This is the first book in a new trilogy and the title character is a young woman named Miranda Popescu, a girl in her teens living in western Massachusetts. But all that's about to change as she soon learns that she's a princess from an alternate world where Roumania is one of Europe's power players in the 19th century. She and two of her friends find themselves back in this world and somewhat changed in the process. There's political intrigue and interesting characters doing weird things. There's conjurers, spirit animals, simulacrums masquerading as real people, and other oddness. It all makes for a curiously bizarre yet sometimes confusing tale. But ultimately you start piecing together the confusing elements and it's an enjoyable book. Looking forward to continuing this trilogy. (Also, I've read this author before and he's got a unique imagination.) ( )

Miranda Popescu is adopted. She was originally from Romania, but now she lives in Eastern Massachusetts with her parents and her best friend, Andromeda. Odd things have been happening, though. Strange teens, seemingly with sinister intentions, show up at her school. They stick together and speak with accents. Are they Romanian? Are they somehow connected to the past Miranda can't remember?

I really wanted to like this book. In fact, the first half of it was pretty fast-paced and I felt driven to keep going. After an understanding of what was going on came, however, I felt that the pace just dropped. I became frustrated as, instead of characters making decisions, I felt like Miranda and her friends were moved along like pawns on some pointless journey. By the time I decided I didn't really care anymore, I didn't have much left to read of the book so I finished it anyways. I didn't hate it, but didn't love it either. ( )

Don't be fooled by the title. This isn't about vampires, and it isn't about princesses, at least not in the fairy tale sense.[b:A Princess of Roumania|511612|A Princess of Roumania|Paul Park|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175396782s/511612.jpg|1524141] was a fascinating, wonderful read. It reminds me a bit of [a:Diana Wynne Jones|4260|Diana Wynne Jones|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1193516584p2/4260.jpg], but it doesn't have the same sense of rushing towards an ending where everything will almost-but-not-quite make sense, that you have to reread three or four times. (DWJ fans will know what I'm talking about.) It starts off seeming to be a standard cross-world fantasy, but the world that Miranda (the protagonist) crosses into slowly reveals itself, becomes more shocking, more wondrous, more different.One thing that took me by surprise was realizing that this very adult-feeling book was about a young girl who menstruates for the first time during the course of the book - on-camera, even. I really appreciate that. The way Miranda is described rings a lot truer to me than most descriptions of teenagers, perhaps because she takes herself just as seriously as I take myself. This isn't about an adult looking back at teenagerhood and moralizing, it's about a teenager living her (strange, fantastical) life.And the writing's lovely too.The only thing that stops me from giving this book five stars is that it's so much the beginning of a series. I don't think I can properly rate it five until I know what the denouement will be, and we haven't gotten there yet. I feel as though there are lots of little theme-tendrils just poking their heads out of the ground, and pretty soon I'll see them grow, but later, not yet. ( )

Don't be fooled by the title. This isn't about vampires, and it isn't about princesses, at least not in the fairy tale sense.[b:A Princess of Roumania|511612|A Princess of Roumania|Paul Park|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175396782s/511612.jpg|1524141] was a fascinating, wonderful read. It reminds me a bit of [a:Diana Wynne Jones|4260|Diana Wynne Jones|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1193516584p2/4260.jpg], but it doesn't have the same sense of rushing towards an ending where everything will almost-but-not-quite make sense, that you have to reread three or four times. (DWJ fans will know what I'm talking about.) It starts off seeming to be a standard cross-world fantasy, but the world that Miranda (the protagonist) crosses into slowly reveals itself, becomes more shocking, more wondrous, more different.One thing that took me by surprise was realizing that this very adult-feeling book was about a young girl who menstruates for the first time during the course of the book - on-camera, even. I really appreciate that. The way Miranda is described rings a lot truer to me than most descriptions of teenagers, perhaps because she takes herself just as seriously as I take myself. This isn't about an adult looking back at teenagerhood and moralizing, it's about a teenager living her (strange, fantastical) life.And the writing's lovely too.The only thing that stops me from giving this book five stars is that it's so much the beginning of a series. I don't think I can properly rate it five until I know what the denouement will be, and we haven't gotten there yet. I feel as though there are lots of little theme-tendrils just poking their heads out of the ground, and pretty soon I'll see them grow, but later, not yet. ( )

This is a complicated and involved story about a girl who grows up in our world and finds herself one day in another world, Her friends come with her but are changed by the change in worlds. She has to work out what her place in the world is and how to keep herself alive, also she has to find out what the clues left for her mean. She's unsure who to trust and whether the people she's trusting are real.

It's not a bad book but it didn't have me rushing out to find the next book in the series. What it did leave me with is an urge to find out more about that period and what "really" happened. ( )