Review: Almost There by Farrah Rochon

Rating: 5 out of 5

This is a retelling of the Disney Princess movie ‘The Princess and the Frog’ and features our favorite characters we see in the film and introduces new ones while giving us a more in-depth look into Tiana after she’s presented again with a chance to make a deal of her lifetime with the shadow man. From there, this book follows Tiana and familiar characters as she navigates the city of New Orleans, still on a mission to get her restaurant. Fair warning: this has the origins of the movie but is a completely different take on our favorite Disney Princess.

I was going into this book super excited because, obviously, we were going to get more of Princess Tiana and not as a frog for most of the story, which was a major complaint amongst many fans of the film. As a huge supporter of her and Prince Naveen's relationship, it filled my heart to the brim at the thought of them finally being together, but I was a little taken back as the story progressed with barely any romance, spark, or charm that we felt in the movie. Nonetheless, this isn't an expansion of the movie, which I had to remind myself of.

A major strength of this retelling is that it does exactly that, telling a completely different story with similar elements featuring familiar characters. Another strength would be that the story is told from different perspectives, which gives us a more in-depth look into characters that we hadn't heard of before. Because this book takes our favorite characters and adds more to them, we see the tension and often tough reality in the relationship between Lottie, a wealthy white woman, and Tiana, a working-class black woman, and how the world and people perceive them during a time where race and equality haven't made the strides they have today. While the strengths were there, so were the weaknesses.

This story was far too long and spent way too much time with our main character not enjoying the fruits of her labor again. The story could've been told in 300 pages max. Another weakness again is the cat-and-mouse between Tiana and her feelings at even the slightest connection between her and Naveen. She worked so hard again to deny herself even the smallest moments of connection.

If you're not completely invested in the version of the characters in the film, then this is the book for you. It's a nice, refreshing take on one of our favorites. If you're looking for that happily ever after for our Annika Noni Rose Princess Tiana, you won't truly find it here, but there are hopes in the upcoming show that Disney is producing to expand on the movie and give us exactly what we want.