Princess in Practise by Connie Glynn

Princess in Practise is the second book in the Rosewood Chronicles series. Friends Ellie Wolfson (Undercover Princess of Maradova) and Lottie Pumpkin (Portman - pretending to be the real Princess of Maradova to protect Ellie) are back for their second year at Rosewood Hall, but soon, they find themselves trying to solve the mystery of the strange poisonings that keep happening.

Nearly all the characters in this book were very imaginable, with a few exceptions. For example, Professor Duran, a science teacher who lets three students (claiming they want to tutor each other) have free reign of a science lab, and leave them alone entirely for long enough for them to complete a formula for a poison scientists from World War Two started, and presumably clear up a lot of scientific equipment including a Bunsen burner and a pink powder that smelt of rotting fish guts, though this is not mentioned.

The plot was engaging and enjoyable, as well as easy to follow, though it could have had a clearer ending. I found it hard to tell what happened when they left the sweet factory, and had to reread a chapter to figure it out. Unexpectedly, Rosewood School and Maladova both felt very real, through descriptions of how Lottie (who is probably the character most similar to us in where she lived up until the start of the story) sees these extremlely fancy places.

The whole book was very readable. Being told from Lottie’s point of view but occasionally jumping to other characters when Lottie wasn’t present for important bits made it a lot easier to know exactly what was happening. Names you didn’t know and never heard anything else about dropped into conversations helped it feel like a school setting. I think this book could be read easily whether or not you’d read the first book of the series, but the characters and their desisions made more sense if you knew where they came from.

I would rate the characters overall:

★★★★☆

I would rate the plot overall:

★★★★☆

I would rate the readability overall:

★★★★★

I would rate the book overall:

★★★★★