Monday, July 13, 2009

Who Made You a Princess?


This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Who Made You a Princess

FaithWords (May 13, 2009)

by

Shelley Adina



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Award-winning author Shelley Adina wrote her first teen novel when she was 13. It was rejected by the literary publisher to whom she sent it, but he did say she knew how to tell a story. That was enough to keep her going through the rest of her adolescence, a career, a move to another country, a B.A. in Literature, an M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction, and countless manuscript pages.

Shelley is a world traveler and pop culture junkie with an incurable addiction to designer handbags. She writes books about fun and faith--with a side of glamour. Between books, Shelley loves traveling, playing the piano and Celtic harp, watching movies, and making period costumes.

The All About Us book series has its own home over on the Hachette website. Stop by and see what the five fabulous girls at Spencer Acadenmy are up to! Series Website.

Her other books in this series includes book one, It's All About Us, oook Two, The Fruit of my Lipstick, and book three, Be Strong & Curvaceous. This present book is book four.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Shani Hanna returns to SpencerAcademy for her senior year after an amazing summer spent with her friends Lissa, Gillian, and Carly. But the best part about summer was meeting Danyel Johnstone. Danyel is cute, smart, cool, and super nice. All Shani has to do is get him to see her as more than just one of the gang.

But when the girls return to school, they find a new addition to the distinguished student body: Prince Rashid al Amir of Yasir, an oil-rich desert kingdom in the Middle East. Prince Rashid moved to California to prepare for an eventual MBA at Stanford...and to romance his future wife: Shani Hanna!

It turns out, Shani's family and the prince's go back for generations, entwined in tradition, obligation, and family honor. In each generation, members of the two families have expanded their business interests through arranged marriage. Will Shani put aside her feelings for Danyel to pursue her family's wishes? Or will God answer her prayers for an intervention?

If you would like to read the first chapter of Who Made You a Princess , go HERE

MY THOUGHTS:
This is the first book in this series that I had read, and there was much I liked about it. And with one exception of a reference to an event from a previous book that carried over into this one, it was easy to jump in without having read the earlier books. The commitment of the teens to God and prayer and their desire to see Shani make a commitment to believe was heartwarming. My heart broke for the ones whose parents sent them to boarding school so that they (the parents) could be unencumbered in their own lives, seeing their children as just another investment to be managed. The aspect of the book that just didn't set well with me was the attitude and focus of these multi-millionaire teens. I got more than a little weary with the weekly trips to the spa, the exclusive label shopping purchases, and the private clubs, the attitude of entitlement, and a few instances of inappropriate language. As a mom trying to instill contentment in my girl, I was a little hesitant about her reading it. But I did ask her to read it and we discussed it. She enjoyed the storyline and dismissed the parts that were unrealistic in comparison to her life. However, the overarching message of the book as Shani feels so manipulated and unloved by her parents, and as she eventually learns that she is the very best kind of princess, loved by the King, is one we all need to take to heart.




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