My son would feign to be put off by the “princess” aspect. Truth be told he will devour anything with a historical angle. I frequently catch him dipping into my daughter’s “American Girl” books, at which poit he looks up and goes “WHAAAATT!”.
“Nothin’, dude. Reading is cool.”
“Feign” is the key, like Tom with “My Antonia.” There’s lots of action in those books, battles and assassinations and all that, just what boys like. Think of the boy in the movie “The Princess Bride.”
If he likes historical fiction “Across Five Aprils” is really good. It is on the civil war and how one family is divided.