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69th out of 281 books
—
436 voters
The Spy Princess (Lilah's Adventures #1)
by
Sherwood Smith (Goodreads Author)
Just right for fans of Tamora Pierce and Patricia C. Wrede!
When twelve-year-old Lady Lilah decides to disguise herself and sneak out of the palace one night, she has more of an adventure than she expected--for she learns very quickly that the country is on the edge of revolution. When she sneaks back in, she learns something even more surprising: her older brother Peitar i...more
When twelve-year-old Lady Lilah decides to disguise herself and sneak out of the palace one night, she has more of an adventure than she expected--for she learns very quickly that the country is on the edge of revolution. When she sneaks back in, she learns something even more surprising: her older brother Peitar i...more
Hardcover, 386 pages
Published
August 2nd 2012
by Viking Juvenile
(first published August 1st 2012)
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Lady Lilah escapes the suffocating formality of her life when she plucks up the courage to disguise herself as a boy and venture out among the common people. There she learns that her family--as well as the king and the entire ruling class--are generally hated. Lilah is just as eager to change the world for the better as any of the village children she meets on her adventure. But can a twelve-year-old playing at being a spy really impact the welfare of a kingdom?
Lilah is a spirited, impetuous he...more
Lilah is a spirited, impetuous he...more
Princess Lilah sneaks out of the palace one night to find out what is going on in the real world and suddenly finds herself an intergral part of a revolution.
I enjoyed this book. Sherwood Smith has a good understanding of political situations and the cost of poitical acts - even by kids. This book is great for kids through to adults although it is primarily YA. A fun enjoyable read - now I need to read Sator - the next in the series!
Sherwood Smith is one of my favourite authors. I love the world...more
I enjoyed this book. Sherwood Smith has a good understanding of political situations and the cost of poitical acts - even by kids. This book is great for kids through to adults although it is primarily YA. A fun enjoyable read - now I need to read Sator - the next in the series!
Sherwood Smith is one of my favourite authors. I love the world...more
3.5 stars
Originally posted at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.
Sherwood Smith is an author I can always count on for a good tale of magic, suspense, and intrigue so was I excited when my library so quickly obtained a copy of The Spy Princess.
I was immediately sucked into Lilah's story, and for the first half of the book completely engaged. Lilah is a great young heroine. Resourceful, brave, headstrong, loyal, and questioning she is easy to like. She makes plenty of mistakes. Mistakes based on not...more
Originally posted at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.
Sherwood Smith is an author I can always count on for a good tale of magic, suspense, and intrigue so was I excited when my library so quickly obtained a copy of The Spy Princess.
I was immediately sucked into Lilah's story, and for the first half of the book completely engaged. Lilah is a great young heroine. Resourceful, brave, headstrong, loyal, and questioning she is easy to like. She makes plenty of mistakes. Mistakes based on not...more
I didn't get very far in the book before I was questioning whether this book was really written by the Sherwood Smith of Crown/Court Duel. When I did a little research, I found that she had written this book as a teen and then it became obvious why I was struggling to get through this book (sorry Ms. Smith), there is a big difference in the maturity of her writing and story building skills with Spy Princess compared to her later works. That being said, it is a clever story, just not well told. A...more
The populace is grumbling, and every time Lilah goes out in her family's carriage she sees the unrest; the nobility's lack of regard for the starving masses will have consequences. Hope lies with Derek, the leader of the underground rebellion, and, as Lilah discovers, her own brother, whose brilliant mind and quiet idealism make him a good foil for Derek and his fearless (and often reckless) actions. Lilah herself joins the rebellion, and though she fears her uncle the king, knows she can muster...more
I hate it when a book is extremely boring until the very end and then it gets really good in the last 40 pages. I was glued to this book towards the very end but I struggled to get through the first 300 pages. The book is about a princess of a kingdom in political turmoil who takes the side of the peasants and becomes a spy. She and her 3 friends form the Sheridan Brothers, a Robinhood-like band of children. The story is quirky and adventurous but too much time is spent on Lilah figuring out how...more
Lilah, the young niece of tyrannical King Darian, slips away from her stately home to play with the ragged children she's only ever seen from her carriage, and in short order gets involved in the revolution that's brewing--one in which her principled brother plays a key role. But revolutions are messy affairs, and what started as a lark and adventure turns out to have grave personal consequences.
What's wonderful about this story is how it lets a reader really feel what it would be like to be on...more
What's wonderful about this story is how it lets a reader really feel what it would be like to be on...more
2.5
In a kingdom where the king spends all his money on defense against a nebulous threat while his people go hungry, a revolt rises up - including Lilah and Pietar, niece and nephew to the king - but things go awry, as violence will, and, while Pietar works to try and right some of the wrongs, Lilah and a group of kids turn into Robin Hood like characters.
This isn't a bad little story, but the writing leaves a lot to be desired. The characters never felt really fleshed out, a lot of the dialogue...more
In a kingdom where the king spends all his money on defense against a nebulous threat while his people go hungry, a revolt rises up - including Lilah and Pietar, niece and nephew to the king - but things go awry, as violence will, and, while Pietar works to try and right some of the wrongs, Lilah and a group of kids turn into Robin Hood like characters.
This isn't a bad little story, but the writing leaves a lot to be desired. The characters never felt really fleshed out, a lot of the dialogue...more
Source: ARC
Review: The proper plot elements are all in place to make this an exciting read—spies, revolution, magic, children saving the land—but the execution was not quite there. I personally found the beginning parts of the novel somewhat boring, including the part where the people rush in and try to overthrow the king. If that could have been more interesting, there are issues here.
One of those issues might be characterization. Lilah is not particularly likeable or remarkable. Overall, she i...more
Review: The proper plot elements are all in place to make this an exciting read—spies, revolution, magic, children saving the land—but the execution was not quite there. I personally found the beginning parts of the novel somewhat boring, including the part where the people rush in and try to overthrow the king. If that could have been more interesting, there are issues here.
One of those issues might be characterization. Lilah is not particularly likeable or remarkable. Overall, she i...more
I wish Goodreads had half stars. My enjoyement was more than 3 stars, but not quite 4. A solid 3.5.
Maybe because I read it in the past few months, but this book brought to mind Shannon Hale's Palace of Stone. Both MG fantasy, both dealing with revolution, both with strong, smart heroines. While Hale's book skirts around the edges of a revolution, Smith's characters find themselves smack dab in the middle of a full blown revolution. I definitely enjoyed both in their own ways. There are likeable...more
Maybe because I read it in the past few months, but this book brought to mind Shannon Hale's Palace of Stone. Both MG fantasy, both dealing with revolution, both with strong, smart heroines. While Hale's book skirts around the edges of a revolution, Smith's characters find themselves smack dab in the middle of a full blown revolution. I definitely enjoyed both in their own ways. There are likeable...more
A cute story about a brother and sister who participate in a revolution against their evil uncle the king. It contains hints of the political wisdom found in Smith's more complex young adult stories - in this case what drives a revolution and what are its likely consequences - and the characters also seem simpler versions of their adventuresome and endearing young adult counterparts, nurturing noble ideals and courageously carrying them through.
While the action is fun and the characters likeabl...more
This was a good book about a princess who becomes a spy after her father is killed and her uncle, who is the king, threatens to kill her and her older brother. The princess recruits some other children, one of who is her betrothed, to help her spy on the city. The princess and her friends have many adventures. They go to a secret hideaway where the inhabitants can fly through the use of magic. I hope that there will be more books about this princess and her friends.
A young princess gets swept up in a rebellion against her rigid, tyrannical, well meaning royal uncle. I would have given this a lower rating as a routine fantasy in which events are just sort of strung together and magic is slapped in perfunctorily, not logically incorporated into the set up---but the ending, in which the major adversaries turn out not to be actual enemies at all, is far more complex and ingenious than the rest, and really rescues the whole lot.
A quick stop at Sherwood Smith's goodreads profile tells you that she wrote this book when she was 16. The narrator is younger than most of her heroines, and I think that her less-mature writing style suits the story well.
That being said, it is definitely below average for her. I think the main thing for me was the character development. She had a lot of characters around, yet none of them really seemed to have distinct personalities (except for the main character and her brother). It was hard f...more
That being said, it is definitely below average for her. I think the main thing for me was the character development. She had a lot of characters around, yet none of them really seemed to have distinct personalities (except for the main character and her brother). It was hard f...more
Dec 09, 2011
Sherwood Smith
added it
· (Review from the author)
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review of another edition
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I wrote this the summer of '66, just after I turned fifteen. It's a kid's eye view of revolution, and friendship, and what it means to be a family, with a ton of adventure.
This version was cut down to fit middle grade marketing requirements--a lot of stuff connecting it to other stories was cut, and many of the "funny bits" that were so humorous for a teen writer. But even so, I still love this story and hope Lilah will find friends.
This version was cut down to fit middle grade marketing requirements--a lot of stuff connecting it to other stories was cut, and many of the "funny bits" that were so humorous for a teen writer. But even so, I still love this story and hope Lilah will find friends.
I enjoyed this story a lot, though it took some time to get into the story. One thing I appreciated was that even though the main character, Lilah, is officially bethrothed, she and her new fiance act like the twelve-year-olds they are and become friends, but not more than that. Lilah is an appealing main character and reminded me some of Sherwood Smith's Wren in her determination to do as much as she can to help her homeland.
I'm always looking for middle-grade and YA titles that can make real historical concepts available to kids in a framework they can understand, explore, and enjoy (!). I think The Spy Princess works extremely well as a first look at revolution. Sympathetic characters all around, lots of room for mistakes, but no flinching on the scale of destruction or the need to face consequences. A great read!
OK, I didn't get very far into this one, but thought the writing was pretty poor and wasn't interested in wasting any more time. I get that books for the lower-end of the YA spectrum need to be simplified a bit, but ya still gotta write. I've really liked the author's Crown & Court and Inda series and was excited to see a new one, but this had no redeeming qualities.
The Spy Princess is a cute book for especially 5th and 6th graders. It takes place in a time of mages and world ruled by kings with a wide divide between those the rule. In the spy princess, two siblings join with peasants to stage an uprising against their uncle. Things don't go quite as planned and the adventures begin.
It was in the YA section, but is really mid grade. It's okay for mid grade, but nothing special. A story written by a good author, but written when she was young, and published now. Her plotting has improved over time, so it's a little tedious to read back into her earlier works.
I was very surprised by this book. At first, I thought it would be a fun, simple, easy to swallow book, but let me be the first to say, there were some heavy duty politics in here! Not that I'm complaining. After the initial shock, I got into it quickly. Its a good book.
Another hit by Sherwood Smith! Lilah was a wonderful charater to follow and the events of the plot all came together in a clean crisp yet curious ending. I look forward to the sequel of The Spy Princess and I hope to see more of the magic Lilah's mother knew.
I like this author, and think this would be a great introduction to their work. A little less detailed than I'd come to expect, but probably because aimed at a younger audience. Reminds me of the Westmark series.
Didn't finish this one. Made it 50 pages in and the whole thing felt too contrived. The author told me what was happening instead of showing me what was happening. Kids would probably like this one though.
Lady Lilah is only twelve years old, but she is lonely, discontented, and curious: why do the village children shout and throw things when her carriage goes by? Lilah disguises herself as an urchin boy and stumbles into becoming part of the revolution. Various shenanigans ensue.
This book just made me feel tired. I love the world (shared with the Wren, Inda, Court Duel serieses) but everything else felt two degrees removed from reality. I didn't feel anything for any of the characters, and they d...more
This book just made me feel tired. I love the world (shared with the Wren, Inda, Court Duel serieses) but everything else felt two degrees removed from reality. I didn't feel anything for any of the characters, and they d...more
The first 3rd is slow and choppy, the second 3rd flows better by itself, but mostly seems out of place in relation to the first one, and the last 3rd is really quite good. Not up to snuff with Crown Duel but better than her other ones that I've tried to read and failed to finish.
A young royal and her brother find themselves caught up in revolution as their uncle, the king, continues to tax the populace despite years of drought and neglect.
I wish more YA was like this! Such great characters and themes.
Dec 09, 2011
Small Review
marked it as to-read
!!!!!!! :D Can't wait!
Won on Goodreads First Reads. Review to come :)
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I am a writer, but I'm here on Goodreads to talk about books, as I've been a passionate reader as long as I've been a writer--since early childhood.
I'm not going to rate books--there are too many variables. I'd rather talk about the reading experience. My 'reviews' of my books are confined to the writing process.
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I'm not going to rate books--there are too many variables. I'd rather talk about the reading experience. My 'reviews' of my books are confined to the writing process.
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Oct 06, 2012 10:11am