The Last Princess [Hardcover]

Galaxy Craze (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2012 | Series: The Last Princess

Happily ever after is a thing of the past.

A series of natural disasters has decimated the earth. Cut off from the rest of the world, England is a dark place. The sun rarely shines, food is scarce, and groups of criminals roam the woods, searching for prey. The people are growing restless.

When a ruthless revolutionary sets out to overthrow the crown, he makes the royal family his first target. Blood is shed in Buckingham Palace, and only sixteen-year old Princess Eliza manages to escape. Determined to kill the man who destroyed her family, Eliza joins the enemy forces in disguise. She has nothing left to live for but revenge, until she meets someone who helps her remember how to hope-and love-once more.

Now she must risk everything to ensure that she does not become . . .

The Last Princess.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-England is in turmoil, cut off from the rest of the world by a series of natural disasters coined the "seventeen days." In the wake of this, a ruthless villain has started an uprising to overthrow the royal family. The King and Queen have been assassinated and two of the three royal children have been taken captive. Middle child, Eliza, a 16-year-old spitfire, has escaped and has made it her mission to rescue her siblings and seek revenge for her family's murder. She infiltrates the enemy army in order to fulfill her mission and ends up finding an unlikely ally. Like other titles in its genre, Galaxy Craze's tale (Poppy, 2012) features a strong female protagonist trying to survive in an apocalyptic landscape. What sets this one apart is the royal element and Eliza's ability to be a pillar of hope to the masses. Leslie Belliare narrates with a smoothness that draws listeners in. Give this to teens who enjoyed Lisa Blick's Ashes (Egmont USA, 2011) or Suzanne Collins's "The Hunger Games" series (Scholastic).-Rebecca Flannery, Lyman Memorial High School, Lebanon, CTα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Review

"Romeo and Juliet-style romance and a dash of royal political intrigue." (SLJ )

"A pulse-pounding, sobering look at human nature..." (Booklist )

"There is plenty of action, with daring rescue capers, good old-fashioned battles, secret-identity mishaps, and thrilling near-escapes set against an English dystopian landscape. Genre fans will appreciate this old-school take on a futuristic predicament." (BCCB )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Poppy; 1 edition (May 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316185485
• ISBN-13: 978-0316185486
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 8.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #663,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Chapter by Chapter's review of The Last Princess April 30, 2012

By MaryAnn

Format:Hardcover

I fell in love with The Last Princess the moment I glimpsed the cover and the title of the novel. The title has this aura of mystery in it that had me begging to get started. Lucky for me, when I did begin reading The Last Princess, I immediately did not want to stop reading. It started with a fast pace prologue that introduces us to the darkness that has consumed our world in the future as well as the fact that in this future murders will occur. This is an evident fact when Princess Eliza's mother is murdered in the prologue. Sure it was dark and grim, but I ate it right up and continued on with the novel. From that point on, I was sure that the opening chapter wouldn't manage to top the awesome-sauce prologue...

Boy was I wrong. Immediately after the first couple pages, we watch as Princess Eliza goes on a hunt to find her sickly younger brother, Jamie, and to prevent him from committing suicide. That opening chapter not only tugged on my heartstrings, but it had me falling in love with the story even more so. Death was a concept that was constantly used in the novel. People are dying of starvation and illness, and eventually people who supported the royal family are murdered as well. As the novel progressed, I have to admit that the story did not manage to lose my attention. At. All. Every single detail cannot be missed! Galaxy Craze wrote the story with so much beautiful detailing and thoughtfulness that you feel compelled to read more and I can assure you that you won't want to miss a thing.

Personally, one of my favorite scenes was during the Buckingham Palace overthrow, when the Tudor army murders the king and kidnaps Eliza's family. From that moment on in the novel, the reader really gets to see that Eliza is a much stronger, smarter and braver character than we all assumed she was from the beginning. Especially when, to save her siblings, Eliza joins the Tudor army where we see just what Cornelius Holister plans on doing to the world to help "save" it. As a good quarter of the novel was spent from Eliza's POV within the Tudor army, we were introduced to two new characters. One an antagonist: Portia. The other a love interest: Wesley. I found that the romance between Wesley and Eliza was adorable; it was cute and also dangerous. The only thing that I was cautious towards was my cut instinct on the fact that Wesley might not be exactly who he says he is....

I would recommend this book to (obviously) fans of dystopia and as well as people who enjoy the story of Anastasia because really, that's what this story reminds me a lot of. I cannot wait for the sequel to the novel, especially since the novel ended on such a dramatic high note that tells us that Eliza's story is far from over...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Survival for Anglophiles May 14, 2012

By M. Knapp

Format:Hardcover

Survival for Anglophiles - a pairing perfect for my reading taste. Princess Eliza, middle of the three royal offspring, has enough daring for both her sickly younger brother and her shyer and more proper older sister, who will one day inherit the throne. Life has been very different in London since the cataclysmic "Seventeen Days" (I would have liked to have read more about that!) and the Tudor troops, under the direction of evil Cornelius Hollister intend to overthrow the Windsors. Hollister and his army work by both subterfuge and force, and when Eliza's father is killed and her siblings captured, Eliza's only "escape" is to join the Tudor army. By day she is trained to kill and in her private moments she searches for her brother and sister and plots to avenge the Tudor wrongs. There is dashing romance, some violence and a few plots twists that avid dystopian/romance readers might see coming but are enjoyable just the same.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Live To Read May 3, 2012

By Chels

Format:Hardcover

This book really reminded me of the Romanov's minus the complete death sentence. I loved how the author described the dystopian world, complete with evil murderers and a faction against the crown. Eliza is a princess in this torn apart world. Her family lives very grandly, but sometimes it seems like they may be ignoring what it going on right outside their front door. The prologue itself is enough to draw a reader in; the reader will have to know just what happened and why...but all will be revealed soon.

Eliza was an interesting character. She felt dynamic to me, as if she actually matured during the course of the novel. She is brave and stubborn; she could be accused of being hard-headed at times. The other characters in the book have an impact on the plot, but not so much on the reader. The reader will probably only feel a true attachment to Eliza. The love interest is perfect and somewhat unexpected in this dystopian. The author does a good job of keeping the reader in the dark until the last possible moment.

The plot was very fast-paced. The reader will have the opportunity to meet Eliza at a very young age and then meet her again later on. Eliza is constantly in motion, rarely stopping to think or plot. She keeps the reader very involved with her thoughts and worries. Overall, this book is a quick and exciting read, recommended to young adult/teen readers.

*Complimentary copy received for this review, does not affect my opinion in any way*