Our hero tries to fight a dragon.
Miss Prince is a book by Teen/Young Adult writer Alicia L. Wright. It can be bought here
and artworks drawn by the writer about the book can be found here on deviantArt.
The book is related to and set in the same continuity as Vampires Dont Belong In Fairytales.
Thankfully we have more than one trope:
- Action Girls: Rent-A-Legend.
- Aerith and Bob: We have some people with names like 'Saharaleia' and 'Alucard' alongside names like 'Lucinda' and 'Rosie'. Although these people come from different countries and different planets so it is natural they have different types of names.
- Affectionate Parody: The book itself.
- All Myths Are True: Since most of the book takes place in the places where such myths stem from.
- Because Destiny Says So: The fear of Story Karma. Specifically when Alucard runs away from the fight at Polvan.
- Better than a Bare Bulb
- Big Bad: Alucard, the vampire overlord.
- Big Good: Sara, the boss of Rent-A-Legend.
- Brick Joke: Lucinda notes that Sara could do with something to sit on in the Rent-A-Legend offices. By the end of the book it's made apparent that she's been given something better than a simple chair.
- Chekhovs Weapon: Sara's acid.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: The Otherworlders seem that to people on Earth (and vice-versa). This also applies to fairies. It certainly applies to Erlina ("What do you mean I'm naked?")
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: The male residents of Polvan are back on the mainland but the females, who believe that mermaids are behind the whole thing, are furious because houses and boats have been destroyed and the town is a mess.
- Crazy-Prepared: Sara contracting Vincent.
- Deadpan Snarker: Most of the characters snark at least once.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: A whole host of species are featured or at least mentioned.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: The story itself isn't this but Lucinda, the protagonist, must fix several broken stories in the hope that they become at least recognisable as fairytales.
- Gilded Island: The place of kidnap where Lucinda finds Prince Charming and the male residents of Polvan.
- Giving Radio to the Romans: Johann's multiple mod-cons and Sara's swivel chair.
- Genre Savvy: Everybody with good reason: Story Karma will not discriminate against those who aren't.
- Improbably Female Cast:
- Justified in that the main character, Lucinda, is hired to be a prince because they keep running out of real ones. The real ones tend to get married to the first princess they rescue, thus becoming kings, who do not rescue people. There is also a surplus of princesses. As Gerda explains: “It's traditional to 'ave lots of daughters, in large numbers, sixes or twelves, each more lovely than the last and all that nonsense. But princes usually come in ones or threes. I'm sure you can do the math.”
- Johann, Charming and, to a lesser extent, Vincent make up 20% of male protagonistics.
- It's a Small World, After All
- Lampshade Hanging
- Laser-Guided Karma: There are things you are supposed to do or not do depending on your species, title or job. For example: no matter how good and virtuous you are, if you a princess you are going to get kidnapped/cursed/overthrown at some point. Being good won't save your parents from story karma killing them if it makes a good story. A good king is a lot more likely to get killed if he tries going into battle than a bad one, who will no doubt have to be taken down by a plucky hero.
- Magic Versus Science: The advent of technology and industrialisation has stripped Earth of its once-full wellspring of magic and as such many of the species that rely on it moved out generations ago.
- Micro Monarchy: Not any of the kingdoms we're actually concerned with, but definitely a feature of the Otherworlds. When your world runs on stories, there's a surplus of princesses and the reward for rescuing one is half the kingdom and her hand in marriage, well... as Gerda says “Most of the kingdoms you get round here are little more than a castle with a town attached. Leads to a lot of fightin', particularly at the point when someone ends up with 'alf a castle.”
- Modest Royalty: Everybody with a royal title. Exceptions are Prince Charming and the nameless king in chapter 2.
- Muggle Power: Sara hires skilled fighters with the same respect as skilled mages.
- Mystical White Hair: Incorporating Disease Bleach and Locked into Strangeness.
- Numbered Homeworld: The Rent-A-Legend doors have symbols describing the location they link to.
- Older Is Better: Hence why species that rely on magic tend to live in a Medieval Stasis. Doesn't stop Johann from having the occasional microwave meal however.
- Our Fairies Are Different: If by different you mean based in folklore.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Though the vampires act like the bat-fancying, cape wearing kind, they are actually basically human mages with pointy teeth.
- Pantheon Sitcom: The Stollenheim estrangement comes across like this at first. Then Johann joins Rent-A-Legend's cause...
- Playing with a Trope: Everything.
- Portal Door/Portal Network: The hallway of otherworld doors in the Rent-A-Legend offices. They all lead to different destinations.
- Princess Incognito: The daughter of the nameless king.
- Read the Fine Print
- Rescue Reversal: Prince Charming, the archetypal hero, is "rescued" by Lucinda a prince in training.
- Role Called / Job Title: Lucinda is a young female (Miss) and her job is that of a fairly common fairy tale character (Prince). It's Prince Charming who calls her this.
- Ship Tease
- Shout-Out: Harry Potter, Shining Force (or any JRPG, really), Professor Layton, Adventure Time, Shrek, Dexter's Laboratory, and a whole load of fairytales to boot.
- Talking Animal: the hippie lion and the unicorns.
- Tempting Fate: Story karma pays attention to this.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Sara's rebels.
- Your Vampires Suck: Half the vampires in the Otherworlds are very annoyed that they're supposed to lurk in castles not drinking wine just because some vampire popularised it a hundred and odd years ago. The other half however are very annoyed that the younger vampires don't wear capes or do the accent.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Johann and Alucard. Their Magic Pants are untouched in the processes!
