"Dealing with Dragons," Patricia C. Wrede, Magic Carpet; 2002; 228 pp.

Cimorene is a princess -- if you can call her one.

She doesn't have hair the color of flax; she doesn't enjoy embroidery or dancing, or any of those things that your everyday princess is supposed to do. In fact, she finds the whole business of being a princess rather boring. Am I about to tell you there's no prince either? You guessed it. There is no prince -- at least not a handsome knight on a white stallion.