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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
A high 3 stars, this story is jam packed with fairy tale references, which is pretty fun. And pretty impressive that Kontis could fairly seamlessly weave so many of them together. I felt like the characters were interesting, but I wanted a little bit more fleshing out of them. And either I wasn't listening very well, or there were a lot of pretty obvious unanswered questions.
I wanted to know a lot more about the Prince. I liked the darker parts, but the story still felt a bit too young/childish for me, even though it was written well, IMO, just not quite my style.
I wanted to know a lot more about the Prince. I liked the darker parts, but the story still felt a bit too young/childish for me, even though it was written well, IMO, just not quite my style.
DNF- This review only reflects what I have read so far.
I cannot put myself through the torture of reading this book. The plot is very weak; the flow of events and writing seems very awkward. As a reader, I was left scratching my head and left alone to try to figure out what happened. Maybe one day I'll attempt to reread this book, but not anytime in the near future.
I cannot put myself through the torture of reading this book. The plot is very weak; the flow of events and writing seems very awkward. As a reader, I was left scratching my head and left alone to try to figure out what happened. Maybe one day I'll attempt to reread this book, but not anytime in the near future.
A very cute fantasy-romance, with numerous hilarious and cheeky nods to different fairy tales but somehow quite original.
Loved it. Adored it. I actually don't have time to write a review because I need to dowmload the next in the series.
Finished this book at 11:20pm, so I'll have to wait to write my review until tomorrow. I can't wait to share my thoughts!! :) #AletheaRockedIT
Read more reviews and follow discussions at Once Upon a Prologue!
In Enchanted when Sunday Woodcutter encounters a charmed/cursed frog, she finds a friend. Sunday is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, and although she loves her family, she doesn't always understand their storied history, or her place with them. Sunday is a romantic who quickly finds herself falling for her frog, for Sunday knows that he was once a man, and wistfully aches to know that man. Sunday and Grumble (the frog) become fast friends and confidantes; with Grumble, Sunday has someone who wants to know her secrets and hear her writings, and someone she can trust. Grumble disappears one night, leaving the tender-hearted Sunday worse for the wear.
Alethea Kontis masterfully draws the reader into Sunday's world - her longing for love, for happiness. All her other sisters have their own places in the family - Monday is the prodigal daughter, Wednesday the dreamer, Friday the seamstress, Saturday the hard worker, Thursday the nomadic wife of a Pirate King. Sunday is lost amidst her whimsical family, and unaware that the Prince Rumbold, former frog Grumble, is returned to himself and desperate to find her. Rumbold is an interesting addition to Enchanted, and watching his transformation from frog back to human was at once endearing and a bit confusing. As far as the other characters, I was drawn to both Sunday and to her ethereal sister, Wednesday, and to the spirited and wild Trix, one of Sunday's brothers. I wish Alethea Kontis had given us a bit more insight into those characters, and Monday as well. I feel that the family had some untapped potential, though overall they were all nicely developed.
Enchanted is an adorable novel in its entirety. From the Woodcutter family to the royal family, sinister secrets and magics abound, and I could not seem to stop turning the pages, driven by a need to know what happened next. As lead characters, Sunday and Rumbold were a charming duo, and I enjoyed seeing both of their points of view. I thought the conflicts keeping them apart were really well done, both internally, as Rumbold wondered if Sunday could love him due to their tangled histories, and externally, with threats from various magical sources. The threats to their happiness felt real, which made the climax of Enchanted that much more breathless and awesome.
Overall Enchanted lived up to my excitement. I read it as a fantasy, and that way, I enjoyed it greatly. Sunday and Rumbold's relationship did read as a bit too insta-love for my taste but again, when I thought of Enchanted as a fairy tale, I went along with it all, and really enjoyed the story as a whole.
4.5 stars
Being a part of Sunday's family means you have to acknowledge that sometimes you have no control over things. Between magic and faery, you never know what the future really holds - and as the seventh child of a seventh child with siblings who have powers of their own, you know there is some craziness in store. So, when Sunday happens upon a talking frog whose charming personality leads to very un-frog-like feelings, Sunday isn't completely caught off guard. When, however, a pot-stirring aunt arrives and a ball at the palace is announced, the plot really thickens.
Um, DELIGHTFUL! This book has more fairy tale plot devises thrown into than I can even count. It was so fun to see how Kontis was able to quite seamlessly weave them all together into a new kind of tale that still has love at its core but with that same dark magic that makes all fairy tales work hard for their happy ending. I loved her brand of faery and the love story was wonderfully rich. I can't say it's particularly deep or will change your life, but I will say that it was just really fun to read.
Being a part of Sunday's family means you have to acknowledge that sometimes you have no control over things. Between magic and faery, you never know what the future really holds - and as the seventh child of a seventh child with siblings who have powers of their own, you know there is some craziness in store. So, when Sunday happens upon a talking frog whose charming personality leads to very un-frog-like feelings, Sunday isn't completely caught off guard. When, however, a pot-stirring aunt arrives and a ball at the palace is announced, the plot really thickens.
Um, DELIGHTFUL! This book has more fairy tale plot devises thrown into than I can even count. It was so fun to see how Kontis was able to quite seamlessly weave them all together into a new kind of tale that still has love at its core but with that same dark magic that makes all fairy tales work hard for their happy ending. I loved her brand of faery and the love story was wonderfully rich. I can't say it's particularly deep or will change your life, but I will say that it was just really fun to read.
Holy curmudgeons, what did i just read? Enchanted is the story of Sunday Woodcutter, the seventh daughter of a seventh son and a another seventh daughter. Each of her sisters is named for a day of the week. And that's frankly all I understood. The problem with having so many siblings (she has three other brothers in addition to the six sisters) is that I couldn't keep track of anyone. Or anything in that matter. furthermore, instead of just being about that one mother goose rhyme about all the children born on days of the week, this was about every single fairy tale crammed together in a cacophonous mix of terror and headache.
Back to the actual story. Sunday, whose magical powers i still am not exactly sure what they are, involves telling stories. She meets a frog who is actually the prince Rumbold under enchantment. Then they fall in love somehow magically and the entire plot is based on their love of three days.
GAH.
i think continuing after that, Rumbold knows the Woodcutter family hates him because he is responsible for the death of Jack Woodcutter, the Woodcutter's eldest son. So he never tells Sunday who he actually is. And then it just goes downhill from there. Somehow his father is this Bluebeard figure who eats wives and there are evil fairy godmothers and insert a "huh" every time i finished a chapter, and suddenly Rumbold's father is dead. dunno how or why. he just became a giant magically.
Either way, convoluted plot, TOTALLY unbelievable romance, really despicable main characters make me wonder why i bothered finishing. :/
could have been better if it had been more about Rumbold and Sunday rather than the fact they love each other but can't be with each other cause Rumbold somehow was there when Jack died.
Back to the actual story. Sunday, whose magical powers i still am not exactly sure what they are, involves telling stories. She meets a frog who is actually the prince Rumbold under enchantment. Then they fall in love somehow magically and the entire plot is based on their love of three days.
GAH.
i think continuing after that, Rumbold knows the Woodcutter family hates him because he is responsible for the death of Jack Woodcutter, the Woodcutter's eldest son. So he never tells Sunday who he actually is. And then it just goes downhill from there. Somehow his father is this Bluebeard figure who eats wives and there are evil fairy godmothers and insert a "huh" every time i finished a chapter, and suddenly Rumbold's father is dead. dunno how or why. he just became a giant magically.
Either way, convoluted plot, TOTALLY unbelievable romance, really despicable main characters make me wonder why i bothered finishing. :/
could have been better if it had been more about Rumbold and Sunday rather than the fact they love each other but can't be with each other cause Rumbold somehow was there when Jack died.
I am a sucker for a redone fairytale. And this one has it all: Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Princess and the Pea, Rumpelstiltskin, Jack and the Bean Stalk, Princess and the Frog (obviously). Althea did a very nice job of weaving these stories together. They're not Once Upon a Time woven, sometimes they're just a story Althea is telling her brother Trix (Sleeping Beauty) and sometimes she's a relation to one (The Princess and the Pea). I do like that it wasn't a single fairytale redone, but that it also wasn't a huge ugly mass of a bunch either.
Some of the characters are pretty flat, which was a downside, and I wish we could have gotten to know them on a deeper level. I felt that the romance between Sunday and Rumbold was pretty blah. I mean, yes, it's a fairytale and there's the instant love aspect, but after that I didn't really feel the love. It just felt forced.
The story itself wasn't too in depth, but I'm hoping she'll flesh some aspects out in the sequels (when I went to her website, I did not she had two sequels in the works, but no information on either of them). It was just kind of "here's what happened and now here's what happened." However, she did an excellent job of creating this intricate circle between all the characters and how they connect to each other.
I also didn't understand the point of Rumbold holding three balls to "find" Sunday. He knew exactly who she was, so why bother with the glitz and the glamor. Let alone three times over. Once would have sufficed. I get it a bit because of what happened at the second ball, but that could have easily happened during the first.
Two of my favorite characters were Velius and Erik. They were sort of a comic relief and added a bit of sarcasm and humor to the story. One of my favorite lines was said by Erik: "Her sister? Weekday or Weekend?"
Overall, it was an interesting concept and an easy story to read, but I was left wanting more detail and more depth. This would definitely be something more middle grade than young adult - something to start a young girl/preteen out with.
Some of the characters are pretty flat, which was a downside, and I wish we could have gotten to know them on a deeper level. I felt that the romance between Sunday and Rumbold was pretty blah. I mean, yes, it's a fairytale and there's the instant love aspect, but after that I didn't really feel the love. It just felt forced.
The story itself wasn't too in depth, but I'm hoping she'll flesh some aspects out in the sequels (when I went to her website, I did not she had two sequels in the works, but no information on either of them). It was just kind of "here's what happened and now here's what happened." However, she did an excellent job of creating this intricate circle between all the characters and how they connect to each other.
I also didn't understand the point of Rumbold holding three balls to "find" Sunday. He knew exactly who she was, so why bother with the glitz and the glamor. Let alone three times over. Once would have sufficed. I get it a bit because of what happened at the second ball, but that could have easily happened during the first.
Two of my favorite characters were Velius and Erik. They were sort of a comic relief and added a bit of sarcasm and humor to the story. One of my favorite lines was said by Erik: "Her sister? Weekday or Weekend?"
Overall, it was an interesting concept and an easy story to read, but I was left wanting more detail and more depth. This would definitely be something more middle grade than young adult - something to start a young girl/preteen out with.
This book does not become interesting until halfway through, when actual conflict is introduced. The villain is creepy, if underdeveloped (like all of the characters) and the plot line is predictable. The protagonist-is-a-writer trope makes me bring my teeth, though the twist on this one was somewhat interesting.
Be prepared for lackluster prose, plot holes, and a slew of unanswered questions in preparation for the sequel.
Be prepared for lackluster prose, plot holes, and a slew of unanswered questions in preparation for the sequel.