When Ella was a baby, a well-meaning but blundering fairy gave her the gift of obedience, a gift that is more of a curse. Anything anyone tells her to
do, Ella must do, whether it's going to bed early, giving away her money, or letting an ogre eat her alive. She is determined to break the curse, but she
can't find the fairy who gave her the gift, and nobody else seems to know what to do about it. When her understanding mother dies and her cold father
brings home a new lady, Ella's life takes a drastic turn for the worse. She must find a way to cast off the fairy's gift before it ruins her life and the
lives of everyone she loves.
Review
This book would have merited five stars had it not suddenly decided to be a Cinderella retelling midstream. Granted, the name was a hint that this might
happen, but the story and the characters didn't need that crutch, and it only served to redirect and prolong the tale. Ella comes across as a strong and
intelligent heroine, and I liked her and those in the supporting cast I was supposed to like. An entertaining tale with a great concept, but it could have -
and should have - stood on its own.
In the kingdom of Ayortha, two virtues are prized above all others: singing and beauty. Residents sing almost all the time, for themselves or with
others, in joy and mourning and anywhere in between. The girl Aza sings with a voice like no other... but her face comes nowhere near her voice in terms
of beauty. Big and pale and awkward, she nonetheless is loved by her adoptive family, the keepers of the Featherbed Inn. Though she can sing like a lark,
mimic voices, and even throw her voice, many inn guests can't see past her homely face to the warm heart within.
A chance invitation brings Aza to the king's court to witness the wedding of aging King Oscaro to a young commoner from another land: Ivi, whose beauty is
beyond compare, but whose untrained voice, alas, is nowhere near the kingdom's standards. When the vain young queen learns of Aza's skills, she plots to use
the girl to cover her own vocal weakness... but the simple deception soon becomes a tangled web of court intrigue and power plays - a web made all the more
tangled by Aza's attraction to the young Prince Ijori.
Review
This retelling of Snow White (with a little trace of Cyrano), set in the same world as Levine's Ella Enchanted (which doesn't seem to be an official
series), reads fast and offers some nice takes on the age-old struggle of inner versus outer beauty. Unlike Ella, I didn't feel quite as jarred by the
jump to the fairy-tale formula, though like that book I couldn't help thinking that the heroine could've managed her own, non-derivative story. Some of the names
started bleeding together, and a little of Levine's Gnomish speech (with reversed capitalizations and punctuations) went a long way, but otherwise I enjoyed
Ayortha and the characters in it.
When Elodie left the small family farm to find her fortune in the city of Two Castles, her parents gave her plenty of advice. Never correct your
elders. Keep your thoughts to yourself. Beware the false friend - the whited sepulcher, in common parlance. Be truthful. And above all else, avoid the
company of ogres and dragons! Ogres are brutish and unreliable, able to assume any animal shape at will, and dragons... well, they won't even trust a
human enough to reveal their gender.
There is only one of each in Two Castles: Count Jonty Um, the ogre who owns the castle not held by the greedy king, and Masteress Meenore, who has lived
among the people since IT hatched a century ago and has yet to incinerate a single soul (so far as anyone has seen.) The odds of Elodie meeting either
seem slim to none. Besides, she's going to Two Castles to apprentice herself as a mansioner - an actress - and likely will be on the road before long.
But from the first day, her journey goes wrong... and she finds herself apprenticed not to Master Serow of the mansioners, but to Meenore! The dragon
fancies ITself a detective, despite most people in Two Castles only valuing ITs services as a water heater and roaster of meat-and-cheese skewers in the
market square. Under Meenore's wing, Elodie discovers new uses for her acting talents, as she helps investigate a dangerous plot that might shake the city,
and the kingdom, to its very core.
Review
I've read and enjoyed other works be Levine, and I liked the idea of a draconic Sherlock. For what it is, it's not a bad little jaunt. Elodie must learn
to trust both her heart and her brain, rather than relying on others and their advice to do her thinking for her. Meenore makes a decent detective and an
interesting dragon, ITs behaviour just unpredictable enough to remind Elodie, and the reader, that IT is not just a scaled human being. As for the other
characters, most have a little more to them than initially meets the eye, as befitting a mystery. For some reason, though, I just didn't feel it came together
quite as neatly as Levine's other books. There were almost too many elements vying for attention: Elodie and her mansioning dreams, Meenore the unappreciated
detective, hints of international espionage, a worthless glutton of a king, a message about prejudice... all mixed into a story that takes Puss in
Boots and turns the tale on its ear, with the ogre being more sympathetic than the miller's son or his cat. My attention kept getting interrupted as this
or that element rose up in my path. In the end, though, it proves a fair read, with a good mix of suspense, danger, and even humor, all suffused with fairy
tale magic.
As a closing note, in the bonus material Levine mentions that she might revisit Elodie and Meenore in future sleuthing adventures. It might make for a fun
series.
The daughters of King Lionel of Bamarre could not be more different. Elder Princess Meryl yearns for adventure, determined to challenge every last
ogre, specter, gryphon, and dragon that plagues the kingdom. Princess Addie can't even confront a spider, wielding nothing more dangerous than an
embroidery needle. Meryl can't wait to leave their castle home, while Addie fears the wild, monster-filled world. Despite their differences, they love
each other dearly... so when Meryl succumbs to the Gray Death, Addie can scarcely contain her terror. Nobody has ever survived the plague, even with
the help of elven healers; it is said that the fairies might know a cure, but nobody has seen them in centuries. Determined to save her sister, timid
Addie screws up her courage and sets forth on her own quest.
Review
Not a perfect story, this nevertheless entertains. Addie makes an atypical hero, especially in a genre where women tend to be either fainting damsels
in distress or tomboys chafing at society's constraints. She doesn't want to be brave, but fear of failure trumps her fear of adventure. Levine crafts a
magical, if lightweight, fantasy kingdom, with just enough history and heft to it for a good adventure yarn. I particularly enjoyed her take on dragons,
distinctly inhuman beings seemingly cursed by their own conflicting needs and instincts. The story itself moves at a fair pace, building up to a tense
finale and an ending somewhere between happy and bittersweet. It kept me reading for a full afternoon, which is more than I can say for some grown-up
stories I've read lately.
Maybe you have a hundred stories in your head, but when you try to pin them down they never work out right. Maybe you enjoy reading books so much that
you just have to try writing one yourself, but can't seem to figure out how to start. The author of Ella Enchanted and numerous other books gives
advice to writers of all ages, interests, and abilities, offering numerous exercises and examples from her own life and works.
Review
I'll admit I rated it with the young adult target age in mind, but it's still an excellent, clearly-written book about writing with advice that will
benefit any would-be author of any age. Her short chapters cover the basics (coming up with a story, deciding on a voice, revisions, characters, etc.) and
the not-so-basics (such as the overuse of adjectives and the great said/asked vs. other dialog verbs debate.) Each chapter ends in a writing exercise or two
emphasising the matters discussed, with constant reminders to "have fun" and save everything, even the "junk," because you never know what you'll want to use
a year or ten down the line. Regardless of whether or not you want to write fantasy (what she's best known for), you should find something of value here. Now,
if only I could make myself sit down and do more of those exercises...
