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princessrensa's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.0
This is the second book by Julie Abe I've read, after <i>Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch</i>, and I'm still a bit undecided as to how much I like her writing.
This book is essentially a Cinderella retelling in the world of Eva Evergreen that takes inspiration from a Japanese version of Cinderella. With that in mind, if you've read Eva Evergreen, you know exactly what to expect.
Alliana is forced to work in her stepmother's inn while her stepbrother bullies her and her stepsister stands by. Her only allies are her best friend, who is similarly trapped in their small town, and her grandmother, who is not actually her grandmother but her stepmother's mother-in-law. Alliana's only hope of escaping from the debts her stepmother is constantly piling on her is to be chosen to attend an elite academy, but being selected to attend depends on her being able to go to a ball...this is where the Cinderella aspect comes in.
Without giving too much away, Alliana's town is near some kind of...abyss? Rift? Where dragons are known to live. Via some circumstances, she befriends a baby dragon and begins giving it treats. This is where the book starts to lose me because this book promised me dragon friendship and frankly there was not enough of this dragon character in the book. There's a timeskip of about a year after Alliana and the dragon first meet, and during that year they don't have any more direct interactions until post-timeskip. I would have liked to see a lot more of this dragon because he was fantastic. I acknowledge that this story takes place in a world where people are afraid of dragons and it would have been difficult for Alliana and her dragon to hang out, but I still wanted it to happen. In short: We needed more of this dragon.
So what's happening when Alliana is busily not spending time with her dragon? Well, she has lots of chores, like any good Cinderella character, as well as other friendships to cultivate, as it turns out. An apprentice witch has been sent to patch up the magical barrier protecting everyone from the rift with a couple of her peers, and Alliana's insight into the local magical animals turns out to be useful. If you've read Eva Evergreen, this witch friend will be familiar to you. She functions a bit like the fairy godmother might in a typical Cinderella story, although mainly she's just here to be a cool friend and enjoy baked goods.
As far as characterization goes, I think Julie Abe is really good at writing endearing friendships. That was what won me over to Eva Evergreen and why I rated it four stars. But here, although I like the friendships, I was disappointed that we were spending time developing Alliana's friendship with the witch instead of her friendship with the dragon.
Additionally, I don't think Abe is as good at writing villains. So far, her villains seem to be so over-the-top nasty that they're cartoonish. Sure, you want them to get beaten, but it can be hard to take them seriously. Luckily, in Eva Evergreen, the character who was the worst offender of this only had a couple scenes. But here, the stepmother is present throughout the entire book, and she's so shallowly awful that it feel kind of ridiculous. I want to root for Alliana overcoming the abuses heaped on her by her stepmother and stepbrother, but her victory over them doesn't feel as satisfying when they're such cardboard cutouts of bad people. I think that's why I don't feel like this book rates any higher than three stars for me.
Of course, that's just my own opinion, and others may react differently. There were a lot of things I liked about this book. The cover is beautiful, I definitely rooted for Alliana throughout, and I enjoyed a lot of the side characters, including Alliana's best friend, her new magic apprentice friends, and OF COURSE the dragon (who truly needed more screentime. The title isn't <i>Alliana, Girl of Witch Friendship</i>). I don't know whether I should expect a sequel for this book, but I'm curious to see if Alliana will appear in the main Eva Evergreen series (which I probably will continue because it's so darn cute).
Overall, I think this is a fun middlegrade Cinderella retelling. If you like the Eva Evergreen series, you'll definitely like this book. I would say that if you like fairytale retellings by the likes of Gail Carson Levine and Shannon Hale, you might like this book as well. It's a cute book. It just needed more dragons and a little more character depth.
This book is essentially a Cinderella retelling in the world of Eva Evergreen that takes inspiration from a Japanese version of Cinderella. With that in mind, if you've read Eva Evergreen, you know exactly what to expect.
Alliana is forced to work in her stepmother's inn while her stepbrother bullies her and her stepsister stands by. Her only allies are her best friend, who is similarly trapped in their small town, and her grandmother, who is not actually her grandmother but her stepmother's mother-in-law. Alliana's only hope of escaping from the debts her stepmother is constantly piling on her is to be chosen to attend an elite academy, but being selected to attend depends on her being able to go to a ball...this is where the Cinderella aspect comes in.
Without giving too much away, Alliana's town is near some kind of...abyss? Rift? Where dragons are known to live. Via some circumstances, she befriends a baby dragon and begins giving it treats. This is where the book starts to lose me because this book promised me dragon friendship and frankly there was not enough of this dragon character in the book. There's a timeskip of about a year after Alliana and the dragon first meet, and during that year they don't have any more direct interactions until post-timeskip. I would have liked to see a lot more of this dragon because he was fantastic. I acknowledge that this story takes place in a world where people are afraid of dragons and it would have been difficult for Alliana and her dragon to hang out, but I still wanted it to happen. In short: We needed more of this dragon.
So what's happening when Alliana is busily not spending time with her dragon? Well, she has lots of chores, like any good Cinderella character, as well as other friendships to cultivate, as it turns out. An apprentice witch has been sent to patch up the magical barrier protecting everyone from the rift with a couple of her peers, and Alliana's insight into the local magical animals turns out to be useful. If you've read Eva Evergreen, this witch friend will be familiar to you. She functions a bit like the fairy godmother might in a typical Cinderella story, although mainly she's just here to be a cool friend and enjoy baked goods.
As far as characterization goes, I think Julie Abe is really good at writing endearing friendships. That was what won me over to Eva Evergreen and why I rated it four stars. But here, although I like the friendships, I was disappointed that we were spending time developing Alliana's friendship with the witch instead of her friendship with the dragon.
Additionally, I don't think Abe is as good at writing villains. So far, her villains seem to be so over-the-top nasty that they're cartoonish. Sure, you want them to get beaten, but it can be hard to take them seriously. Luckily, in Eva Evergreen, the character who was the worst offender of this only had a couple scenes. But here, the stepmother is present throughout the entire book, and she's so shallowly awful that it feel kind of ridiculous. I want to root for Alliana overcoming the abuses heaped on her by her stepmother and stepbrother, but her victory over them doesn't feel as satisfying when they're such cardboard cutouts of bad people. I think that's why I don't feel like this book rates any higher than three stars for me.
Of course, that's just my own opinion, and others may react differently. There were a lot of things I liked about this book. The cover is beautiful, I definitely rooted for Alliana throughout, and I enjoyed a lot of the side characters, including Alliana's best friend, her new magic apprentice friends, and OF COURSE the dragon (who truly needed more screentime. The title isn't <i>Alliana, Girl of Witch Friendship</i>). I don't know whether I should expect a sequel for this book, but I'm curious to see if Alliana will appear in the main Eva Evergreen series (which I probably will continue because it's so darn cute).
Overall, I think this is a fun middlegrade Cinderella retelling. If you like the Eva Evergreen series, you'll definitely like this book. I would say that if you like fairytale retellings by the likes of Gail Carson Levine and Shannon Hale, you might like this book as well. It's a cute book. It just needed more dragons and a little more character depth.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse
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