Disney Princess Book Tag

The Disney Princess Tag was originally created by Soudha of Stacks and Cups.

So, we weren't actually tagged for this so much that Dani saw it and we decided it looked like way too much fun to not do.

Dani's Disney Princess Facts:

1. My martial arts school did a series on fighting fans after a bunch of us saw the Mulan scene with Shan-yu and the sword.
2. Belle was my favorite, but I dressed as Cinderella for three Halloweens in a row?
3. I have four of Shoomlah's Historical Disney Princesses hanging in my bedroom.

Jessie's Disney Princess Facts:

1. I can't pick one favorite princess but have a top three: Rapunzel, Mulan, and Belle.
2. I have had a Belle, a Pocahontas, and a Mulan-themed birthday party.
3. Christian Bale voices Thomas in Pocahontas and more people need to know this.

Jessie: Well, I went through a pretty pretentious stage in my mid to late teens. I read a lot of classics and grew out of that phase in my early 20s. So my favorites tend to be stuffy old men like Homer (The Iliad more than The Odyssey).

Dani: The Importance of Being Earnest. I love a drawing room farce. I actually kind of hate classics, but I'll always make an exception for Wilde.

Dani: A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James, which is actually a Cinderella retelling! I literally finished as the sun popped over the treetops and an hour before my husband had to leave for work. Oops.

Jessie: Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly! With that one, I was up until three am on a night when I worked at seven the next day. I could not put that book down and I did not want to. And in fact when I was tempted, there was this from earlier in the book as proof that I was meant to stay up...

Jessie: I'm hard pressed to think of one other than Pride and Prejudice. <3 I don't love all of Austen's novels, but P&P was my first exposure to her and it was a lasting impression.

Dani: idon'thaveone

Look, a dancing bear!

Dani: The Newsflesh series. Without too many spoilers for later books, the sacrifices George and Shawn make in pursuit of the news and adventure respectively are...extreme and Blackout especially focuses on achieving that goal of truth.

Jessie: I thought that Alina from Bardugo's first Grisha series  was a great and imperfect character who underwent a lot of strife and struggle for her people. She never wanted to be a saint, or to be a leader, but she was and she did, even at great personal cost.

Dani: Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. Vin, the real main character of the book, grows from this scared waif doing what it takes to survive to a lead member of a team and resistance fighter. She has help and friends and mentors, but when the chips are down, who jumps through that window? Vin.

Jessie: Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Laini Taylor. I love Karou something fierce. I love that she's realistic and authentic and flawed and smart. She loves Akiva (I love Akiva), but that's not something that defines her or her story.

Jessie: Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed! This book is so very good and touched on a lot of important things in a short amount of time.

Dani: Serena Barton from The Governess Affair. She's a governess for a duke - poor, untitled, and without protection. So when her employer takes advantage, Serena's decision to plant her increasingly pregnant ass on the pavement outside his mansion would be challenging in modern days, never mind Victorian England.

Jessie: I'm gonna have to go with Illuminae and Gemina by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman and be as vague as possible. Even after all that had happened, all that inventiveness in both books... I didn't see how they would wrap each up.

Dani: Lady Thief by A.C. Gaughen. The first book in the Scarlet series had a very exciting ending, but the sequel left me with whiplash. We're up. We're down. People are dead. People are married. V. rude.

Dani: Sirantha Jax in Grimspace by Anne Aguirre. Literally. She's going to kick your ass.

Jessie: The Last Mortal Bond by Brian Staveley. This is a fantasy inspired by Tang-era Japan but also invents a species of giant birds used by ninjas for stealth missions. There are a lot of disparately kickass women in this series but there are two that need to be specifically mentioned: Gwenna and Pyrre.



Jessie: Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys. I feel like this is the perfect fit for Tiana -- not only does Josie work hard for her goals and to be successful, she does so in Louisiana.

Dani: Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment is all about girls working hard and finding their own success in male dominated fields. Polly is of course the first and most obvious example, but all of the soldiers become the kind of self-made women Tiana would approve of. 

Dani: Cam Girl by Leah Raeder. Vada's art is a huge part of her character and the loss of it is the driving force for a lot of the rest of the novel.

Jessie: Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley. There are two different kinds of artists in this lovely little book, but Shadow's is by far my favorite.

Jessie: The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton. All of Morton's novels like to delve into nuanced the relationships between kids and their parents but The Secret Keeper is perhaps the one most concerned with it.

Dani: Devoted by Jennifer Mathieu. Note the prompt does not say good relationship. Rachel's struggle with her mother's depression and her role in keeping Rachel indoctrinated in the cult is heavy and tragic and reminds us that not all mothers are doing their best to keep us safe.

Dani: The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine. Oh my god. This childhood favorite reminds me so much of my sister, Michelle, who's a total Meryl. I am literally incapable of reading the last 30 pages without crying.

Me. Right now. Thinking about that scene.

Jessie: Chime by Franny Billingsley. The relationship between the two sisters of Rose and Briony is complicated, full of depth, and what propels the plot of the novel.