A Princess of Roumania [Hardcover]

This is the first book in a series about Miranda Popescu, a teenager growing up in Massachusets in our world, knowing herself to have been adopted but not realising that she was born in a completely different reality. In the place where Miranda comes from the Roumanian Empire is a great power and she is a princess of Roumania.

The series currently comprises four books which are, in order

1) A Princess of Roumania
2) The Tourmaline
3) The White Tyger
4) The Hidden World

In Miranda's home reality, science and technology are far behind our own, but magic and sorcery, though illegal, are much more powerful. Some strange catastrophe, apparently a natural disaster though the details and date are not described in the book, has destroyed the British Isles at a point in history late enough that some of the settlements founded by British colonists in North America exist, including New York, but early enough that neither the USA nor Canada as we know them have come into existence and much of the North American continent is wilderness. The Roumanian Empire, which used to strech form the Black Sea to he Adriatic and from, Macedonia to Hungary, is under threat from the greatest power in the world, the German republic.

Miranda'a mother and aunt arranged to hide her in our world for her own safety during a period of political upheaval in which her father was killed. At least two evil magic users are searching for her, seeking to use her for their own ends. At the start of the book one of them, Baroness Nicola Ceaucescu, finds Miranda and sends her minions to Massachusets in an attempt to capture her.

People and creatures travelling between our world and Miranda's are often transformed when passing between the worlds and may change sex, or from human to animal and back. Miranda and her two best friends suddenly find themselves in her home reality, all tranformed in different ways and struggling to make their way through the wilderness where Massachusets would be in our world. They do not know which of the people they meet may be friends and which are enemies.

This is a very strange book and in places a little hard to read. However, it can be very exiting and is always interesting.

I read this a few years back and am startled it's been so little reviewed, and that no one had given it five stars.
Bad news: its the first book of four.
Good news: a brilliant book. What it does so well is evoke two separate worlds, one of which has a history very different from ours. It's a fascinating mix of plot and counter-plot with mysterious magic thrown in. Of any book it reminded me of the depth of Philip Pullman's "The Northern Lights", not in plot or characters, but in how well it was done.
If you are a fan of alternate worlds and strong, resourceful female characters and you haven't read this, then you have a treat in store!

I bought this book totally unseen and am pleasantly surprised. I found shades of 'Always Coming Home' by Le Guin at the start but it soon moves away from introspection. I don't know the author: I hope he's got more to say and will continue to develop.