It is time for another Trope Tuesday Link-Up! This week is the Lost Royal. As a reminder each week there will be a trope for you to use as inspiration, find the trope list here. All post types are welcome: lists, book reviews, anything really, feel free to make it your own. Please link back to All the Books and Chocolate in your own post so that others know where to find more information. You can find the link-up link at the bottom of the page.
Lost Royal
The Lost Royal is nothing new. A prince or princess (usually) has been kidnapped, thought killed, etc. turns up unexpectedly. This is usually met with one side being overjoyed and the other side being none too pleased to see this person.
Today I am going to talk about three books that subvert – at least a little bit this trope. For the most part, the fact that the main character is a lost royal of some sort is not a big spoiler, but just to be safe SPOILERS ahead.
Red Queen
Let me first start out by saying that while I enjoyed this book, the rest of the series was not my favorite. The Red Queen is great because the Lost Royal story is a ruse. A story made up about a girl that exhibits powers she should not have, to keep the status quo.
Switched
I read Switched a long time ago – back in 2012, but I still think about it and I think it may warrant a re-read from me. This book centers on the changeling myth, and so rather than the Royal being lost, in this case, Wendy, a fae, was purposely switched out as a baby to be raised by humans.
LIFEL1K3
Of the three books I think LIFEL1K3 does the best at subverthing the Lost Royal trope. It’s a retelling of Anastasia so you sort of alrady know something is going on. I won’t get into details, but this is a Jay Kristoff book after all…