The Princess Who Saved Herself. More suited for a six-year-old than a 19-year-old but still worth mentioning for completeness’ sake. Also, I prefer the original Jonathan Coulton song to the book, frankly.
There’s also The Princess Diaries(now a major motion picture or two).
And there are plenty of Adventure Time books which involve a stupid number of princesses. Here’s one graphic novelfeaturing some of them.
The Hero and the Crown is fan-freakin-tastic.
Beauty by Sheri Tepper retells some classic fairy tales (as the title might indicate). The main character is actually the daughter of a Duke, but cites references that demonstrate such should be considered “princesses” as well.
Yes it is and it is a prequel to The Blue Sword which was mentioned earlier.
It’s YA but Patricia C. Wrede’s Dealing With Dragons is about a princess and quite funny.
Two error corrections, as noted above, to my own quotes. With hopes the mods forgive me.
I was going to suggest this one also. Technically it’s a different spin on the Sleeping Beauty story. It’s very good.
This was going to be my recommendation. There are actually four books in the series, all of which involve Princess Cimorene, although she’s only the protagonist in the first one.
I haven’t read this one, but Princess Academy by Shannon Hale is a YA novel about non-royal girls who are attending a school that’s supposed to prepare them to for being princesses. The local prince intends to choose one of them as his bride.
The Chicks in Chainmail series does include quite a few princesses. And accountants. And dragons. And…
I feel like I’ve been running into princesses in stories a ton lately. I’m writing this to try to remind myself to look up the books I’m thinking of when I get home.
The Rose of the Prophet trilogy centers around a prince from a pseudo-Arabian nomadic tribe, a princess from a warring tribe and young pseudo-European wizard. During a war among the gods, the deity of the nomads forces the two tribes to join via marriage, the prince is looking for a submissive bride, the princess of course is the exact opposite (fiery disposition, rides horses, etc) and the predictable clash of personalities ensues with the predictable conclusion. Was still a fun read though.
Blue Moon Rising by Simon Green and its sequel are about a prince and princess equally.
There’s always “The Paper Bag Princess”. Quick read. Worth a revisit.
Filed under “non-traditional princesses” would be Archangel by Sharon Shinn.
Mortals in the book world are watched over by angels, chief among which is the Archangel. The Archangel is required to marry a mortal woman who becomes the Angelica and rules with him. The current Archangel, Gabriel, is informed of his divinely selected bride, Rachel, a former nomad turned slave. She’s naturally less excited about the deal than he is (and his enthusiasm is purely from sense of duty), adventure and romance ensue. She was divinely selected from birth to become the Angelica so she was technically a princess all along. Although book one in a series, it’s stand alone.
Here are some of the ones I was thinking of.
Exceptional
Spindle’s End, by Robin McKinley (mentioned upthread). A reimagining of Sleeping Beauty that is just brilliant.
Quite good
A Brief History of Montmaray, by Michelle Cooper. For those who love I Capture the Castle.
Cinder, by Marissa Meyer. A retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale starring… a cyborg.
The Sentinel Mage, by Emily Gee. Straight up epic fantasy.
Princess Ben, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. Ben is a really good character in this YA novel.
The Girl of Fire and Thorns, by Rae Carson. The first is fine. The next two are better.
Readable
Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale. It’s cute!
The Princess and the Hound, by Mette Ivie Harrison. Slightly odd, but it’s nicely offbeat.
Just Ella and Palace of Mirrors, by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Readable. Not necessarily much more.
**
Kinda-sorta princesses**
Troubled Waters, by Sharon Shinn. She’s not really a princess, but it might fit the bill. The first sequel definitely has a princess.
Crown Duel and Court Duel, by Sherwood Smith.
When growing up in the late 60’s I read this book.
It’s called The High King’s Daughter, and takes place in Ireland, circa the tenth century. Alfred is king of England. The princess in the book is an older teen, and doesn’t like the constraints her rank places on her. Lot’s of adventure, a Viking invasion, and later on, an Irish prince too.
If you do go with Xanth, I’d suggest not giving her anything later than Man From Mundania. That’s near the threshold where Anthony got creepy and quasi-pedo. I think the creepy didn’t really show itself until later than that. There are even more princesses in later books, but that’s smack square in the middle of the pedo phase.
Three classics, oldies but goodies by George MacDonald
This one, “The Light Princess,” is really an extended short story
Parts 1 and 2, The Princess and the Goblin
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34339/34339-h/34339-h.htm
and The Princess and Curdie
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/36612/36612-h/36612-h.htm
All of Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain, starting with The Book of Three, feature Princess Eilonwy.
What about Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted?
And my favorite film about a princess is Roman Holiday. Audrey Hepburn makes a lovely princess.
Yeah, I’m sure there were probably options after that, but I would avoid them, on the whole. Even if, by whatever chance, they end up non-pedo, you would still have to deal with the fact that he was writing by numbers by that point.
Misty also has a few princesses in her deconstructed fairy tale series, The 500 Kingdoms.
“The Prisoner of Zenda” has a princess as one of the main characters.