Review: Violet Eyes

Title: Violet Eyes
Series: Once Upon a Time

Author: Debbie Viguié
Release Date: February 23, 2010
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Cover Designer: Cara E. Petrus
Age Audience: YA

Genre: Fairy tales

Summary: When a storm brings the dashing Prince Richard to her family's farm, Violet falls in love at first sight. Richard also gives Violet his heart, but he knows his marriage is destined to be an affair of state, not of passion. For the king and queen have devised a contest to determine who will win their son's hand in marriage.

To be reunited with her prince, Violet must compete against princesses from across the land. It will take all of her wits—and a little help from an unexpected source—if Violet is to demonstrate the depth of her character and become Richard's bride.

My Review:
I’ll admit that “The Princess and the Pea” was never one of my favorite fairy tales. In fact, I always thought that the whole concept was rather silly. But I ended up enjoying Debbie Viguié’s retelling.

Very much unlike the original story, Violet is not a princess, but a lowly farmer’s daughter, and a country girl through and through. However, she is determined to marry Prince Richard, so she enters the competition along with dozens of princesses to compete in a series of challenges for the honor of marrying the prince. The challenges are ridiculous things, like telling which of two single threads is silk or cotton, or walking across a lawn barefoot to see how much the princesses’ delicate feet will bleed. As Violet makes friends and enemies, she discovers that there are real challenges hidden amongst the silly ones, and she must figure them out if she wants to marry Richard. This book wasn’t completely unlike the original tale, but all I’m going to say is that Richard can only marry a “true” princess.

Despite the short length of the book, I didn’t feel that it was lacking plotwise. I also liked to see how Violet interacted with her new friends, all of whom were were well-rounded characters considering they had so little time to develop. The challenges within the challenges were strategically placed, but I still figured out most of them right away.

There was one thing that stopped me from liking the book a lot more than I did. When I read in the summary that “Violet falls in love at first sight”, I really, really hoped that line would turn out to be misleading. But it didn’t. Richard takes refuge at Violet’s family’s farm for a few days after he becomes ill from getting caught in a thunderstorm, and by the time he leaves he and Violet are declaring “undying love” for each other! (And that’s not even the cheesiest thing Richard/Violet says to Violet/Richard.) I used to be more tolerable about this sort of thing, but my standards have risen. I cannot stand insta-love at all.

Aside from the disappointing romantic aspect, I liked this little book. It was pretty much mindless entertainment, nothing special, but a great quick read.

★★★

Review: The Amaranth Enchantment

Title: The Amaranth Enchantment
Author: Julie Berry
Release Date: March 3, 2009
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Cover Designer: John Candell
Age Audience: YA
Genre: Fairy tales
Summary: When Lucinda Chapdelaine was a small child, her parents left for the royal ball and never returned. Ever since, Lucinda has been stuck in perpetual servitude at her evil aunt’s jewelry store. Then a mysterious visitor and an even more bizarre piece of jewelry both enter the shop on the very same day, setting in motion a string of twists and turns that will forever alter Lucinda’s path. In this magical story filled with delightful surprises, Lucinda will dance at the royal ball, fall under the Amaranth Witch’s spell, avenge her parents’ death, and maybe — just maybe — capture the heart of a prince.

My Review:
★★★★
This was a great book. While it is a retelling of Cinderella, Berry put in such a unique twist that it took me awhile to figure that out. The setting and time era was a little confusing, but I succeeded in not letting it bother me.

All the characters were loveable; you can’t help but like Lucinda, Beryl, Peter and even Gregor. Oh, and Dog. Mustn’t forget Dog the goat.
Lucinda especially was easy to relate to, although I found her to be naïve at times. I mean, how can letting a strange thief stay at your house ever seem like a good idea?

I was a little disappointed with the ending. I wish we could have found out what became of Beryl’s stone, and what Lucinda was going to do next. A sequel wouldn’t hurt. I also wish that Berry could have let us explore Beryl’s world some more. But otherwise, this was a fun, predictable read that I’d recommend to any fellow fairy tale lovers.

Review: Beast

Title: Beast
Author: Donna Jo Napoli
Release Date: November 1, 2000
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Cover Designer: Russell Gordon
Age Audience: YA
Genre: Fairy tales
Summary: Orasmyn is the prince of Persia and heir to the throne. His religion fills his heart and his mind, and he strives for the knowledge and leadership his father demonstrates. But on the day of the Feast of Sacrifices, Orasmyn makes a foolish choice that results in a fairy's wretched punishment: He is turned into a beast, a curse to be undone only by the love of a woman. Thus begins Orasmyn's journey through the exotic Middle East and sensuous France as he struggles to learn the way of the beast, while preserving the mind of the man. This is the story of his search, not only for a woman courageous enough to love him, but also for his own redemption.

My Review:
★½
One of my friends once said that Donna Jo Napoli has her “good” books and her “weird” books. I can’t compare since this is the only book I’ve read by her, but it’s definitely one of the weird ones.

First of all, this retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” was well-written and well-researched (though apparently she did more research on lions than on history). The fact that the Beast was a Prince of Persia was a unique twist. It was also unique in the fact that the Beast was completely animal instead of an animal/man hybrid. In most reviews of this book, people said that the focus on Orasmyn’s religious practices was unnecessary, but I thought it was very interesting, and was one of the very few things I liked about this book.

Yes, very few. Napoli described Orasmyn's leonine bodily functions in too much detail. There was one scene that I won’t name since this is a spoiler-free review, but at that part I just thought “Did I really need to read about that?” It was too graphic for any book, YA or not.

I didn’t like the pace either. It was very slow (nearly slow to the point of being dull) until Belle comes in, and then the last 50 pages of the book are pretty rushed. The book literally ends at the exact moment Orasmyn turns back into a man. I would have liked it better if we could have seen Orasmyn and Belle’s relationship develop a little more, instead of just reading about Orasmyn as a lion.

Also, I think that since there was a glossary of Farsi and Arabic words in the back of the book, it was unnecessary for the meanings to be given in the text.

Review: Golden

Title: Golden (Once Upon A Time)
Author: Cameron Dokey
Release Date: February 28, 2006
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Cover Designer: Mahlon F. Craft
Age Audience: YA
Genre: Fairy tales
Summary: Before Rapunzel's birth, her mother made a deal with the sorceress Melisande: If she could not love newborn Rapunzel just as she appeared, she would surrender the child to Melisande. When Rapunzel was born completely bald, her horrified mother sent her away with the sorceress to an uncertain future. After sixteen years of raising Rapunzel as her own child, Melisande reveals that she has another daughter, Rue, who was cursed by a wizard and needs Rapunzel's help. Rue and Rapunzel have precisely "two nights and the day that falls between" to break the enchantment. But bitterness and envy come between the girls, and if they fail to work together, Rue will remain cursed forever.

My Review:
★★★★

Golden was an interesting retelling of the classic tale "Rapunzel." Much better than Beauty Sleep, the other Cameron Dokey book in the Once Upon A Time series that I have read.

If you're wondering how she got her name (in this book, anyways), Rapunzel's mother had cravings for a certain parsley called "rapunzel" when she was pregnant. So she asked her husband to ask the neighbor Melisande for some from her garden. But the husband was afraid to ask because Melisande was a sorceress, so he began stealing the parsley regularly. One day, Melisande catches him, and as a punishment makes a deal with Rapunzel's mother: if she can't love her baby just how she is, the sorceress will take her. When Rapunzel is born bald as an egg, her beautiful but shallow mother cannot love her, and gives the baby to Melisande, who names her Rapunzel after the parsley. By the way, the sorceress is good and loves Rapunzel as if she were her own child.

And yes, you read correctly. Rapunzel is BALD. And she remains bald throughout the whole book. Then again, you could say that both Rapunzel and Rue were Rapunzel, if you really think about it. Because Rue had beautiful long hair and was locked in a tower, and later on she takes Rapunzel's name. It's mind-boggling to think about, and I'm impressed that Dokey could come up with something so original and amazing.

I liked how Dokey came up with an explanation for love at first sight. I hate it when it happens in most books, but in fairy tales I find it acceptable. After all, it's a fairy tale! I also liked how the prince was clumsy and not very prince-like. I nearly laughed out loud when he tripped on the gopher hole and hit his head on a tree.

The only flaw of this book is the first-person point of view was a little stiff; this book would have been better if told from third-person point of view. That aside, I think I can honestly say that this is my second favorite book in the Once Upon A Time series, with my favorite being The Night Dance by Suzanne Weyn.

Review: Ash

I actually read this book two months ago, I just thought that I needed to post a review to get things started.


Title: Ash
Author: Malinda Lo
Release Date: January 1, 2009
Publisher: Little, Brown
Cover Designer: Alison Impey
Age Audience: YA
Genre: Fairy tales, LGBT
Summary: In the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted. But when Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

My Review:
★★★★½
Wow. This book really exceeded my expectations. Although the pace was slow, the writing was lush and beautiful, and descriptive without going overboard. Because the writing is so good, I'm surprised that this is Lo's debut novel. It felt like she had to have been writing for years to be able to write so lyrically.

One thing I really loved about this book is that there is no emphasis on the fact that Ash loves another girl. It makes it seem completely natural, which is why this barely felt like a LGBTQ book. It is so much more than the "lesbian retelling of Cinderella" that it is commonly labeled as. I don't know why I haven't given this book 5 stars.

Oh, and in case you're wondering where the name "Ash" came from, the Grimm brothers called Cinderella "Aschenputtel", which contains the word Ash. A few more reasons why the character has a name related to ashes are that in the original fairytale, Cinderella slept on the hearth when she finished her chores (so she is always covered in ashes) and that ashes are a symbol of humiliation and punishment.