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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
3.5 stars
A re-telling of Rapunzel in a historical fiction setting. Great character development.
A re-telling of Rapunzel in a historical fiction setting. Great character development.
I love Dickerson's fairy tale variants. She does a great job with taking the original storylines and melding them into new, Christian, adventure love stories. So well done!
I received this book from the author/publisher for the purpose of this review. All comments and opinions are entirely my own.
In this exciting, charming twist of Rapunzel, there is much the same storyline, as well as much different. With Rapunzel's interesting skills and the brilliant characters, many will see strong similarities between this novel and the movie "Tangled". However, there are enough new plot twists to keep the story fresh.
I enjoyed reading this story from Rapunzel's point of view, and the occasional chapters from Sir Gerek made the story that much more enticing. Melanie's writing style is wonderful and I love all of her fairy-tale retellings so I can confidently say that fans of her past works will definitely be pleased with this new addition. 5 out of 5 stars.
You can read this review, as well as others, on my blog at http://acceleratethejesusmovement.wordpress.com
In this exciting, charming twist of Rapunzel, there is much the same storyline, as well as much different. With Rapunzel's interesting skills and the brilliant characters, many will see strong similarities between this novel and the movie "Tangled". However, there are enough new plot twists to keep the story fresh.
I enjoyed reading this story from Rapunzel's point of view, and the occasional chapters from Sir Gerek made the story that much more enticing. Melanie's writing style is wonderful and I love all of her fairy-tale retellings so I can confidently say that fans of her past works will definitely be pleased with this new addition. 5 out of 5 stars.
You can read this review, as well as others, on my blog at http://acceleratethejesusmovement.wordpress.com
This was such a good book! I loved that Rapunzel was sassy and outspoken, and I LOVED the way that it was intertwined with The Princess Spy. This is my second favorite book in this series, with only The Healer's Apprentice above it.
For me, I put this book down because I was tired of the constant focus on marriage, but the real kicker was Rapunzel's almost instant ability to read. At a time when I'm trying to read for MSBA, I can't see myself recommending a book where someone seems to go from not recognizing letters to reading words in less than an hour. I might return to it later, but at the moment, I'm letting it go.
This was the SLOWEST burn romance ever oh my god but this book was good! I really enjoyed it and the dynamics between the characters. I also really like this adaptation of the Rapunzel tale, I think it worked really well and gave Rapunzel more depth.
I loved the Christian flair to the story. The writing style was so simple but it was also very deep as it got the characters' emotions across well in the third person.
“She wanted to hit him. Perhaps she would.”
The above quote is exactly what I wanted to do for the first third or so of this book. I was so bored none of the characters were interesting or worth caring about for a while and the romance was obvious from the beginning. When I pick this book up from the library I read the first paragraph of the synopsis and was all like "cool kick butt knife throwing Rapunzel I can get behind that!"
But alas I didn't read the full synopsis so I didn't get what I was hoping for. The story wasn't bad at all and I probably would have liked it more if I knew what I was signing up for when I started.
The Characters whilst being the predictable gang of characters from the classic story of Rapunzel were still different and as the story progresses we see them develop and grow.
The romance is utterly predictable Christian fantasy fluff that happens in most Christian fiction so no surprises there.
This book is Christian fiction but get this, It's not ridiculously preachy.
As predictable as this book was it wasn't horrid and I would read another book by this author at some point in time. Three stars is the actual rating and it might have gotten a slightly higher rating if I knew what I was going to expect.
The above quote is exactly what I wanted to do for the first third or so of this book. I was so bored none of the characters were interesting or worth caring about for a while and the romance was obvious from the beginning. When I pick this book up from the library I read the first paragraph of the synopsis and was all like "cool kick butt knife throwing Rapunzel I can get behind that!"
But alas I didn't read the full synopsis so I didn't get what I was hoping for. The story wasn't bad at all and I probably would have liked it more if I knew what I was signing up for when I started.
The Characters whilst being the predictable gang of characters from the classic story of Rapunzel were still different and as the story progresses we see them develop and grow.
The romance is utterly predictable Christian fantasy fluff that happens in most Christian fiction so no surprises there.
This book is Christian fiction but get this, It's not ridiculously preachy.
As predictable as this book was it wasn't horrid and I would read another book by this author at some point in time. Three stars is the actual rating and it might have gotten a slightly higher rating if I knew what I was going to expect.
OMGoodness!!! This book ia amazing!!! I am so glad that I finally got to read it and now have a fully family picture. I loved how their characters grew as the story progressed. Everything was just perfect and went together very well.
3.5
I made the mistake of not checking the genre before I bought this, since I am not religious and don't read Christian fiction. I also did not realize that it was part of a series, because I again didn't check. This was one of the first books I bought based on Goodreads deals, so it isn't a big deal because it was cheap. Now I do always check the genre before I buy, but apparently when I bought this book I didn't.
I did enjoy this book toward the end, but the beginning didn't hold my attention, and if I had to rate it then it would have been 2 stars. It did get better as the story moved along, but the pacing sort of annoyed me too. Some parts seemed to move really fast, and then others dragged on forever. At some points I felt like the story was winding down, but then it was not even 2/3 of the way through the book, and this happened several times, when the plot loops were starting to close and a new one hadn't be opened yet.
I also think that the author tells us too much and doesn't show us. There needs to be more detail, not just saying he did this or she felt this. This could also relate to the pacing issue.
I did like the romance between Gerek and Rapunzel. It reminded me a lot of the book and it's tv show adaptation Still Star-Crossed, and the relationship between the main characters Rosaline and Benvolio.
Some of the Christian plot points annoyed me and I felt they were unnecessary. I originally thought that it was not that religious and preachy for this genre, but then there was a certain plot point close to the 75% mark that I did not like at all. If I was the target audience for this book I probably would, but because I am not it just seemed really unnecessary to me, and I think that it could have been done differently.
I realized that some of the other books in this series are on my want to read list, and while reading this book I considered whether or not I would read them because this genre is not for me, but I think I have decided to give them a try, even though I am reading the series out of order. I did like the romance in this book, although it didn't make me fangirl like crazy, so hopefully I will like some of the other books.
SPOILER!
The point I am referring to is when Gerek prays to God and truly says how foolish he has been that God tells him to go in this direction to find Rapunzel. I do not like the divine intervention plot point, because I think that Gerek could have found the trail himself that led to Rapunzel. People who are religious would not have a problem with this, and I am trying not to judge too harshly because I am not the audience that this book is intended for, but I still think that it could have been done differently. It could even have been implied and not directly stated and I would have had less of a problem with it.
I made the mistake of not checking the genre before I bought this, since I am not religious and don't read Christian fiction. I also did not realize that it was part of a series, because I again didn't check. This was one of the first books I bought based on Goodreads deals, so it isn't a big deal because it was cheap. Now I do always check the genre before I buy, but apparently when I bought this book I didn't.
I did enjoy this book toward the end, but the beginning didn't hold my attention, and if I had to rate it then it would have been 2 stars. It did get better as the story moved along, but the pacing sort of annoyed me too. Some parts seemed to move really fast, and then others dragged on forever. At some points I felt like the story was winding down, but then it was not even 2/3 of the way through the book, and this happened several times, when the plot loops were starting to close and a new one hadn't be opened yet.
I also think that the author tells us too much and doesn't show us. There needs to be more detail, not just saying he did this or she felt this. This could also relate to the pacing issue.
I did like the romance between Gerek and Rapunzel. It reminded me a lot of the book and it's tv show adaptation Still Star-Crossed, and the relationship between the main characters Rosaline and Benvolio.
Some of the Christian plot points annoyed me and I felt they were unnecessary. I originally thought that it was not that religious and preachy for this genre, but then there was a certain plot point close to the 75% mark that I did not like at all. If I was the target audience for this book I probably would, but because I am not it just seemed really unnecessary to me, and I think that it could have been done differently.
I realized that some of the other books in this series are on my want to read list, and while reading this book I considered whether or not I would read them because this genre is not for me, but I think I have decided to give them a try, even though I am reading the series out of order. I did like the romance in this book, although it didn't make me fangirl like crazy, so hopefully I will like some of the other books.
SPOILER!
The point I am referring to is when Gerek prays to God and truly says how foolish he has been that God tells him to go in this direction to find Rapunzel. I do not like the divine intervention plot point, because I think that Gerek could have found the trail himself that led to Rapunzel. People who are religious would not have a problem with this, and I am trying not to judge too harshly because I am not the audience that this book is intended for, but I still think that it could have been done differently. It could even have been implied and not directly stated and I would have had less of a problem with it.