Long May She Reign (President's Daughter) [Paperback]

Ellen Emerson White (Author)

Book Description

Series: President's Daughter | Publication Date: October 30, 2007

Meg Powers is the daughter of the President of the United States.  She’s about to enter her first year of college.  She’s living through the worst year of her life.

 

Last June Meg was kidnapped by terrorists – brutalized, starved, and left for dead. She was shackled in a deserted mine shaft and had to smash the bones in her own hand to escape.
 
Meg Powers survived the unthinkable, the stuff of nightmares.  Her terrorist captor is still at large.  But still she must live each day.  Ahead of her is the grueling physical therapy to heal her broken body; the challenge of leaving the safety of the White House for her freshman year at college. But harder still than the physical and social challenges ahead are her shattered sense of herself and her family.  Will she ever forgive her mother, the President, for her “can not, have not and will not negotiate with terrorists” stance – even when it came to her own daughter?

 

And more difficult still, can Meg forgive herself for having the strength, the intelligence and the wit to survive?
 
In a brilliant novel, Ellen Emerson White tells her most ambitious and intense story about a most unlikely but deeply affecting heroine.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A crisply authoritative first-person narration and a plot line shot through with glimmers of fiercest hope make the fourth installation of the President's Daughter series a novel to luxuriate in."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

 

"...Meg embarks on her first year of college with the courage, wit, and strength of character seldom seen in so young a heroine. The novel is most effective in dealing with her chilling recollections of what happened and her fear that it will happen again....The dynamics of a family coping with crisis are also well defined....Meg shows readers that despite any problem they may encounter, life is still worth fighting for. All is all, this is an intense, suspenseful, and stirring read."--School Library Journal

 

"What really makes the novel work are White’s richly drawn characters, dry humor, dead-on dialogue, and expert exploration of Meg’s post-traumatic stress."--Booklist

 

"...a moving story of rehabilitation, of college friendships and romance, and of a family healing from its many psychological wounds."--KLIATT

 

"Meg’s ordeal and celebrity status have built-in voyeur appeal, and the hip dialogue will hook teens....Meg’s character and personality will propel readers through hundreds of pages....a thought-provoking read..."--VOYA

 

"...NO, you don't have to read the first 3 books to read the last. But, having read the last, you'll want to read the first 3." - A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy (blog)

 

"Reading Long May She Reign was like catching up with an old friend."--cornerbooks (blog)

From the Back Cover

Meg Powers is the daughter of the President of the United States. She’s about to start college. She’s living through the worst year of her life. In June, Meg was kidnapped by terrorists—brutalized, starved, and left for dead. She was shackled in a deserted mine shaft and had to smash the bones in her own hand to escape.

            Meg Powers survived the unthinkable. Ahead of her is the grueling physical therapy to heal her broken body, and the challenge of leaving the safety of the White House for her freshman year at college.

            But harder still than the physical and social challenges ahead are her shattered sense of self and her family. Will she ever forgive her mother, the President, for her “can not, have not, and will not negotiate with terrorists” stance—even when it came to her own daughter? And, can Meg forgive herself for having the strength, the intelligence, and the wit to survive?

            In a brilliant tour de force, Ellen Emerson White tells her most ambitious and intense story about a most unlikely, but deeply affecting, heroine.

 

Ellen Emerson White started writing about Meg Powers in The President’s Daughter and continued in White House Autumn and Long Live the Queen (coming in 2008 from Feiwel and Friends). When Ellen is not writing, she’s watching the Red Sox. She lives in New York City.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Feiwel & Friends; First Edition edition (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312367678
• ISBN-13: 978-0312367671
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #878,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ellen Emerson White has lived in New york City for many years, but still hankers for New England a bit.

She roots for the Red Sox, even when they are not at their best.

She is wicked private.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unable to put it down, November 2, 2007

By 

Ellen (Burlington, VT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Long May She Reign (President's Daughter) (Paperback)

I've long been a fan of Ellen Emerson White for her subtlety and insight, and this book showcases her great skill.

This book, the long-anticipated fourth in a series about Meg Powers, the daughter of the first female president, deals with the aftermath of Meg's kidnapping and torture. The trauma shows up in both overt and more understated ways--Meg deals with screaming nightmares and tears, yes, but she's also suddenly unable to tell when she's hungry after 13 days of starvation, and alarmingly unconcerned about it.

This book is also a sequel, in a way, to Friends For Life, featuring Susan McAllister (and a too-short reference to Beverly and Derek from Life Without Friends) and her relationship with Meg as Meg's residence hall advisor. We don't see quite enough of Susan, but she's well-used in the story.

There were several sections that broke my heart into little-bitty pieces, particularly the conversations that Meg has with her mother as they finally are able to talk about the ordeal, and a late-night conversation with a Secret Service agent about one of Meg's nightmares.

I tried, several times, to set this book down and go to bed, but I was utterly unable to sleep until I'd finished it. Ms. White has a powerful command of storytelling, making this a very compelling tale.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EEW's finest work, October 31, 2007

By 

Joanna Mechlinski (CT, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Long May She Reign (President's Daughter) (Paperback)

Eighteen-year-old Meg Powers lives on the constant edge of a nervous breakdown. It was bad enough when her mother first took office, becoming the first female U.S. president. But, last spring, Meg was abducted by a terrorist group who submitted her to thirteen days of physical and emotional brutality. Finally abandoned, in chains, to die in an abandoned mine shaft, Meg survived solely because of her own wits and daring.

Now, mere months after her ordeal, Meg struggles to cope. In addition to the pain of her seriously damaged hand and knee, and the ever-present terror of which she cannot let go, there are mobs of reporters and photographers shadowing Meg's every move. Why can't the world leave her alone to heal, instead of adding to her stress? Meg surely doesn't understand.

Despite all the obstacles, Meg decides to attend Williams College for the second semester of her freshman year. It was, after all, where she had intended to go before everything happened, and Meg figures that isolating herself in the White House isn't doing her - or her family - any good. Although no one ever speaks about it, it's obvious that Meg's ordeal has irreversibly changed her family life, as her parents' marriage is challenged, and her younger brother Steven tries to deal with his fury.

But not only do the same problems follow Meg to Massachusetts, they increase exponentially. Having Secret Service agents and equipment all over her residence hall hardly endears Meg to her classmates. Even worse, the paparazzi is hindering their lives as well.

Meg struggles to hold on, both physically and emotionally, hoping fervently for a day in the near future when things will get easier. But just as Meg begins to make a few fledgling new friendships and start to feel as though she were finally adjusting, the bottom drops out - in the form of Susan, Meg's residence advisor, whose past also includes some familiarity with tragedy and invasive press.

While this book is actually the fourth of a series, "Long May She Reign" is perfectly capable of standing alone. It manages to reference enough details from the first three books so the backstory of Meg and her family is clear, while not being too repetitive for those who *have* read them. In fact, White skillfully expounds on many side characters introduced previously, including press secretary Preston -- who is quickly advancing up Washington's hierarchy but never leaves Meg's side during her most difficult times. She even manages to tuck in more details about various minor players in the White House, such as chief usher Felix, and the whereabouts of Meg's high school friends Josh, Alison, Zachary and Nathan.

Simultaneously, White ties in two literary worlds -- that of Meg, and of Susan, who readers may remember from "Friends for Life" and "Life Without Friends." This happens so smoothly, that readers will wonder how it could be any other way -- and that Meg's and Susan's friendship didn't occur years before.

At over 700 pages, this book might seem a bit daunting. Yet the story is so engrossing, readers will fervently wish for *more.*

An A+ for such a raw, real -- and often humorous -- portrayal of a unique young woman's struggles is clearly deserved.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Angieville: LONG MAY SHE REIGN, November 2, 2008

By 

Angela Thompson "Angiegirl" (Rocky Mountains) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Long May She Reign (President's Daughter) (Paperback)

I have to preface this review by saying I've been an Ellen Emerson White addict for years. Ever since I found a used copy of Life Without Friends and took it home with me because I liked the girl on the cover so much. I've never read a "new" EEW book in my life. They've all been out of print or used when I've come across them. So sitting down with a brand spanking new copy of a brand spanking new book of hers...well, let's just say it was a religious experience and leave it at that. LONG MAY SHE REIGN is a sequel to the President's Daughter trilogy written in the 80s. The series follows Meg Powers, daughter of the first female president of the United States, and her experience moving to the White House and adjusting to life in the public eye. In the last book, Long Live the Queen, Meg is abducted by terrorists, forced to endure days of starvation, beatings, and emotional torture, only to be dumped in a mine shaft, shackled to the wall, and left to die. In an act of breathtaking determination, she breaks the bones in her hand in order to escape and is later reunited with her family.

LONG MAY SHE REIGN picks up where Long Live the Queen left off. Meg is in bad shape, to put it unbelievably mildly. She's a wreck, physically and emotionally, and her family isn't far behind. At best, they're able to skirt the issue of what happened to her. And none of them can answer the omnipresent question: what happens next? So Meg closes her eyes and makes the decision to go ahead and go to college hoping her absence will make it possible for her family to move on. At Williams, Meg finds it even harder than she imagined to function as a college freshman, surrounded by paranoid secret service agents and a slew of students who regard her with, at best, timid curiosity and, at worst, outright hostility. Fortunately Meg meets a couple of people who are determined to insinuate themselves into her life whether she wants them or not: her JA Susan (the main character in Friends for Life (An Avon/Flare Book)) and an Ultimate Frisbee-playing, love 'em and leave 'em California boy named Jack. Having been through her own personal hell when her best friend was murdered during their junior year of high school, Susan is familiar with the seemingly insurmountable challenge Meg faces in attempting to reclaim her life. Slowly, these two survivors strike up a tenuous friendship. Meanwhile, Meg negotiates an equally fragile relationship with Jack. Both relationships are unusually compelling. I love that Meg and Jack are equals--two extremely flawed, extremely interesting, extremely complicated people attracted to each other precisely because they are flawed and interesting and complicated. I love that he calls her on things. That it makes her mad when he scores higher than she does on a psych test. That they get angry at each other and talk it out and laugh together and move on. As I've mentioned before, I get tired of the Tireless Good Guy and his counterpart the Reformed Bad Boy. It was so refreshing to find that Jack was neither of these. And, as ever, White's sarcastic, thought-provoking dialogue kept me absolutely glued to the page. There's something so satisfying when a writer treats her reader as though she is smart. The whole time I was reading it I felt in the company of old friends, that I had been here before, and that I was comfortable here. LONG MAY SHE REIGN was hands down the book I was most excited about this year and it exceeded all my expectations. I cannot recommend it highly enough.