The Princess Fugitive by Melanie Cellier

After Ava's plans to marry Prince Maximillian of Arcadia and then take over his country fail, Ava returns home to Rangmeros in disgrace.  Little does she understand how far she has fallen from grace in her family's eyes until she narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.  With the help of a trusted guard she escapes to the woods. After joining a merchant caravan for a while, Ava goes in search of the High King to beg him to help her regain her rightful place. Once she finds him, however, her life changes more than she could have imagined. 

Cellier calls this a "reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood," but the connection to the old fairytale is pretty minimal.  There are references to wolves, woodmen, and grandmothers, but they occur mostly in dreams and metaphores.  With very little tweeking it could easily have been made to be a retelling of Snow White or Sleeping Beauty.  That said, this is a fresh and fairly original kind of Princess story.  At the beginning Ava is a mercinary puppet of her crewl father.  During the course of the story she graduatlly changes to becoming the kind and benevolent ruler her kingdom needs.  I don't know if the author intended, but it also has subtle Christian undertones.  I think I liked it even better than the first in the series and look forward to reading more.  (336 p. 2016)