Audiobook Review – The Frog Princess (Tales of the Frog Princess, Book 1) by E.D. Baker, Narrated by Katherine Kellgren (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 5 hours and 18 minutes
Publisher: Recorded Books
Release Date: October 05, 2005
ASIN: B000BO2D7I
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Tales of the Frog Princess
Source: Audiobook borrowed
Rating: 3/5 stars
“Princess Emma will do just about anything to get out of marrying the self-centered Prince Jorge. So when she meets a frog named Eadric who claims, of course, to be a prince, she decides to give him a kiss and see what happens. Bad idea. The frog stays a frog, and worse still, Emma turns into a frog herself. It turns out only the person who cast the spell can break it, so Emma and Eadric are soon hopping along trying to find the witch who can make them human again. This clever twist on the classic fairy tale is full of good-natured fun and romance.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Tales of the Frog Princess series. I borrowed this audiobook through Audible Escapes.
Audiobook Quality (4/5): The audiobook was decently done, no complaints. The narrator was easy to listen to and did character voices well.
Story (3/5): This is a very simple story intended for a younger audience, I did not enjoy it much, it was just too simple for me. It’s a typical fairy tale with a bit of a twist. The plot is very basic and it is written at a low reading level and predictable. It’s not a bad story, I just didn’t find it all that interesting. The premise of the story is that Princess Emma wants to get out of marrying Prince Jorge so she kisses a frog in the swamp who says he’s a prince. Instead Emma herself is turned into a frog and her and the frog (Eadric) now both have to figure out how to be turned human again.
Characters (2/5): The characters were okay I guess. They are very over characterized and very one dimensional. I thought Emma’s humored tolerance of Eadric’s ridiculousness was silly and patronizing. Eadric was a pretty lame character and because of his denseness was unable to form any type of equal partnership with Emma. All the characters in here were childish and somewhat annoying.
Setting (3/5): This whole story is set in a very typical type of fairy tale world. You got your basic castle, spooky forest, etc. Nothing special here.
Writing Style (2/5): The whole story is written in a very simple and straight-forward style. It comes across as an over-characterized fairy tale, yes there is a twist but it was more silly than ironic. I just didn’t enjoy this. Looking back at my reviews I have also read “The Wide-Awake Princess” and felt the same way about that book. I might have enjoyed Baker’s writing style when I was five or six years old, but now I just find it predictable, bland and boring. These are definitely not stories that carry over well to adults.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this is a cute and very simple princess story that is better suited for younger readers than adults. Everything is very simple, very predictable, and pretty darn boring. I didn’t enjoy the characters or the setting, but technically there’s nothing wrong with the story. There just wasn’t much here that appealed to me despite my love of fairy tale retellings. I have come to the solid conclusion that I just don’t enjoy ED Baker’s writing style and will be looking elsewhere for more fairy retellings to read.
