A Secret Princess

Jo & Laurie #2

by Margaret Stohl, Melissa de la Cruz

A surprising and romantic YA retelling-mashup of A Little Princess and The Secret Garden by bestselling authors Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz.

Best friends Mary Lennox, Sara Crewe, and Cedric Erroll have each other, and they are the only reason boarding school isn’t completely insufferable.

Tragically, Mary’s father passes away after he’s stripped of his fortune, leaving her orphaned and with just one possession: a ticket to a ship that will bring her to the home of her last living relative, in America. But Cedric can’t bear to say goodbye, and reveals that he’s the son of an earl with endless riches . . . and a huge estate that the three of them can run away to, leaving the boarding school–and thoughts of America–behind.

That’s when Sara and Cedric discover that there’s more to them than friendship, and Mary begins spending time with a handsome local boy–a relationship that quickly blossoms into romance.

It turns out that Maythem Estate is more than just a getaway–it’s a secret garden of budding romance.

Filled with charm, romance, and swoon, and inspired by some of classic literature’s most beloved characters, The Secret Princess is the perfect blend of A Little Princess and The Secret Garden— and the perfect companion to Jo & Laurie.

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Historical Fiction, Retellings, Fantasy, Fiction, Historical

400 pages, Hardcover

First published June 28, 2022

About the author

Margaret Stohl is the #1 New York Times, PW, USA Today, LA Times and Internationally bestselling co-author or author of twelve books, including the BEAUTIFUL CREATURES NOVELS, the DANGEROUS CREATURES NOVELS, the ICONS NOVELS, MARVEL'S BLACK WIDOW NOVELS, ROYCE ROLLS & CATS VS ROBOTS THIS IS WAR (forthcoming!) She writes the MIGHTY CAPTAIN MARVEL comic for Marvel Comics (ongoing) and has contributed to countless videogames; currently, she is a Narrative Director at Bungie.

From the author:

Goodreads Peeps! Please note I no longer review the books on my shelf, "stars"-wise. I do list books I read, and they're all automatically marked as 5 stars. That's because a) I don't list books that I didn't like enough to finish and b) I didn't want to delete the ratings I had already given. If I particularly love a book and feel inclined to comment, you'll still see the comments here. Sadly, I have to ask: please don't reproduce these comments on book jackets, websites, or in any other medium for the marketing of books. They're only meant for fellow goodreaders. Thanks so much!

ABOUT ME:

Writing has gotten me in and out of trouble since I was 15 (back then, mostly just in trouble.) For 10 years, I designed &/or wrote for lots of video games, one of which was nominated for “Most Innovative Game Design,” but I lost to a rapping onion. If you know games you get why my two bad beagles are named Zelda and Kirby.

School: I spent more years in it than a person ever should, because let’s face it, reading books is so much better than having a job. I fell in love with American literature at Amherst and Yale, earned an MA in English from Stanford, and studied creative writing under the late great poet George MacBeth at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. I taught Intro to Film as a TA at Yale and Romantic Poetry as a TA at Stanford. Don’t tell the people at Yale but sometimes I taught the section before I’d seen the movie it was about...

I live in Santa Monica, CA, with my family, most of whom were enslaved into working with me in one form or another on my first YA book for Little, Brown. I’m not kidding; when my daughters wanted to go to school I said “Why are you so selfish? Get back in there and edit,” and by said I mean yelled and maybe threw things, it’s all a haze. Now the Beautiful series has wrapped, but you can see the movie on February 13, 2013 or read my new book ICONS on May 7th. Nothing gold can stay, Ponyboy.

Reviews

[Shannara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mashup between the Secret Garden and A Little Princess?!?! Oh my, yes please!!!! I knew this was going to be cute, but it was so very good!!!! The characters were brought to life in a whole new way to love!!!

Sarah and Mary are just as amazing as I remember them, but throw in some more spunk and attitude, along with a healthy dose of feminism and inclusion. Just wonderful characters, I love them both. It’s a super awesome touch to adjust Sarah as a Filipino girl rather than keeping her original ethnicity. As a half Asian woman, I really enjoyed that aspect. I’m excited about more inclusion in Ya novels these days!!

Then Cedric comes along and I adore him too!!! He adds an element of humor and a touch of love too. Oh the love in this book!!! Not too much, but just enough. My heart is still aching over the love in this book!!! I won’t go too into to depth, but just as in real life, not every romance works out. And it makes my heart just squeeze!!

The plot is absolutely phenomenal. I wasn’t sure how they were going to get all the important parts into one book, but they sure did!! Mary and Sarah do effectively become orphans, even if it’s not for an extensive amount of time. And there is a magical garden. More magical than I ever thought possible. I’d have to say the garden was my favorite part. My only small complaint is that it took a while to get to the garden.

I highly recommend this book to those who love the originals. This has so much to offer and includes huge amounts of nostalgia too. I can’t say enough good things about this one!!

[Mallory · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Little Princess and The Secret Garden were two of my favorite stories so I was very excited for this mashup. I also love retold fairy tales which this feels at least adjacent to. Somehow it fell a bit short for me. It lacked some of the magic of the original stories and dragged a bit. I didn’t love the epilogue or how things ended up for Sara in particular. I did love the characters and their friendships, everyone should get to see their favorite characters play together. I was ok with having Sara be Filipino and add some representation. I think for those who hadn’t read the originals this book may carry a bit more magic.

[Grace A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brown-skinned princess tale? You don’t see that often, and what a refreshing tale it was. I insert myself into the characters of the books I read, especially those I enjoy. In this one, I was princess Sara Crewe, felt the joy of her elegance, brilliance and victories, and bore the pain of the prejudice, discrimination, unfairness towards her.
It was a delightful read. 4 stars.

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes indeed, and in my humble opinion, joint authors Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz's June 2022 young adult mash-up of Frances Hodgson Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess and A Secret Garden is decent enough and is also not so far removed from Hodgson Burnett's original texts so as to become unrecognisable and thus too problematic and too annoying for me to be able to tolerate and to accept (and in particular so with regard to Sara Crewe's character, who in A Secret Princess is certainly still and also appreciatively, delightfully depicted by Stohl and de la Cruz as having a very similar character and behaviour as is shown by Hodgson Burnett, as she appears in A Little Princess). And indeed, Sara Crewe being presented as having an Irish, German and Filipina background in A Secret Princess does not really if at all change this feeling of textual familiarity for me either, although personally speaking, I must point out that just having Sara be speaking a few words of German to her father at the beginning of A Secret Princess (when Captain Crewe is dropping his daughter off at Miss Minchin's boarding school and Sara understandably feels intimidated, scared, and homesick but does not of course want the headmistress to know and to realise this), it just does not really make her all that specifically and unilaterally German for me, and that even with Sara's physical features and attributes showing her Filipina background from her mother's side, with regard to behaviour and attitudes, Sara Crewe in A Secret Princess still reads as being rather staunchly British Empire. And there is nothing at all wrong with that either, but I definitely do tend to think that Sara's ethnically and culturally diverse background is not really all that much explored and delved into, is not sufficiently expanded on by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz in A Secret Princess (and that the authors also kind of seem to be using Sara Crewe's background as a bit of a proverbial window dressing so to speak, to show diverse representation, and that since A Secret Princess makes Sara Crewe bi if not actually multi-ethnic, I kind of expect and want a bit more than this simply being shown and engendering some instances of racism and problematic, ridiculous misunderstandings).

But just to say that while I certainly have found A Secret Princess a pleasant enough reading experience (and a nicely diverting and engaging two hours of my reading time), I have to admit that I also have more than a few textual issues with what Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz have penned. For one, first and foremost and quite importantly, while much of the information textually presented in A Secret Princess feels historically accurate and thus authentic enough for an 1860s England setting, sorry, but Stohl and de la Cruz having Mary Lennox, Sara Crewe and Cedric Erroll meet and become best friends at boarding school actually does not (in my opinion at least) make a lot of sense with regard to British school history, since during the 1860s's (and basically well until the mid 20th century) British boarding schools would generally not have been co-educational (so that therefore, having Miss Minchin's school be open to both boys and girls in 1863 is at best rather fantastically far-fetched and certainly makes the entire premise of A Secret Princess majorly iffy and with me as a reader really having to suspend my historical knowledge, and which I really do NOT at all like having to do and actually quite resent). For two, sorry, but the Mary Lennox character of A Secret Princess is for me much too positive, much too enthusiastically accepting/tolerant and also too into fighting against social injustice and racial intolerance right from the onset, right from the beginning of the novel. Because for me, much of the charm of The Secret Garden has always been how arrogant, how holier and higher than thou, how intolerant, curmudgeonly and often downright sour tempered Mary Lennox slowly (and with the magic of the forgotten and locked-up garden at Misselthwaite) changes and becomes friendly, accepting, eager to help and sweet-natured. And yes, that this is sadly kind of skipped over and pretty much ignored by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz in A Secret Princess, it kind of majorly grates on me and especially so since The Secret Garden is such a personal favourite, not to mention that I also consider how the Cedric Eroll of A Secret Princess (from Little Lord Fauntleroy) is basically combined with The Secret Garden's Colin Craven (with basically only the name Cedric Eroll and the social status and privilege it brings being retained from Little Lord Fauntleroy) not only annoying but also rather creating a character who is neither here nor there for me, who is basically often just taking up narrative space and really not all that interesting. And for three, aside from Mary, Sara and Cedric supposedly being older teenagers in A Secret Princess but rather being shown as acting considerably younger and often with quite a bit of immaturity and impulsivity, I also consider how Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz have depicted many of the secondary charters of A Secret Princess as too far removed from Frances Hodgson Burnett's portrayals (with in particular Martha Sowerby and Dickon Sowerby being textually quite problematic for me in A Secret Princess, with Martha being shown as deliberately nasty and insensitive towards Sara Crewe due to her ethnicity and Dickon Sowerby immediately falling in love with Sara and later being simply disposed off and executed, and that indeed the romance inclusions for A Secret Princess just do not really work for me and feel rather tacked on and artificial, almost as though the authors absolutely think that a young adult novel combining Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess and The Secret Garden should somehow also and automatically require romance elements in order to textually succeed).

So with all my above mentioned criticisms, I should perhaps even consider only two stars for A Secret Princess (as there certainly is quite a bit that I have not textually enjoyed all that much or at least do find potentially a reading issue). But considering that A Secret Princess has still been decently pleasant enough for me, and because I think that how Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz have approached and combined Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess and A Secret Garden works tolerably well and equally does not simply metaphorically cast away Frances Hodgson Burnett (and indeed, with A Secret Princess being in my humble opinion oh so so much better than what the authors created with their Jo & Laurie, where I really and simply cannot stand how Louisa May Alcott's Little Women has been changed and for me pretty much totally and utterly spoiled), my rating, my general assessment of A Secret Princess will be a rather low and tentative three stars, and truth be told, any recommendations of A Secret Princess will have to be with some necessary caveats, with reservations and in particular for those who consider Frances Hodgson Burnett's novels and in particular The Secret Garden as amongst their personal reading favourites).

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Despite my unenthusiastic status updates throughout this book, I genuinely expected my review to conclude with something like: "A decent read that suffers from comparison to the original stories it retells."

Except forget comparison. 400 pages later and I still don't know what the point of this book was.

Allegedly this tale follows two familiar faces: Mary Lennox and Sara Crewe from Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden and A Little Princess. Cedric Errol from Little Lord Fauntleroy is also around, but even more than the other two, carries little resemblance to his literary counterpart.

"BUT THE PLOT?" you ask. "WHAT IS THE PLOT?"

That's the thing. I don't know.

Set loosely around 1865, Mary, Sara, and Cedric attend a sketchy boarding school where they are ostracized despite all coming from wealthy, upper class families. Cedric is in a wheelchair (because he is a fill-in for Collin Craven à la The Secret Garden), Sara Crew is now half-Filipino, and Mary is...obnoxious?

(The first non-Quaker mixed-sex public boarding school in England was Bedales School, founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley and becoming mixed in 1898, but WHATEVER. It isn't like this book cares about historical accuracy anyway.)

All of them start out with parents and lose them randomly as the plot goes on, until they all just decide to embrace orphanhood and flee to Paris while cross-dressing and begin a career on the theater. The plot has about as much transition as that sentence.

However, don't think too hard about it, because these teens may speak six languages and champion the values of good twenty first century moralists, but none of them know how trains work so they get dumped off for a random Secret Garden montage about two paragraphs later.

If any theme is overarching in this story, it would be the blatant and obnoxious racism coming from every, single character. I understand and can even appreciate the author's desire to insert her Filipino background into one of her favorite children's books. What I can't understand is why it was done so poorly. There is a ham-handedness to these villains that simply feels awkward and lazy. Why is Miss Minchin a bitter old woman? Doesn't matter. Racism. Why is Mrs. Medlock so horrendously rude to her employer's guests? Doesn't matter. Racism. Why are there random peacocks alive in the garden? Doesn't matter. Ra...actually, no one knows.

There are numerous characters, all loosely connected as name drops from the original books, but few who actually last longer than a chapter or two, and even fewer with relevance to the plot.

There is no overarching or consistent villain, except maybe lawyers. There sure are a lot of lawyers in this book and they are all TERRIBLE.

But it isn't just the so-called villains. Mary and Sara are disappointing. They experience no character change. Their personalities are the same at the beginning as they are at the end. Things have happened to them, but I never sensed any growth in them personally. They start out perfect (perfectly formed morals, perfect courage, perfect 'princesses') and while life happens, they just fight back until it conforms to their desire. There is one point where Mary ends up in a work house with evil, racist nuns (after being dropped off by a corrupt constabulary) with several other girls. She KNOWS the girls have nowhere else to go. She knows that the visiting benefactress can make or break whether these girls will eat. So what does she do? She runs her mouth and leaves. You're left to assume that the benefactress fixes things, but there is just as much (or even more) likelihood that Mary did the 'right' thing and by doing so left everything worse off for the remaining inmates. This is a repeated pattern that I assume is supposed to be 'good' since she never experiences any consequences for dropping truth bombs and moving on.

Does this book fail in comparison to the original novels? Undoubtably. But unfortunately, it also fails as a standalone novel. These are unlikable characters who are SUPPOSED to be likable and who skip around with little rhyme or reason except that the original stories require it. The romance (if you can call it that) is unsatisfying and out of nowhere. The tragic tone at the end is pointless.

The best I can say is that it will quickly fade from memory.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having enjoyed "Jo & Laurie," I was excited to pick this one up as well, and it has a beautiful cover and spine to match their first book. However, I can only describe this book as a depressing train wreck. It was a disastrous hodgepodge of three children's stories, the first two of which I thoroughly enjoyed in their original form: "A Secret Garden," "A Little Princess" and "Little Lord Fauntleroy." "Jo & Laurie" made total sense for those readers who wished that Jo would end up with Laurie. But what was the point of this book, other than, like the author says in her acknowledgements, to change one of the main characters to a Filipino and have some representation? That's understandable, but smashing the three tales together into one book did not make for a coherent story. This book was largely boring, and almost every page was bleak, bleaker than any of the original books. [Spoiler] Don't get me started on the epilogue of what happens to Dickon - he's randomly executed, casually tossed aside. If these characters are beloved to the authors, why the heck would they want to execute one of them? Terrible, terrible book. Also, anyone who doesn't enjoy the 'woke' tropes of evil policemen, evil Catholics, and 99% of the world being racist will not enjoy this book. I feel like re-reading "The Secret Garden" to cleanse myself of this disaster.

[Haley Kilgour · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book had so much potential but just fell completely flat in my opinion. Yes the right elements of A Secret Garden and The Little Princess were there, but the storyline just didn’t work. And the characters were a mess.

As far as the storyline goes, it didn’t feel like there really was a plot, or a major goal or climax. The characters just kind of bumbled along until they got a happy ending.

My first major issue with the characters was they didn’t feel like 16/17 year old people. They acted like they were 12. Mary was supposed to be this witty wild character. And she was just wild and there were no consequences ever. Sara is supposed to be brilliant yet almost never uses her brain. And why on earth would she just let people walk all over her?

The romances were a little strange. Cedric and Mary worked. They had the history for them to work. Dickon proposes to Sara after a day of knowing her claiming ti love her quite a bit and it was just weird.

Minchin was also an issue. Supposedly Sara’s family dies in a volcanic explosion and her room and board hasn’t been taken care of. Classes are paid, but nothing else is. Also, how does she get away with shaving Sara’s head for no reason?

I also had issues with the prologue. Somehow there’s a genie. Which I’m still not sure if it was real or a figment of Mary’s imagination. Then it jumps to Sara’s head getting shaved and Mary doing the same to herself to stop Minchin. Then later on in the story is when the head shaving happens in real time. It was just a weird scene that could’ve been better placed.

I did like that the ending was both happy but not completely filling.

[court ౨ৎ librarycutie · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. this book felt forced, i wasn’t a fan of the writing style either. it was trying to push a certain agenda and it didn’t work.

[Melanie Brinkman]

Okay, what limb do I need to sell to get to read this right now?!

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I saw that this was a mash-up of The Secret Garden AND A Little Princess, I was immediately SOLD on this.

I am such a fan of both books/movies that I was so excited to see how the authors were going to merge these two separate stories into one, and I think they did it very nicely.

Something that threw me was that they were supposed to be around 15/16 years old but, I kept seeing all the characters in my mind at the age they were in the movies (11-13) but that's just me not being able to let go of the past.

But overall it was a cute story about friendship and I'm happy I picked it up.

[Amanda M (On The Middle Shelf) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such a fun take on some of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic stories. I enjoyed the banter between Sara, Mary, and Collin and appreciated that the author brought her own heritage into Sara's character. I also thought the updates Stohl and de la Cruz made to some of the more antiquated aspects of the books while still keeping the overall story set during the same time of the originals was a fantastic story choice.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m marked my review with spoilers because I feel like I need to go in depth to the book to explain my issues with it. Overall, it was a very light, fluffy read but one I am unlikely to ever return to.

- First, the plot summary listed on several websites was different from the summary on the jacket cover. Some of those summaries made it seem like Sara and Cedric were love interests and Mary with Dickon, so I was very surprised when that was in fact not the case.
- I was very disappointed with the liberties that were taken with The Secret Garden and Little Lord Fauntleroy. Honestly, it seems like they could have scrapped the Little Lord Fauntleroy references since Cedric was clearly just a rewrite of Collin Craven. Cedric is a wonderful character in his own right and deserved more than just being Collin. The fact that they removed Mary from her own story elements was really disappointing to me, especially when they added in the random “uncle in America” and how Martha Sowerby was made to be racist and snippy towards Sara.
- It was strange to me how they brought up the American Civil War like twice and it never really went anywhere? There was really good commentary and depictions about the English poorhouses and workhouses of that time, I just feel like the book would have been stronger if it didn’t have that random hook that really didn’t amount to much overall.
- I will say I liked the changes given to Sara Crewe by making her Filipino. I felt it refreshed the character while still retaining the integrity of who she was. It also added a really interesting depiction of the racism seen in the British Empire at that time, so this was one of the strong parts of the book for me. I also appreciated that her story in the course of the book most closely matched the original source material.
- The romance was sweet but ultimately lacking. The juxtaposition of Sara and Dickson’s short lived, Star crossed romance with Cedric and Mary’s romance was not successful in my opinion. The fact that the last few chapters parallel their relationships only for the epilogue to reveal Dickon was courtmartialed and executed and Sara never married, but even though it seemed like Mary and Cedric were parted forever, they reunited and were now married? I feel like that that should have been a scene rather than a character’s conversation. Also, the fact that Cedric doesn’t actually appear in the epilogue despite being a main character (who doesn’t receive any POV chapters) was another disappointment.

Ultimately, I feel like this had a lot of potential but failed to live up to it. If you are a strong fan of Frances Hodgson Burnet’s works, you may be offended by the liberties taken with the original stories. Definitely a good short read if you’re just looking for something to pass the time.

[Rachel]

OMG PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE WITH A CHERRY IN TOP, APPROVE ME FOR THIS ARC! PLEASE 🙏🙏🙏

I ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE THIS. OMG MARY AND SARA!!!!


PLEASE MAKE MY DREAMS COME TRUE!!

[Domo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is written as a surprising and romantic YA retelling-mashup of A Little Princess and The Secret Garden both books that I loved as a child. And still love now. Reading this brought back fond memories from my childhood but have me new memories too. It's one of my most anticipated books and it did not disappoint!!!

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

The English adult classics are not really my thing. I'm currently trying to get through a readable version of Pride and Prejudice and so far I'm simply bored. However, I do love the Children's classics, despite their issues. And both the Secret Garden and A Little Princess are among my favorites of all time! They are the perfect blend of a heartwarming story mixed with some might-be-magic. So, when two of my favorite authors announced this retelling of both stories I knew I had to have it!

What I love about this book is that you can see the love and respect for the source material quite clearly. Almost all the beautiful and important elements of the original tales are also present in this version of the tales. Some a little more prominent than others and some in a slightly different form, but still. Therefore reading this tale almost feels like falling in love with my two favorite classics all over again!

However, since this book is written here and now, with the morals of here and now, the political and cultural issues of its time are now much more clearly addressed and shown. The authors quite clearly did whatever they could to also show us the ugly sides of those times, especially when it comes to people with a not completely white heritage, and how incredibly vulnerable people were for abuse. Not always pretty, but very much needed.

And despite the changes and despite the added critique on how people were treated and how countries dealt with political issues, the characters are still who they're supposed to be. Mary Lennox is still very much Mary Lennox, speaking her mind and doing what she thinks is best for the world and its people. And Sara is still in every possible way a princess, even though people treat her horribly at times. The third musketeer, Cedric, is from a story I haven't read yet. It's not on the wishlist!

[Rachel Frum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up absolutely loving both A Little Princess and The Secret Garden—they were core childhood reads for me. So when I heard A Secret Princess was a retelling that combined both stories? I was immediately in. What I didn’t expect was how hard this book would hit. Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz completely nailed it.

This story felt like revisiting old friends—Mary, Sara, and Cedric—except now they’re best friends themselves, and suddenly everything makes so much sense. Their bond is deep and real, and watching them face personal tragedy, dream up secret plans, and grow together? I was screaming. Crying. Smiling like an idiot. Then crying again.

It’s romantic without being overdone, magical without being fantasy, and so full of heart I honestly didn’t want it to end. The blend of nostalgia and fresh storytelling is just chef’s kiss. If younger me had read this, I would have been obsessed. Older me still is.

This isn’t just a retelling—it’s a love letter to two classic stories that shaped so many of us. And I felt every word of it.

[Nursebookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Secret princess
Margaret Stohl and Melissa De la Cruz

My two favorite books into one amazing mash-up is a dream read. I loved the inclusion of a Filipina character, a dash of feminism, and inclusivity made this a wonderful reimagining for the youth of our time.

[rachel ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

these co-authors have done it again: invented a magical, fresh concept as a twist on a beloved classic — then proceeded to suck all the life out of it until it’s so dry it’s barely readable.

ahem.

i wanted to like this. the secret garden, a little princess, AND little lord fauntleroy?? yes! yes! 1860’s england! yes! a double romance?? yes!

unfortunately, it didn’t deliver on the promise of the premise.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

• the writing voice was indistinct — inconsistent, really. i assume that’s due to the fact that there are two authors.

• the characters were also inconsistent. i don’t think their ages were ever stated, but i believe they were supposed to be around 16 or 17? well, they acted like they were 12 or 13. sara’s supposed to be brilliant and dignified, and instead she lets people walk all over her (and doesn’t ever exercise her intellectual brilliance.) mary is delightfully wild, but it’s inconsistent with her age, and i couldn’t tell what she was inventing and what was real. and cedric?? he didn’t have a real…. personality. he was just….. there.

• the PLOT. there was no straightforward plot. it rambled and bumbled here and there, all over the english countryside, until the book rambled itself into some semblance of an ending.

• dickon!! what the HECK!! i was soooo excited for him and sara— and then “i want to marry you” (which was a little crazy given that they were like 16…. but with a little reflection…. it could’ve worked??) and then they can’t. AND THEN THE EPILOGUE IN LIKE TWO SENTENCES’ WORTH OF CONVERSATION DEMOLISHES EVERYTHING?? his subplot was unsatisfying, frustrating, and ultimately pointless.

• the workhouse element was good — possibly the most exciting bit in the story — but then it doesn’t go anywhere??

• the stakes weren’t high enough. to put it plainly, this book was boring. there was no real danger, no life-or-death consequences (except maybe the workhouse), no excitement. just a little band of teenagers wandering around england. (spoiler, it’s not entertaining.)


THINGS I DID LIKE:

• sara!being!filipina! i loved the twist that she was even more out of place in britain, trying to find her way in a world that only saw the color of her skin. (unfortunately, the execution of that concept sucked, but the idea was great.)

• the romance! dickon and sara, mary and cedric (don’t even talk to me about the wheelchair dancing scene.)

• how clean it was! it was refreshing. no curses, no sex (even though, at times, i felt the romance was much too chaste, even for me [they didn’t kiss once]— but hey, that was the time period.)

• uhhhh dickon was a lovely character! i wish his story would’ve been fleshed out a lot more.

• just the general concept?? twisting these stories up together was such a cool idea!

• OH AND THE WRITER CHARACTER MARY’S WITH IN THE EPILOGUE EEEEEEE


CONCLUSION

3.5 stars. a few (like, a handful) of worthwhile scenes, and a couple of descriptions were pretty. but overall, the story was flat, confusing, and boring. without a doubt, the concept was much more exciting than the execution.

[Bookundermybed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let’s start by saying this…this book had a less original plot than Eastenders and I don’t say that lightly because to be honest Eastenders is a complete bore and the storyline is always the same just repeated with different people. There are bland affairs, people dying and coming back from the dead, lost family members and just unnecessary, unoriginal drama and that was this book except it lacked an okay villain and also had less gossip and drama unfortunately (and as I said, comparing it to Eastenders is not a compliment, sorry if you like it but come on now, how many Kat Slater ‘YES I AMMMMM’ storylines can you actually have)

This book is a retelling of The Secret Garden and A Little Princess and also Little Lord Fauntleroy. It follows Mary Lennox, a feisty young girl and her Pilipino best friend Sara Crew and their unlikely friend Cedric Errol. The girls take on a school with a racist headmistress, an escape and an unlikely secret. Will they be able to stay together or will their friendship crumble under the challenges and will their wit and courage help them come out of their challenges stronger than before?

This was so bland. It literally dragged on for an age. The dialogue was bland the story was not that exciting. The characters either felt overdone or too two dimensional, the scenes were sometimes overdone or not expanded on enough and the main reason I wasn’t too big of a fan was because I found myself unimpressed by the characters and I actually didn’t want to root for them at all.

Mary is too much, she does not realise that her words can make a situation worse, sometimes for other people and not even herself. She likes to play the hero and is supposed to be feisty but just comes across as angered and impulsive. She lacks any other characteristics and she literally just fights with Cedric for absolutely no reason.
Sara is perfect, philanthropic and Pilipino, that’s it. That’s all she is and apparently the kind of girl who falls in love at first sight and that, my friends, is all I can tell you.
Cedric is the only okay character. Unfortunately though, he does not do much for the story other than make the girls’ lives cushy and that is practically it.

The villains are all so weird, the nuns, the headmistress and the head of the manor (I can’t remember their names other than they all start with ‘M’) and there was also Martha, they were all just portrayed as bad but why? Were they stealing money, I know headmistress and Martha were racist but I feel like we could have really expanded on the headmistress because she had more flaws than just being racist.

The garden scene felt like a true disappointment. It did not do justice to the original scene and bear in mind I have read both the Secret Garden and A Little Princess and I loved the Secret Garden so so much. I just felt like mashing all the stories together led to a jumble, kind of like when all your cords get stuck together, it just leaves you frustrated and so confused, perhaps maybe drawing your inspiration from one story would have been more successful.

The love interests, oh my goodness gracious me, they were both so bad. Mary’s love interest I understood a bit better because they did spend time together beforehand. Did they have chemistry though?? Absolutely not. Cedric being engaged (á la Eastenders) also felt unnecessary because the plot line was introduced for all of two seconds and then that plot line disappeared?! Sara’s love interest was love at first sight, I didn’t like him, I didn’t care about him, I didn’t even know why he was there and his ending was so crazy. Also him asking Sara to marry him, them not marrying and then him dying. I literally cannot, please give me the time I wasted on their story back.

Also can we talk about Sara’s mum because what in the Eastenders was that??!!
WE SPEND MORE THAN THREE QUARTERS OF A BOOK BELIEVING SARA HAS NO ALIVE RELATIVES ONLY FOR HER MUM TO BE ALIVE!!!! And can I add that how come the headmistress did so little research and you are telling me their lawyer did not know that her mum had gone on a trip, you are telling me no one knew this. Also Mary and Sara’s parents die so quickly after each other that the storyline actually felt a bit lazy.

Also there is a scene where Mary gets taken to a girls’ home and she meets Anne there and Anne dies and then she makes a big scene in front of the founder and gets set free. What about the other girls? They literally will have to face the consequences of Mary’s actions while she runs free, what the actual hell?? Like who were the authors kidding trying to make her the hero. That is so selfish.

The Jo March cameo at the end seemed cute but it felt forced and awkward and also kind of unnecessary. I was just so tired by the end of the fact that the first half of the book had no storyline and the second half felt a bit like reading a garbage fire. It honestly was not well thought out and felt too inconsistent for my liking. 🥀🗝️🎭🦚

[Nini]

A YA RETELLING/MASHUP OF A LITTLE PRINCESS AND THE SECRET GARDEN?! I NEED THIS N O W

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Jo and Laurie by these authors and it made my childhood heart so happy. Growing up I loved the movies The Secret Garden and A Little Princess but I did not know what to expect with this book. I really enjoyed it and almost bumped it up to 5 stars because of the epilogue. That was amazing! Sarah, Mary, and Cedric are all in a boarding school together and they decide they cannot stay there any longer. Shenanigans ensue.

"I don't believe I have ever heard a young lady say something so peculiar."
"Perhaps you should associate yourself with a more diverse group of young ladies."

"It must be a terrible burden to have confidence so low that you had to attack others in order to survive."

"There is a strange belief among us humans that we are responsible for the cruelty of others."

"It is better not to answer your enemies at all than to answer with anger."

"Allow others to treat you as if you are nothing then you will be nothing."

"She knew truly now what it was to be imprisoned, and she knew what it was to be free. She vowed never to confuse the two again."

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know if I struggled a bit because I haven’t read A Secret Garden yet. Once I read that, I’ll be able to tell. In the meantime, I’m just left wondering whether someone who has read that book would automatically have an easier time jumping into the storyline here.

Cause I had trouble getting into this. I wanted to. I liked the characters. The garden itself didn’t come until very very late in the story. I found myself wishing that part had been more of the storyline.

This is kind of a found family book because three almost orphans meet in a boarding school and become their own family.
It was honestly quite sad at times.
I just wanted good things for Mary, Sara and Cedric. I was mostly happy with the ending but we had to go through a lot of rough things to get there.

[joanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, this book wasn’t nearly as bad as the Jo and Laurie one by these authors, so that’s a plus! It still isn’t good though. I mean don’t get me wrong I think it was good for what it was and the idea of combining three of Frances Hodgson Burnett books was good, but overall it just didn’t really do anything.

This book had no real plot and just seemed kind of pointless to me. There are some plot lines from the the original books but they’re kind of lost in a hopeless muddle of what the authors did to the story. I just couldn’t make myself care about the portion of the story that they added and characters seemed SO young to me. I mean really, some of the ways they talked and acted just seemed more like elementary school kids rather than young adults.

There’s also two romances in this book, that are just so poorly written I wanted to cry. I mean the insta love was just horrid. Like I kid you not Mary and Cedric just magically are in love one day…i don’t know it just seemed so forced.

Another huge issue I had with this book was the epilogue. The books ends super, super suddenly and then the epilogue is 15 years in the future and is just listing off all of these things that the characters did. It seemed like a easy way for the authors to resolve the story without really writing anything.

The one redeeming quality for this book in my opinion was how the authors made Sara Filipino. I thought that provided really interesting commentary on wealth and race in the 19th century and is something I would have liked to see more off. Unfortunately, most of the discussion of this isn’t super well-developed.

I’d still recommend this, but don’t expect anything super magical. It’s just meh.

[Buzzkill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The entire time I was reading this book, the repeating thought in my mind was that this book is the better combination of The Secret Garden and A Little Princess. (Turns out I was right on the money with that one, once I reached the co-author's note)

This story had me excited, laughing, crying and terrified of what was to come next with Sara, Mary, and Cedric. And more than anything I have a special love for Dickon and his small addition to the story.

I'm recommending this to everyone, but ESPECIALLY if you also grew up reading and watching the two classics this book was inspired by.

[Chelsey Burningham · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 ⭐️✨

[Katelyn Spedden · Rating 5 out of 5]

**I received an eARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review**

For starters A Little Princess and The Secret Garden were two of my favorite movies when I was younger and while I never read A Little Princess, The Secret Garden was a novel I enjoyed. So when I saw that A Secret Princess was a mix of the two stories I had to read it. They're stories that I know by heart and I wanted to see what Margaret Stohl and Melissa De La Cruz would do with them. Honestly I expected a lot and I wasn't disappointed. You would never expect the stories to fit together as well as they did and have the characters be able to be perfect foils of each other. Sara and Mary are both girls taken from the worlds that they know and dropped into England and forced to live in a land that is not their own. Add in that for this reimagining Sara is from a Filipino background? I love that Melissa's own heritage was worked into the novel so beautifully.

I highly recommend this novel and it's not just because I've been a fan of Melissa's since I read the fist Au Pair novel when I was 14. Both authors do an amazing job weaving these stories together beautifully and I'm so glad I was able to get an early copy.

[Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seeing as I was a huge fan of The Secret Garden and The Little Princess (movies) growing up, I thought this was going to be so much fun! However, it fell a little flat for me unfortunately. It was adorable and an easy read but I by the end, I didn’t understand the purpose of the story? There really didn’t seem to be much plot. I will say, they blended the stories together pretty well but I wish there was more to the secret garden aspect.

Overall, a fun and cute historical fiction!

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adorable children’s tales turned YA novel. Got this book in a subscription box I received for Christmas and tore through it in a day! At times I questioned the point of the narrative, but always enjoyed the character interactions. Altogether, I may not recommend it to a friend, but I would likely read it to my children at some point.

[Kati Polodna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yikes, this was all over the place in terms of writing and character development. Struggled to finish because there wasn’t much plot.

[Ashley Townsend · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The world is as warm and safe as a garden, dear Mary. Not for all. But for some. And for me. Due in part to the love and bravery of friends like you.”