Staff Writer: James
Published Date: June 17, 2025
Number of pages: 416
Format: Book
Genre: Fantasy
Tags: Fairy Tale, Romantasy, Female Protagonist, LGBTQ+ friendly, Comedic
Cardigan rating out of 5: 4
Thoughts:
Someone wants to murder Princess Melilot. This is sadly normal.
Melilot is sick of being ordered to go on dangerous quests by her domineering stepmother. Especially since she always winds up needing to be rescued by her more magically talented stepsisters. And now, she's been commanded to marry a king she’s never met.
When hideous spider-wolves attack her on the journey to meet her husband-to-be, she is once again rescued—but this time, by twelve eerily similar-looking masked huntsmen. Soon, she has to contend with near-constant attempts on her life, a talking lion that sets bewildering gender tests, and a king who can't recognize his true love when she puts on a pair of trousers. And all the while, she has to fight her growing attraction to not only one of the huntsmen, but also her fiancé’s extremely attractive sister.
If Melilot can't unravel the mysteries and rescue herself from peril, kingdoms will fall. Worse, she could end up married to someone she doesn’t love.
Okay, just go with me here, This Princess Kills Monsters is a classic fairy tale filtered through romantasy, mixed with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and sardonic jokes added. If that caught your attention, I think you’ll enjoy this as much as I did. I was completely unfamiliar with the original fairy tale of the twelve huntsmen this is based off of. This doesn’t matter as you get a quick synopsis in the opening pages and then it is thrown screaming out the window in favor of a far more appealing story.
Tropes are skewered, genders are bent, expectations are twisted, and the whole story, which by all rights should have gone completely off the rails, is kept intact and oddly charming in its own irrepressible way. Princess Melilot starts as a flawed and world-weary character but she heals and comes to grips with her life and the role others take in it, for good or ill. I wonder if sarcastic life affirmation is a new thing? It should be.
While the story is fun, there is only so much you can do when you expand a fairy tale into a novel. Princess Melilot’s journey into who she is to become is the real crux of the book. Yes you get adventure, battles, peril, and dragons, but they’re all just scenery along the way as she deals with mother issues, sibling inferiority, and conflicting attractions. This Princess Kills Monsters is a fun trampling of various fairy tales that hides a far more wholesome story underneath.
Other books (somewhat) similar: Swordheart by T. Kingfisher and That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming.