The Conjurer Princess [Mass Market Paperback]

Vivian Vande Velde (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1997

A young princess, Lylene apprentices herself to a wizard in order to gain the power to rescue her older sister, kidnapped during her wedding by armed knights, and, armed with her new magic, she joins forces with a couple of handsome outlaw companions as she embarks on her quest. Original."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Seventeen-year-old Beryl's wedding ends in murder when a baron abducts the bride. The church and law turn a blind eye to the abduction while Lylene, Beryl's younger sister, is left homeless and seething for vengeance. Lylene goes to a wizard for help, bargaining to learn magic. The bargain has a bitter dark side not fully explained to Lylene ... and so does Beryl.

Like the stories in Vivian Vande Velde's collection Curses, Inc., this character-driven novel has an ironic bite. Despite her good intentions, Lylene's naïvete is her undoing.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 229 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins (Mm); First edition (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061057045
• ISBN-13: 978-0061057045
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,035,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NOT a tradiional fairy tale..., July 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Conjurer Princess (Mass Market Paperback)

The Conjurer Princess is a modern sort of fairy tale-- dark, quirky and bittersweet. All the usual cliches are avoided successfully. Lylene is not a sweet and beautiful princess; closer to a determined and basically honorable person on a quest that is not what she thinks it is. Those who appear to be enemies are not what they seem...nor those who seem to be allies.

The ending, like those in all of Vivian Vande Velde's books, is not quite a happily-ever-after conclusion. Left wide open to speculation about the future...If you're looking for a realistic and biting fantasy in which nothing is ever quite as it appears, give this one a try.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, September 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Conjurer Princess (Mass Market Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book. I'm a fast reader and due to that my reading habit costs quite a bit of money, yet reading VVV's books make me read them even faster because of the level of suspense and I never want to put them down. This doesn't bother me at all because I go back and read them again and again because I love them. This is the third book I've read by VVV and although her book Companions of the Night is my favorite this book is much better than the Changeling Prince and if you have to chose between the two of them better choose this one!!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Your Average Heroine, February 17, 2001

By 

Dana Russo (Bristol, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Conjurer Princess (Mass Market Paperback)

Lylene is not your average sixteen-year old. Instead of obsessing over what to wear, or who to marry, she is more concerned with saving her sister Beryl's life. In the Conjurer Princess, the young heroine of the story faces many tough challenges while befriending two handsome men. I picked up this novel while at a book fair in my school several years ago. Within that time span, I must have read this book 10 times or more. It's a truely great book; it's of fantasy genre, so of course I would love it. I believe this to be Vivian Van Velde's greatest work. I've read Curses, Inc. but couldn't really get into it, and I've also read Companions of the Night, another great book, but did not intrigue me as much as Conjurer Princess. This should be a must-have for all fantasy lovers!