How I explained the plot to my husband (more or less):
This is a story, in journal form, of a lady's maid, and because the princess/lady refused to marry the man her father wanted her to, both princess and maid are to be locked up in a tower for seven years. The maid keeps a journal of their time together. The princess doesn't really know how to do anything but sit around. Eventually they escape the tower and go to the princess's-secret-fiance's city and become employed as kitchen scrubbers. The princess is afraid of practically everyone, so she orders the maid to pretend to be the princess when the maid reveals their existence. Though punishment with death is almost certain, the maid does her duty and finally reveals herself to the prince as the princess. When the bad guy (the man that the king wanted the princess to marry) is threatening outside the city gates, the maid takes it upon herself to rescue everybody by exposing the bad guy as an evil skinwalker/werewolf. The "rescue" goes well, but when the princess commands her to marry the prince while pretending to be her, the maid cannot do it and when she tries to escape the city, she is discovered as an impostor and her fate is decided by a council. There is a happy ending.
Now I'll just ramble about why I really like this book.
One fault that I see in many contemporary books and movies is that the plot moves too quickly to be a realistic chronology. The last time I read Jane Austen, the chronology was more realistic, but also quite boring. I think this book achieves a healthy balance by acknowledging the passage of time (the girls spend almost 3 years in the tower) without overloading on the details of every day in that period. Thus, the characters have time to grow and make meaningful changes, and not every day has to be filled with momentous, fast-paced, life-changing events.
Another common fault of popular media is that many things are hypersexualized, which isn't realistic or healthy, and that's important when the target audience is rather young. This book isn't, that I noticed. The maid has large birthmarks that cover almost half her face and one of her hands, but she hardly ever talks about it. She's a girl, but she doesn't think just of love and beauty, and that's refreshing in a novel; the character is brave and feels real. I would probably let a ten year-old read this book without worrying that it would lead her to an unhealthy focus on her own appearance. Most of the characters aren't as well-rounded as the narrator, but the prince's role in the story functions as more than a masculine Prince-Charming placeholder. It's also to the authors credit that where nudity is mentioned twice, there are no visual details; that makes me comfortable in letting my brothers or future sons read the book.
Going with the two previous ideas, I really like how the characters aren't static stereotypes. They change! The most dramatic example for me is the princess. For most of the book, she's a wilted, selfish, weepy mess that doesn't really do anything. She's afraid and feels worthless, and doesn't really become friends with the maid for a long while. She tells the maid that as the third child in her royal family, her only purpose in life is to be married off. Her father locked her up in a tower, and everyone she thought cared about her has abandoned her. She's been told that she's pretty and dumb, and admits to attempting suicide. The major changes in her begin when she's given a cat to love who loves her back and when she learns a skill. By the end of the book, she's still shy, but when given the option to have maids and free time again, she prefers to continue her work in the kitchen where she feels artful and useful.
I also appreciate how there isn't much magic in this book. I say this mostly because I immersed myself in books about magic when I was younger, and while I still enjoy them, I just think that it's more empowering to readers when the characters find strength in themselves to overcome their trials. The story takes place in a fictional ancient Mongolia.
This book also deals with class issues. The local culture within the book is that the gentry are the offspring of the gods and the commoners were formed from mud to serve the gentry. The maid goes through (over time!) lots of personal growth where she learns that gentry are real people, in both positive and negative senses, and that all life can be noble and fallible. Even wicked people can be pitied for how they threw their lives away.
I think that covers most of what I liked in this book. Even as a twenty-something year-old, I feel like this book was worth my time (and more. it was a quick read) for both the entertainment and the lessons learned. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a fairly light, entertaining, and uplifting story.
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