Believe Impossible Things

Cover image used with permission of the author.

Diary of a Teenage Faërie Princess
by C.B. Smith
https://www.createspace.com/3346382
Trade Paperback: 260 pages
Publisher: Raging Squirrel Press
Rating: 4 stars of 5 possible

Jaynie Morrison is a sixteen-year-old girl with an insatiable need for adventure. She satisfies this desire by causing all manner of random mischief, making her material nuisance number one. But with her seventeenth birthday imminent, a snag in her material world arrives - random magical happenings.

Her father once claimed that her mother was a Faërie Queen, who vanished shortly after Jaynie turned three. Jaynie wonders if her father is telling the truth. She wonders if her mother really vanished after all. But mostly she is confused and wonders if her mother's Faërie magic is causing the magical happenings that have invaded her world. In Diary of a Teenage Faërie Princess, Jaynie sets out to answer these questions.

This novel starts off slow, with a description of the cosmos and the creation of planet earth that does nothing for the main story. The entire first chapter could be cut with no harm to, and indeed, with possible improvement of the story. The next few chapters provide a basis for the character of Jaynie with some outrageousness about her shoes and some monkeys that make absoutely no sense... but they are kinda fun chapters at that... still, a condensation of this material to about half the words and only one chapter would move the story along a bit better... Don't let the slow beginning stop you from finishing this enjoyable story, which picks up a bit when Jaynie begins the search for her mother and the answers to her questions. It's well worth the time spent reading.

Over all, Diary of a Teenage Faërie Princess is a fun read for those who like their fantasy chock full of adventure with a few abusrdities tucked in for good measure. Parts of the adventure in Sörmlandia remind me of The White Queen, from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll saying “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Believing impossible things is good for the imagination and brings out the creative side of humans... we should all get more practice in such beliefs.

Recommended for Fantasy readers ages 14 and up who are looking for a good adventure and a fairly quick read.