Secrets of a Reluctant Princess follows Andy, a girl who has to reinvent herself as Adrianna, when her family scores a reality TV gig due to the success of their bathrooms and accessories line.
After moving away from a place and life she kind of loved, she becomes popular and has to dress and act completely differently from what she's used to, but one day, after evading the camera crew that constantly follows her, she meets Kevin, a boy who works in a small yet rival bathroom store, who has an interest in LARPing. Suddenly, Andy develops multiple interests, and has to battle between the girl she wants to be, and the girl she thinks she has to be.

Yep, this is essentially a fun, slightly ridiculous, version of Romeo & Juliet, in an American high school, with multiple references to bathrooms and other related products. Also, it's about LARPing. I almost can't wrap my head around it.

Kevin meets our protagonist as Adrianna, the new girl who has a reality TV show and who's popular and mean ad everything he doesn't want to befriend. Unbeknownst to him, he also meets her as Andy, a girl who is entirely his type.
Andy feels free when she's LARPing, but people would make fun of her if they knew she did it. She'd end up disappointing her parents and losing her friends and lots of other overly dramatic consequences. Instead of coming clean with Kevin about who exactly she is, she leads a double life, and continues to try to interact with him as both Andy and Adrianna.

The more I think about it, the more it reminds me of A Cinderella Story, except instead of talking online, they talk behind masks. If you liked A Cinderella Story and like cutesy and fun stories then you'd probably like this.

The story has a happy ending, because I'm not sure these kind of stories are allowed to have endings that aren't happy. You'll root for Kevin who really does seem like a nice guy, and you'll end up liking Harper, who's deeper than what she seems. Maybe you'll even enjoy the basic references to 'nerd culture' that they throw in too.
This is a big of feel-good fluff with some angst thrown in, but it's a nice way to spend some time.

I wasn't really enjoying this to start with, but then a gay girl who likes wicdiv was there (I'm always here for wicdiv references, and I guess now it's time for wicdiv to reference No Mercy to complete the Sex Criminals/WicDiv/No Mercy Image triangle??) and then that full panel on page 20... just woah. The art in No Mercy is still so so good but I think the writing let it down a little this issue.

If you're writing a series finale, and you've known for ages that you wanted to end on thirty issues, then why would you choose to end your comic like this?

I'm slightly astounded that Joshua Williamson thought it was a good idea to try and make this a cute, totally unrealistic tied-up ending, and then decide to throw in a last minute cliffhanger.

In this issue we get to see exactly where Finch, Crane, and Alice end up after Buckaroo is burnt to the ground, and sure, that was nice, but it just felt a little underdeveloped as a whole. Then we get that ending with Crane and Warren

Spoiler

the last time we see Warren 'enjoying a meal' seemingly trapped in The Gauntlet, but then he appears in Crane's new house with a knife

. This issue was so rushed and a little bit bland to be honest. It was not a good payoff for people who have been reading this for years, and the insinuation that this might in fact not be the end after all the hype about this series finale just seems a little cheap.

I honestly wish I hadn't read this and could imagine up my own ending.

Gosh this comic misses Tess Fowler so much.

So essentially Rat Queens has 'soft rebooted', so after almost a year long hiatus we have the same characters, the same writer, the same world and shenanigans, but a different artist.
So the feel shouldn't be that different right?

Except it is.

I'm not sure if I just got used to not reading Rat Queens over it's hiatus or if the change in artwork is too jarring for me or if the execution of the premise just feels a bit off to me, but I do not enjoy it as much any more.

I like that Braga came back, but it almost felt like they were trying to stuff too many fan favourites in this issue in order to make it land, that it just kind of felt off.

This first issue follows the Rat Queens getting back to the status quo, with the help of Braga, and on their travels they encounter the Cat Kings, who are a gender swapped version of them down to roles and looks/styles. Not sure what a supposed feminist comic needs is male copycat counterparts but maybe that's just me being overly bitter. There wasn't enough action in this to draw me in and it just felt a little weak compared to issues in the first iteration of Rat Queens.

The colouring is still a treat though, and I really do enjoy the joy it brings to the page.

I'd suggest if you enjoy the concept of Rat Queens, then just stick to reading the first two volumes of the first series.