The Princess Gardener

Book excerpt: The Princess Gardener is the story of a young girl who is a princess by accident of birth. Her passion lies outside the castle, tending the gardens. But castle duties call more and more often, and her parents insist she learn what she calls "the princess business." Reluctantly, she curtseys and bows and smiles her way through the empty rituals of the kingdom, but every day she longs for the smell of the earth. A chance encounter causes the princess to switch lives with a young farm girl, who is her exact likeness. When people begin to fall ill, the girls learn that the source of the sickness is covered-up pollution in the water supply. Will they discover their true capabilities and save the kingdom, or are the girls' lives about to become very complicated?