The release date for the English version of 'The Two Princesses of Bamarre' by
Gail Carson Levine is Feb 2004. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
Twelve-year-old Addie looks up to her elder sister Meryl because she wants to drive out ogres, specters, and gryphons from the kingdom of Bamarre. Conversely, Addie is terrified of everything, even spiders, and she looks to Meryl for bravery and safety. To the delight of Addie, their governess, and the young sorcerer Rhys, the elder girl, brandishing her sword Bloodbiter, proclaims in the garden a passage from the heroic epic of Drualt.
But Addie has to summon her bravery and go out on her own to discover the cure and rescue her cherished sister when Meryl contracts the horrible Gray Death. Addie accepts the charmed tablecloth and cloak that Rhys gives her, along with a bashful profession of his love, as well as the seven-league boots and magic spyglass that her mother left for her. In romantic adventures with a sad conclusion, she triumphs against cunning specters (and even spiders) and outwits a cunningly amiable dragon.