Two Moon Princess by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban

In a fictional world full of medieval castles and kings and knights, Andrea has never wanted to be the princess her parents expect her to become. So Andrea herself finds a way to make her dreams come true. One unexpected evening she finds a portal from her home world into modern California and her life is forever changed afterwards. To help her navigate the unfamiliar world of beaches and universities and parties, Andrea finds help in her Tio Ramiro who has been living a double life between the two worlds for many years. Much as she doesn't want to return home, Andrea does indeed find her way back to Xaren-Ra with her crush John in tow. But Andrea had no idea such a simple accident could stir up such trouble within her family -- even to the point of sparking a war.

I've always had a special spot for fish-out-of-water stories, where characters are thrust into unfamiliar circumstances and expected to survive on their wits alone so Two Moon Princess struck an immediate chord with me. And for most of the novel, Andrea is just that - a young girl trying to figure out where she belongs. One of Andrea's strengths is that she is extremely stubborn and refuses to give up on her dreams but that same trait also helped her to make some pretty poor choices. Often I found myself wanting to yell at her to simply open her eyes to the reality of her circumstances and the feelings of others around her.

Although I felt like Andrea's world of Xaren-Ra was brought to life with great detail, much of the specifics of Andrea's life were pretty much glossed over to the point of extreme vagueness. I never had a clue how old characters actually were and it seemed there were too many coincidences to really ever make the story truly believable. Two Moon Princess was a story that has lots of promise but just failed in the end to capture me like I was hoping.

series reading order:
~ Two Moon Princess
~ The King in the Stone

Because Everyone Likes a Second Opinion:
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One Book At a Time review
Poisoned Rationality review
Ticket to Anywhere review

book source: The Teen Book Scene tour