Palace of Stone

Princess Academy, Book 2

By: Shannon Hale

Narrated by: Cynthia Bishop

Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

Coming down from the mountain to a new life in the city is a thrill to Miri. She and her princess academy friends have been brought to Asland to help the future princess Britta prepare for her wedding. There, Miri also has a chance to attend school - at the Queen's Castle. But as Miri befriends students who seem sophisticated and exciting she also learns that they have some frightening plans.

Torn between loyalty to the princess and her new friends' ideas, between an old love and a new crush, and between her small mountain home and the bustling city, Miri looks to find her own way in this new place.

Picking up where Princess Academy left off, and celebrating the joys of friendship, romance and the fate of fairy tale kingdoms, this new book delivers the completely delightful new story that fans have been waiting for.

©2012 Shannon Hale (P)2012 AudioGO

Great book

I love it👍❕😍
Easy to read
I read it in a day
I like the other books in the series

Palace of stone

This book is awesome series is very well written and read enjoyed it all love to hear more

Reviewed as a comparison to Princess Academy,Book1

I began with the first Princess Academy book and I loved it. Overall, Shannon Hale, with her other books (Enna Burning) is a great author.

The second book is a nice continuation of the first.

Pros
-I enjoyed the cute narration and musical quality that comes with Shannon Hale's audiobooks. The whole thing is a sensory experience and drew me into the story. I enjoy Full-Cast audio, multiple voices and sound effects. If you do too, then you will probably like this version.

-Cynthia Bishop, the narrator, emphasizes in the right places and shows that she really understands what she is reading.

-Teaches good morals for young girls (there is talk of muscles and dancing and kissing, so take that into consideration before letting young girls listen to this : ) *

Cons
-At times, the story felt boring. There is action, but it felt a little forced and I was left wanting more.
-Sometimes the music in the beginning was a little cheesy, even for me, because the songs at the beginning of some chapters sounded almost ridiculous (like someone imitating an Adam Sandler's Opera Man!)
-Many times when I thought the story would end, it kept going, as if the author couldn't decide on how to bring everything to a satisfying conclusion.

Overall, this was not Hale's best book (try Enna Burning), but it will not stop me from listening to her other titles. I enjoy the light-hearted purity of all of her stories. *It would be great for 6th graders to listen to.

torn

The story is great and I would read it again, but the acting is something only a child would enjoy because it is too young. and I'm sorry but I hate the music between chapters because it pulls attention away from the story and feels as though the book is over every 20 min.

zero diversity of any kind

I think I would call this book quaint... well I read the first two books... besides one character with a limp arm there is no diversity of any kind there's no diversity of thinking no diversity of skin color no diversity of personality no diversity of genders no diversity of relationship types.

if you want to program your daughter to be a strong independent woman that believes that her life is supposed to be service and marriage then this series is great.

as someone who prefers to have a little bit more complexity and diversity in it... it didn't feel very satisfying.

it definitely teaches somebody to be brave and to take chances... but it also bases it on psychic abilities... And the people who don't have the psychic abilities don't act brave.

so although I did really enjoy these two books... honestly... I cannot recommend them.

Fantasy with a reality vein

Though magic language of rock renders this a fantasy tale, the ability of emotions of young love to pull us in multiple ways is real. Separating passion for a person and a cause is such a common experience that it is a wonder that more fantasy writers haven't explored it. Great book, although we can only wish the happily ever after denoument could spill over into our world.

Fun, fanciful, YA story

This is another well-done full-cast audiobook. Pardon any misspellings I make because I haven't actually seen the words or names. :)

Another very sweet and exciting story! I'm glad I discovered these books! It was great seeing Miri and friends continue to grow and explore beyond Mount Eskel, discovering who they are and what they want to do with their lives. I also loved a plot twist related to the royal family, the continuing use of quarry speech, and discovering new things about linder. Then there were the deeper themes about ethics, loyalty, the importance of history, and so on. Something I particularly appreciated was the value placed on human life in this book. While change needed to happen in the government in order to make things better for the people who were suffering, it was good to see Miri realizing that the ends DO NOT justify the means, and striving to find a balance between two extreme viewpoints and find a solution that didn't involve violence and the murder, and yet still brought the change that was needed. In our modern-day world where there are so many extreme viewpoints that, sadly, often result in violence in various forms, this concept of taking the time to really think and take ethical action instead of knee-jerk reactions is a concept I think should be put on display more often.

The only thing I could have done without was the love triangle. It wasn't the most prominent or infuriating triangle ever, and I do feel Miri learned some things from it, but A) I liked the guy from the first story a lot better (Sorry, I have no idea how to spell his name!) and B) I was feeling like the new guy was being awfully fast moving. Like, you've known her for how long and you're already proposing marriage?

Anyway, while I would have preferred Miri not be divided between two guys, that sub-plot didn't take away from things enough for me to subtract from my rating, and it worked out in a way I found satisfactory.

Content advisory for those who want to know

Violence: There was more violence and threatened violence in this book than in the first one, but none of it is graphic or gross. There were mobs who threatened violence and shot at people with guns, attempted assassinations mainly involving gunfire, non-descriptive mentions of fallen bodies after one attempted assassination, someone being held at gunpoint, someone actually being shot and a brief mention of blood, threats of execution, learning (in a non-descriptive way) about executions by beheading that happened in other cities due to violent revolution.

Swearing: None.

Infrequent name calling mainly included "stupid".

Sexual content: A few hand-kisses, a cheek kiss, about three kisses on the lips, two described in terms of warmth and racing hearts, the other not described at all. Hand-holding, nearness, and the warmth these things cause are mentioned.

Worldviews: Like in the first book, there are very brief mentions of a "Creator God", mentions of chapels and going to chapels, but I don't recall any description related to methods of worship or anything along those lines, and we see nothing in relation to individual character's faith or lack thereof.

HATED the performance!

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Maybe a child wouldn't mind the terrible, stilted performances of the various voice actors...

Who was your favorite character and why?

I loved Miri, as always. She is smart and real.

How could the performance have been better?

Let one person, an actual actor or voice-over actor, do the reading!!!! The people doing the various voices were so wooden and bad that I finally had to stop listening and just check the book out at the library.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

The book was great. Shannon Hale never disappoints. However, the reading performance made me more and more irritated, to the point that I couldn't stand to listen another minute.

Any additional comments?

I LOVE Shannon Hale and I love most audiobooks. But this recording was almost as bad as listening to Lemony Snicket read his own books--in other words, unpalatable!

Just lovely

I realize that as a 32 year old woman, I'm not the target audience for this book. But the whole world is really awful right now and I needed a book like this. The main character is a good person, but she doesn't know everything and she makes mistakes. However she learns from them and grows and works hard to make up for them. And everything turns out all right in the end. I wish that was how real life worked, and it was really wonderful to escape to a world where it does for a while.

Good story but tough to stay through

I loved the first book this book though half way through I started losing interest due to all the political topics I understand it's the story but then the charraters seemed to have been deaged. Even though most were betrothal age they still acted as if they were young children and sounded like such.