Tears of a Princess by Laura Thomas is the upper middle-grade sequel to the novel Tears to Dancing. It follows the main character’s best friend, Natasha, as she deals with the news of her parent's divorce and accompanies Bethany on a mission trip to Mexico that changes her perspective forever.
Although some elements of the novel were written better than the first book, there were still two persisting drawbacks. The first was the characters, all of which were one or two-dimensional. Even Natasha, who we were supposedly watching transform from a spoiled rich girl to a selfless and caring Christian, had most of her character development done throughout the year gap between the end of the first book and the start of the second. While the girl in the first book was careless, narcissistic, and vapid, in the second book Natasha has much more substance, dealing with a few emotional outbursts, which she quickly apologizes for. I was looking forward to watching the dramatic change, but instead it seemed as though she had already accomplished most of the change without God.
Another drawback was the dialogue. Rather than letting readers discover what a character was feeling and how they were changing, the author used exposition for the characters to communicate to each other. While their thoughts were more abstract and natural, their dialogue was blunt, no-nonsense, and to the point, even during very emotional scenes. This made it difficult to read, especially in scenes that were supposed to be the most powerful.
One thing that I appreciated about this work was the overarching themes that were missing from the first. Both tears, the sunrise, and the idea of Natasha being a “princess” were echoed throughout the work. Natasha’s transformation from being her father’s “princess” as a term of indulging endearment to thinking of herself as being a princess as the daughter of the King of kings had a special impact because of its intentionality. Tying in tears as her way of breaking her family’s picture-perfect facade and becoming more honest with people around her also enhanced the continuity of the work and made the resolution much more conclusive than it would have been otherwise.
Aside from this, the plot was also more coherent, allowing a more natural flow between events than the first book, and the overarching themes made the ending far more complete and satisfying. This ending made the ideas it had to offer much more impactful, creating a stronger lead-up to the trilogy’s finale, Tears, Fears, and Fame.
