Altogether, the book was good enough for me to keep reading. The ending, has to be my favorite part of the book, because of the laughs, scenes, adventure, and how much it made me smile. The beginning was slow, but it made me realize, THAT YOU MUST READ 100 PAGES BEFORE YOU GIVE UP ON A BOOK. I was on page 76 when it finally got interesting.  Plump princess, saves prince, lives normally ever after...what more can you want? True their were times I pretty much wanted to smack Princess Ben. In the beginning the main character, Ben, was just a brat with very few redeeming qualities. The other characters (aside from Frederick) were pretty much the same, but the you will learn to like all the characters 
I give this book a 3.5 out of 5.