Nobody's Prize by Esther Friesner

After her first adventure in Nobody's Princess (click here to see my review), Helen has decided to go off on another adventure at the beginning of this sequel novel. Helen's brothers went off to search for the Golden Fleece, so naturally Helen wanted to be a part of the search and see heroes capture their prize.

In order to travel with them without being recognized, Helen once again dressed like a boy and was a weapons servant with her friend, Milo.

What Helen didn't expect before her journey was that

1. she would develop a crush on another weapons servant, Hylas 
2. the great Herkules would fall in love with her boy self on the trip
3. she would meet a jealous, crazy princess who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted - including Helen's death
4. she would attract the attention of a power-hungry prince who would kidnap her and prepare wedding vows without Helen's parents permission
5. her monthly cycle would start in the middle of the adventure, ruining her image as a boy

Things are never easy when it comes to adventure for Helen.

However, with everything that came toward Helen, she took it in stride and somehow found a way out of every situation in order to get back to her destination: Sparta

My Thoughts/Reflections
I really enjoyed Helen's adventures in the first novel, but I found this book to be lacking...

Don't get me wrong, I love the stories that were told and the situations that Helen got into that she had to get herself out of again. It just wasn't as good as the first novel.

I honestly think that Esther Friesner could have ended Helen's story after Nobody's Princess and it would have been a great ending to a perfect adventure.

However, in this novel we were able to see Helen as a woman. She got her first crush, she got her time of the month, and she got more creative in her stories to get out of trouble.

Whereas the first book went through 4-5 years of Helen's life, this was just a few months from start to finish. It let the reader see how mature and grown up Helen became in just a matter of short time, which I was happy to see.

I would recommend this book to teen girls. There was a lot more about becoming a woman in here so teen guys probably wouldn't want to read it. However, if anyone reads the first novel and likes where it ended, I don't think you'll be missing too much if you decide to skip this novel.