Aurelia (Aurelia, #1)

Aurelia (Aurelia #1)

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3.64 of 5 stars 3.64  ·  rating details  ·  4,672 ratings  ·  514 reviews
An impressive debut, equal parts commercial appeal and literary prowess.

Princess Aurelia is next in line to rule the kingdom of Tyralt, but she would rather be one of the common folk, free to learn and roam and . . . not marry the next tyrannical prince that comes courting. Naturally, the king wants Aurelia to marry for political power. Aurelia wants to marry for love. A

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Paperback, 246 pages
Published April 17th 2008 by Speak (first published April 1st 2008)
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Community Reviews

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Kristi (The Story Siren)
What a fantastic book! I can't believe I waited so long to read this one! I had such a great time reading it and I absolutely adored the character Aurelia! She's the type of girl I always imagined a Princess would be. Not as stuck up snob, but someone that actually cares about the people around her.

The mystery in this novel was enthralling! I had multiple guesses as to who the killer may be and in the end I was terribly wrong! If you enjoy reading a good mystery, I definitely suggest Aurelia to...more
Jennifer Marie
It was a quick and easy read, but not a lot of "meat" to the story, more one of those books you pick up and just read for fun and don't expect too much from.

It's got an interesting ending--with a main character that acts how you expect her to act--in that she actually follows through with her actions, despite it not necessarily being the ending you expected.

The one thing that drove me nuts was the setting or I should say the confusion of the setting. There was so much mixed together that it wasn...more
Diana
Jul 17, 2009 Diana rated it 4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Diana by: Alana
Shelves: fantasy, young-adult
I love princess-as-hero stories. It's the right blend of power, femininity, and responsibility. Aurelia's quintessentially all of these characteristics, along with a dash of insecurity that is oh-so-familiar to all of us who haven't blacked out our entire adolescence from memory. I also liked the love interest/hero, especially because he treats Aurelia as an equal. So often in princess stories, you get the guy treating the girl like a frail damsel in distress. Yuck.

The only thing I have to quibb...more
Twinklesmile
3.5/5
Aurelia is a princess, next in line to claim the throne of Tyralt. When several assassination attempts are made on the princess of Tyralt, Aurelia’s child-hood friend and son of King’s former spy, Robert returns to investigate. An assassin trailing the princess, a spy obstinate enough to find the assassin and a headstrong female character? I was definitely excited to read Aurelia.
Let’s talk about the plot first. The whole idea was great and it had the potential to be an exceptional read but...more
Emy
just awesome... that's all there is to it! for once the princess saves herself, not some stupid guy doing the deed
Amelia, the pragmatic idealist
My full review can be found HERE: http://leaveyoureyesbehind.blogspot.c...

I'm going to start this book review off with a confession: I am a very, very hard person to keep entertained/engaged. Kindergarteners can focus better than me - well okay, some can...
Usually it takes me a few days at least to get through a 200+ page book, either because I stumble over some pacing potholes or because I just flat can't concentrate...
- THIS BOOK is...NOT one of those books! It only took me a few hours to re...more
Miss Clark
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Nisha
This is not nearly as compelling as I expected. Again, I am fooled by the cover, which is gorgeous.

The writing is subpar - ok, its passable, but for middle schoolers. The story is historical fantasy, in a YA theme, but I feel like it fails to hit the mark. There's too many random time periods stuck together.

But the biggest problem was the heroine. Aurelia, isn't that likeable (to me, at least), since she comes off as spoiled and immature (I don't know how she develops, since I didn't finish thi...more
Jennifer Wardrip
Reviewed by Jennifer Rummel for TeensReadToo.com

Princess Aurelia's life is in danger.

There have been at least three attempts on her life, but her father doesn't want her to know the truth.

Instead, he brought in a royal spy to find the culprit and the mastermind behind these attempts. Robert, the son of the spy, went to school with Aurelia and never stopped thinking about her. There's no way he can keep this secret from her.

The two question people and devise plans to flush out the responsible par...more
Allison
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Rachel
The back of this book says "Mystery. Romance. Danger." Well, the mystery is easily figured out within the first ten pages, the romance is hardly developed and certainly not something a reader can get invested in without a great effort of will, and danger never quite feels real. The book as a whole was so incredibly bland (a heroine who gives us no reason to be attached to her, a romantic lead who has few personality traits aside from loving the heroine, and all taking place in an incredbily gene...more
Rayann
On the night of my reading this book, I almost died. Of boredom.

That might seem a little harsh, but unfortunately, I did find this book a bore which is a shame since the cover is beautiful. I really expected something from this one seeing as I love stories set in a historical setting, especially those which involve mystery and possibly a bit of court intrigue. Sadly, I was very disappointed.

The mystery wasn't all that mysterious. It became quite predictable and there was supposed to be a sense...more
Alex
I first read this book a couple of years ago and hadn’t picked it up since. Not because it was bad, but because I had other books I wanted to read. So, when I came to it for a review, I remember the story was interesting and good, but not much so I reread it again.

For her first book, it’s a good one. I enjoy it, I think, even more than I did the first time. I had an idea of what was to be expected in the story but there wasn’t enough hints for me to remember quickly. It’s not easy to figure out...more
Marta
Anne Osterlund's "Aurelia" is a surprisingly good book. It's YA, so if you're looking for steamy sex scenes, you probably won't like it, but if you seek good writing and an interesting story, it's something for you.

I liked the intrigue. It's quite cleverly built, and the antagonist is someone you would have probably never suspected at the beginning of the book - all evidence pretty much speaks against this person's involvement in the conspiracy. Main character - Aurelia - is a princess greatly l...more
Amanda Valentine
Aurelia feels like a logical stepping stone between the princess stories of Gail Carson Levine and adult novels of romance and intrigue. In many ways, Aurelia is a typical princess from stories like this—she chafes against authority, she thinks she’s less beautiful than her golden younger sister, the common people love her, and she’s smarter and more competent than most of the people around her even though her primary responsibility is to shut up and marry whomever her father chooses. However, s...more
heidi
Hmm. You know what? There's a LOT of great YA in the world. There is even a fair amount of palace-intrigue stepmother childhood-love romance. If you want truly awesome political feisty women in your YA, go read A Proud Taste For Scarlet and Miniver. You'll thank me later.

Aurelia is strictly mediocre YA. It's like knock-off oreos. Somehow just not satisfying, and you find yourself wondering why you're even bothering to eat it. It's not bad, not revolting, just not GOOD.

The strong points are an in...more
Grace
This book was filled to the brim with mystery. I found myself eagerly racing to finish because I desperately needed to know who her assassin was. I needed to know, because once my curiousity is piqued, I read an entire book in one sitting. That’s what happened with Aurelia.

While the book promises romance, I was slightly disappointed. Robert and Aurelia – lifetime friends – sounded just like that, friends. At least the book promised danger, and we got it.

The cover is very indicative of the book....more
Grace
This book was filled to the brim with mystery. I found myself eagerly racing to finish because I desperately needed to know who her assassin was. I needed to know, because once my curiousity is piqued, I read an entire book in one sitting. That’s what happened with Aurelia.

While the book promises romance, I was slightly disappointed. Robert and Aurelia – lifetime friends – sounded just like that, friends. At least the book promised danger, and we got it.

The cover is very indicative of the book....more
Melissa
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Jan
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Maura Shelton
It was good, but just that... good. I was seriously disappointed in the lack of elaborate explanation, and when she did explain something, it was way to much and had me skipping over the description of useless things. Bottom line, I wish she would have gone into more detail about the important things like the characters features and such. Another thing was... where was the final kiss? The one that's so romantic and keeps the reader satisfied at the end. It was cute that she went off on an explor...more
Dwayne
Reviewed @ Girls Without a Bookshelf.


Aurelia focuses on the mystery of the identity of the person behind the assassination attempts of Princess Aurelia of Tyralt. It is the search for this assassin that dictates the whole plot, one I found to unravel very unexpectedly. Personally however, it was not as satisfying as I thought.

Aurelia is a good book if you want extensive guess works on who might be the suspect within a few choice characters. Let me say that I personally enjoyed guessing and re-g...more
Ruth
Aurelia, the independent and strong-willed crown princess of Tyralt, has always had trouble meeting the expectations placed on her because of her exalted station. She longs to know the common people of her country and to determine her own destiny – particularly resisting every attempt of her father to arrange a politically advantageous marriage. When her old classmate Robert, who happens to be the son of the king’s former spy, returns from frontier life, she has no idea that he’s come to investi...more
Kathy Martin
AURELIA was an enjoyable high fantasy novel about a princess mired in court politics who is currently in danger of assassination. Is it the stepmother who favors her own daughter over Aurelia? Is it the king of a neighboring kingdom whose motives are not at all clear?

Aurelia's childhood friend and fellow classmate Robert Vantauge comes from the frontier to protect his friend. His father was the former spymaster of the kingdom but is now retired and raising horses far from the political intrigue...more
Alana
Aurelia, the crown princess of Tyralt, has been the unwitting target of several assassination attempts. To keep her safe and unconcerned, her father tries to keep her in the dark as to the danger to her life - and calls her childhood classmate Robert back from his family's self-imposed exile to watch over her. While Robert and Aurelia begin to explore their deepening relationship, they must also act quickly to untangle the web of intrigue and discover who is out to kill Aurelia.

There's a distinc...more
Remedyleaf
I truly enjoyed reading Aurelia because of the interesting characters and exciting plot. I read it almost all the way through at one time and felt that that was the best way to read this kind of book. Rating 4 & 1/2 stars.

Writing Style review: The book was written in typical chapters. I would have liked something a little more interesting though. I mean, Anne could have played around with the Medieval time period or something. I don't know, just a little more pizzaz with the style would have...more
GSGS
This book was fairly harmless. I quite enjoyed reading it, however it has left no great impression on me. I felt like the plot could have done with some more development, rather than just being about someone trying to kill Aurelia. The characters had a little depth but I felt as though those 'extra-layers' were added to the novel afterwards, rather than the depth of the characters being essential to the plot. [Hope this makes sense].

The description was beautiful in parts, try-hard in others. Mo...more
Beth
This was one of those books that I choose because it has a gorgeous cover. I was in the bookstore (only had a few moments before I had to be at work, the bookstore is on the way, I felt compelled to stop) and when I saw this cover I grabbed it and that was that. Sometimes this method of choosing a book yields bad results but with this book that wasn't the case.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It was a quick read but I didn't feel like the story was rushed in any way. I love historical fiction a...more
Syd Do
I find Aurelia a very strong independent character. She may be rash and rebellious but she's starting to mature so what do you really expect on most moody teenagers?

I like how Robert was protective of Aurelia even though she refused his help. But he makes a good leading male of a heroine story.

The mystery of it impressed me. When I see a murder story I always do the gathering of the suspects and figuring out a reason why they want to do that and not be surprised at the end. I suspected the perso...more
Maura
Aurelia Lauzon certainly gives a new term to "Princess" with her strong, stubborn and opinionated ways. She will have readers cheering for her as she is a strong, independent female heroine. She's definitely a good role model for young female women of today. Her story takes us through her life as she is desperate to be Queen to help her people, but still at the same time doesn't want to be married off to someone she doesn't love. Underneath all this, someone is trying to assassinate Princess Aur...more
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The Young Adult H...: Aurelia by Anne Osterlund - May's Group Read 3 9 May 25, 2013 12:18am  
did you like the end? 11 78 Aug 22, 2011 01:54pm  
Aurelia (Aurelia, #1)
Aurelia (ebook)
Aurelia (Paperback)
Aurelia (ebook)
Aurelia (ebook)

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Anne Osterlund grew up in the sunshine of Eastern Oregon and graduated from Whitworth College. She lives in a cute little yellow house with her new feline friend, Charlotte, and her own library of young adult books. She also teaches sixth grade and enjoys immersing her students in language, literature, and imagination. Anne has written four novels, Salvation, Aurelia, Academy 7, and Exile, all pub...more
More about Anne Osterlund...
Academy 7 Exile (Aurelia, #2) Salvation

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