What's an epistolary novel? It's a work of fiction told through documents -- letters, diary entries, newspaper articles, even receipts. 
 It's also a format that can hit or miss, depending on how it's handled. And Catherine Gilbert Murdock's second fantasy novel "Wisdom's Kiss" (a sequel of sorts to "Princess Ben") doesn't quite hit the mark. Her prose is delightfully witty and charming, but the shifting barrage of letters, plays and journal entries never lets us get too close to the main characters. 
 The story follows three unusual teenagers -- there's "Fortitude"/Trudy, a young village girl with intensely red hair and a precognitive gift; Tips, a clever young boy who becomes a soldier; and the restless Princess Wisdom aka "Dizzy" of Montagne. 
 Dizzy is on her way to wed Roger, a duke from Froglock, even though his scheming mother told him to marry her older sister (thus becoming king). Along the way, Trudy is taken on as a lady-in-waiting to Dizzy, and Tips reappears -- just in time for the wrong people to fall in love with the wrong people. Mayhem, magic, a cat named Escoffier and romantic entanglements ensue. 
 I applaud Catherine Gilbert Murdock for trying something radically different in "Wisdom's Kiss" -- she tries to spin out a novel from several different perspectives, including the rambling Dizzy, stately Ben, an encyclopedia, plays, and Tips' letters which are composed of dozens of crossed-out words. Even the important pets get "entries." 
 Also, there's a charming archness and wry humor to her prose style, sort of like an American Diana Wynne Jones. Additionally, Murdock seems to have carefully thought out her imaginary world, including political strife and history. 
 But unfortunately, the epistolary style just doesn't cut it. After awhile, the constantly-shifting perspective starts to feel like literary ADD, yanking the reader around like a shepherd's crook. And it becomes very hard to connect to any of the characters except the elderly Ben, because most of their characterization is through brief flashes of secondhand interaction -- Trudy, Tips and the ditzy Dizzy all end up feeling half-finished. 
 Catherine Gilbert Murdock only partially succeeds with "Wisdom's Kiss," a clever and witty little novel that gets derailed by its risky narrative style. Interesting, but deeply flawed.