'Alone in the world, Sophie dreams of being someone special, but she could never have imagined this ... On a school trip to Russia, Sophie and her two friends find themselves on the wrong train. They are rescued by the beautiful Princess Anna Volkonskaya, who takes them to her winter palace and mesmerises them with stories of lost diamonds and a tragic past. But as night falls and wolves prowl, Sophie discovers more than dreams in the crumbling palace of secrets...'
I know that I should listen to the phrase 'never judge a book by it's cover', but there are so many times that I pick up a book because of how beautiful the artwork is that I find myself wanting to know what it's about, then being hooked by the blurb that I end up taking it home. This was what happened to me with The Wolf Princess. The cover has such beautiful, fairy-tale-like artwork that I found myself drawn to it straight away. Then the blurb managed to catch my attention.
'Alone in the world, Sophie dreams of being someone special, but she could never have imagined this ... On a school trip to Russia, Sophie and her two friends find themselves on the wrong train. They are rescued by the beautiful Princess Anna Volkonskaya, who takes them to her winter palace and mesmerises them with stories of lost diamonds and a tragic past. But as night falls and wolves prowl, Sophie discovers more than dreams in the crumbling palace of secrets ...'
I mean, that sounds great right? A snowy Russian palace in the middle of nowhere, wolves, a princess, lost jewels. This are all elements that make up an intriguing story. Unfortunately, the book never manages to capture me the way the cover and blurb did when I started reading it.
The lead character, Sophie, is something of a dull girl. She is much poorer than her friends at her boarding school, chiefly due to being an orphan, and hates being the centre of any kind of attention. Whilst seemingly clever enough to get by she doesn't stand out academically, and over the course of the book we learn that she doesn't possess any street smarts either. Sadly, this goes the same for her two friends, Delphine and Marianne, as neither one of them seems to have the intelligence to question what's happening throughout the process of the story, or how much danger the trio might be in.
Basically, and here follow spoilers, the three of them are intentionally put onto the wrong train during a trip to Russia by the woman who's supposed to be taking care of them during their stay. It turns out that this is all part of a plot by Princess Anna Feodorovna Volkonskaya to bring Sophie to her winter palace. As soon as the girls arrive at the palace it's clear that the Princess is not a nice person, and it's clear that she wants something from Sophie. Very quickly it's revealed that she's searching for lost family diamonds that went missing following the Russian Revolution, diamonds that are described looking exactly like the 'piece of old glass' that Sophie was given by her father.
It's painfully obvious to the reader at this point that Sophie is not only connected to the Volkonskaya family, but in possession of one of these missing diamonds. Coupled with the Princess being desperate for Sophie to sign some documents in Russian, and her being angry when she mistakes Delphine for Sophie it's clear that the Princess is not a good person. Yet it takes Sophie another 100 pages or so to make these connections herself.
The idea that Sophie is the descendent of the royal family that fled Russia following the revolution, that she has one of these special diamonds, and that unscrupulous people have a plot to get their hands on the fortune and want to use her to do it are all good ideas; however, the reader gets to these revelations so much quicker than Sophie. The amount of red flags that are raised are ridiculous, and Sophie still thinking that things are fine borders on the idiotic. As such I ended up not only hating her for not seeing what was right in front of her, but found that the book really dragged in the middle as nothing was really happening.
Unfortunately these faults were just too glaring for me to get over to really enjoy everything else the book offered. The setting was beautiful, and Cathryn Constable was able to craft clear images in my mind when describing the palace and the snow covered forests around it. It had a wonderful, fairy-tale quality to it. The once beautiful palace falling into ruins, and the white wolf howling in the forest in the middle of the night were such striking images. Sadly, they felt somewhat wasted on a slow plot and characters that made me want to pull my hair out.
The Wolf Princess is aimed at younger readers, and I'm sure that some people will find a lot here to like, but I can't help but think that even young teens will make the leap to realising that Sophie is a secret princess long before she does, and will get a little bored waiting for the penny to drop. Not a book that I would recommend to everyone, but not the worst way to pass the day.
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