Shadow in Glass

ALTERNATE HISTORY:  “Shadow in Glass” starts with an explosion in Carrie’s office building. A chunk of falling debris knocks out the aspiring journalist and she awakes as a princess named Barbara. With each person she meets, she discovers the princess is an unlikable, selfish person. Everyone else accepts she’s a spoiled royal and her initial fluster about the situation is the result of head trauma. Carrie finds herself faced with an opulent lifestyle that is very different from her old one complete, with a demanding fiancé. A car accident kills her beloved brother and turns the new princess into a bitter recluse who withdraws from royal life.

Princess Barbara lives in an alternative version of the United States where the Albanese family rules over the country, but familiar institutions still remain. As the princess, she starts college and hangs with girlfriends, but is incognito - as incognito as a girl can be with guards, a driver, and a retinue of other staff that lurk near Princess Barbara (Carrie).

“Shadow in Glass” offers s familiar girlish fantasy of being a secret princess. Despite the length of the story, the characters remain amazingly flat. Content is devoted to college life minutia, including sections from the textbook. The highlight is the conversation between the roommates. Jason, the lackluster love interest, comes in half way through the book. A beta reader or another round of editing could have eliminated the plot holes. “Shadow in Glass” combines a Cinderella fantasy with a Princess Diaries sensibility, which should please readers.

Morgan Stamm