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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
It was an entertaining book though a bit of a mess at the begging trying to kept track of the seven sisters, royalty, godmothers, and three brothers. Everyone had bits of their own tales, though the brother Peter was mostly an afterthought. I'm not sure the third part
Spoiler
with the giant and the swan was necessary but frog prince to Cinderella was a fun combination. However, they act like it was all summer that Sunday met Grumble the frog but it was three days. Three days is not enough to fall in love and act like it is built on a solid friendship and communication.
Enchanted by Alethea Kontis is the first book in the Woodcutter Sisters series, and was my first audio book experience. Thanks to Sync I was able to enjoy this for free. Carrying around my smart phone with ear buds as I cleaned and cooked was fun and I am so glad this particular book was my first. Three word review: magical, humorous and engaging.
Enchanted is a magical blend of familiar fairy tales from Rapunzel to Jack and the Beanstalk. We meet Sunday the woodcutter’s daughter who has befriended an enchanted frog. One evening Sunday kisses her from goodnight, not realizing that he is Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland, sworn enemy of her family. But the heart loves who it chooses. A ball, evil stepmother, magic and feelings for a prince she hardly knows turns Sunday’s world upside down. The tale that unfolds is enchanting as one fairy tale blends into another keeping me thoroughly entertained.
The woodcutter’s children are all named after days of the week. Kontis did a wonderful job of giving them each their voice. Sunday is delightful, strong and a perfect heroine. Rumbold is a times stuffy and unsure, but he slowly comes into his own. The romance is cute, and perfect for this fable. Some of the the siblings really stood out and I am looking forward to their stories. There are humorous secondary characters and villains to keep the reader engaged.
Katherine Kellgren did a lovely job with the audio, from pitch to pacing, she enabled me to see the story unfold. Listening to a book is so different from reading one, and I actually had to train myself to focus since there was nothing visual keeping my mind occupied. Once I got the hang of it the tale unfolded at a wonderful pace. I loved all the tales the author weaved into the story. She blended them seamlessly and none of it felt forced. The world-building was wonderful and the castle and surrounding woods came to life. Adults and children alike would enjoy this and I think this would make a great road trip book. While this is part of a series, it ends with closure after a climactic scene. I can easily see why this was in the top ten in the category: Best Fiction for Young Adult in 2013.
Copy received free from sync and originally published @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer
Enchanted is a magical blend of familiar fairy tales from Rapunzel to Jack and the Beanstalk. We meet Sunday the woodcutter’s daughter who has befriended an enchanted frog. One evening Sunday kisses her from goodnight, not realizing that he is Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland, sworn enemy of her family. But the heart loves who it chooses. A ball, evil stepmother, magic and feelings for a prince she hardly knows turns Sunday’s world upside down. The tale that unfolds is enchanting as one fairy tale blends into another keeping me thoroughly entertained.
The woodcutter’s children are all named after days of the week. Kontis did a wonderful job of giving them each their voice. Sunday is delightful, strong and a perfect heroine. Rumbold is a times stuffy and unsure, but he slowly comes into his own. The romance is cute, and perfect for this fable. Some of the the siblings really stood out and I am looking forward to their stories. There are humorous secondary characters and villains to keep the reader engaged.
Katherine Kellgren did a lovely job with the audio, from pitch to pacing, she enabled me to see the story unfold. Listening to a book is so different from reading one, and I actually had to train myself to focus since there was nothing visual keeping my mind occupied. Once I got the hang of it the tale unfolded at a wonderful pace. I loved all the tales the author weaved into the story. She blended them seamlessly and none of it felt forced. The world-building was wonderful and the castle and surrounding woods came to life. Adults and children alike would enjoy this and I think this would make a great road trip book. While this is part of a series, it ends with closure after a climactic scene. I can easily see why this was in the top ten in the category: Best Fiction for Young Adult in 2013.
Copy received free from sync and originally published @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer
4.5
Perfectly titled, Enchanted is spellbinding, magical and entirely wistfully whimsy.
I adored the depiction of the sisters, both as they bent to a powerful, Enchanted curse and as their individual tales wove around their siblings, creating a wholly unique, but utterly fulfilling fairytale.
Alethea Kontis is officially on my instant-add shelf and there she will remain, I think, until all the magic goes out of the world and story looses its power.
For fans of Shannon Hale's Goose Girl, Enchanted is a bundle of beautiful tales interwoven to form one, epic, multi-faceted love story.
Perfectly titled, Enchanted is spellbinding, magical and entirely wistfully whimsy.
I adored the depiction of the sisters, both as they bent to a powerful, Enchanted curse and as their individual tales wove around their siblings, creating a wholly unique, but utterly fulfilling fairytale.
Alethea Kontis is officially on my instant-add shelf and there she will remain, I think, until all the magic goes out of the world and story looses its power.
For fans of Shannon Hale's Goose Girl, Enchanted is a bundle of beautiful tales interwoven to form one, epic, multi-faceted love story.
The narrator hit the sweet spot of melodrama while reading this absolutely irresistible twisted fairytale!
I'm a big fan of re-written fairy tales, it's one of my favourite genres. I originally read this book as part of a challenge so I read it quick and didn't retain much of anything in regards to the plot or characters. I noticed it on my read list and couldn't for the life of me remember how the book went.
Normally this would be a bad sign for the book, but in this case, it was a sign of a bad reader who was reading for a deadline and not for enjoyment.
I know when I first read this I didn't realize that it was part of a series, so finding out that there was more to read, I decided to start back at the beginning and read this again. I am so very glad I did.
This is a wonderful book that I didn't give enough time our first time around. The story is so sweet, and the relationship between the main characters, while very quick to build, was handled quite well and was much more believable than normally found in normal fairy tales.
The way that Alethea merged the stories of The Princess and the Frog with Cinderella is almost seamless. It works surprisingly well to the point that it feels that these tales should have been combined ages ago.
Some of the side plots seemed to come out of nowhere, and the explanations were a bit vague, but I would guess that there will be more explanation for them in further books. I'm looking forward to finding out more about this family.
Normally this would be a bad sign for the book, but in this case, it was a sign of a bad reader who was reading for a deadline and not for enjoyment.
I know when I first read this I didn't realize that it was part of a series, so finding out that there was more to read, I decided to start back at the beginning and read this again. I am so very glad I did.
This is a wonderful book that I didn't give enough time our first time around. The story is so sweet, and the relationship between the main characters, while very quick to build, was handled quite well and was much more believable than normally found in normal fairy tales.
The way that Alethea merged the stories of The Princess and the Frog with Cinderella is almost seamless. It works surprisingly well to the point that it feels that these tales should have been combined ages ago.
Some of the side plots seemed to come out of nowhere, and the explanations were a bit vague, but I would guess that there will be more explanation for them in further books. I'm looking forward to finding out more about this family.
While I found the story fun and the fairy tale twists inventive, the storyline iteself was quite cutesy. I frequently found myself thinking of the main character as around 12 years old, but it was clearly intended for her to be several years older. Insta!Love is also a pet peeve of mine, which made the relationship between Sunday and Rumbold seem insincere to me. [a:Katherine Kellgren|436308|Katherine Kellgren|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1306784367p2/436308.jpg] did an amazing job, as usual, keeping it light and fluffy throughout. Overall, this was a fun story, but I didn't fall in love with it enough to continue with the series.
I really liked this book because it had an interesting plot and relatable characters. I liked the concept of the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter and the seven daughters being named after the seven days of the week. Here is the rhyme:
Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child who is born on Sabbath Day,
Is blithe and bonny and good and gay.
Sabbath Day = Sunday
Gay = happy (in this case, if you cant tell from the contex)
But Sunday's family is not as perfect as it seems. The big brother she never met is known as dead, her sister Tuesday danced herself to death, she falls in love with the prince her family despises, Monday is married to a prince and never looked back at her family, and her sister Wednesday is getting married to a king who wants her only for her power. This story was very entertaining and blended in many classical fairytales into the story. The characters were very likable and each sister had her own personality!
It was so well written that I read it in one sitting!
Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child who is born on Sabbath Day,
Is blithe and bonny and good and gay.
Sabbath Day = Sunday
Gay = happy (in this case, if you cant tell from the contex)
But Sunday's family is not as perfect as it seems. The big brother she never met is known as dead, her sister Tuesday danced herself to death, she falls in love with the prince her family despises, Monday is married to a prince and never looked back at her family, and her sister Wednesday is getting married to a king who wants her only for her power. This story was very entertaining and blended in many classical fairytales into the story. The characters were very likable and each sister had her own personality!
It was so well written that I read it in one sitting!
Kind of a fairytale mashup. I read that some people were bothered by the instant true love. Not me. It happens in lots of fairytales and I love them. Realistic? No. Cute? Yep. I liked it. I really did. Clean, lovey, a tiny bit scary. My teen book club might read it.
Very good book. Sunday was an interesting character along with the rest of her family. I wish she spent longer than threes days with Grumble/Rumbold. I hate it when characters say they are madly in love after only seeing a person once or meeting with them a few times. I believe in true love, just not love at first sight.
Imagine taking all of your favorite fairy tales from childhood, cutting them into small pieces, mixing them together, and then reading the resulting story, piece by piece. That's what happens in Enchanted. The author is part of a writers' group, and she chose to use all of the fairy tale contest suggestions in one story. The result isn't bad - the story is interesting enough - but at times it seems like fairy tale overkill. I think I would have enjoyed the basic plot more if I hadn't been distracted by all the side plots and other fairy tale elements. Still, not a bad book at all.