The Amaranth Enchantment Book

Don't you love it when the book has a pretty cover? It makes the whole experience of reading that much better. Really . You know when you finish and look at the book longingly it makes you think " yeah the story deserved such a wonderful cover ". Ok now on to the story and to stop rambling about pretty pictures....

I am a sucker for fairy tale retellings so I went expecting to like it and that I did. This book uses some of the traditional Cinderella signatures. She is born of a wealthy family, later orphaned, meets a prince, has something like a fairy godmother, but Berry makes the whole tale spin into something incredibly original. Lucinda, our main character, is the one who holds the whole story together. She is feisty, vulnerable, loyal, stronger than she thinks, and funny in that way back when way.

The plot is fairly original like I mentioned. There are some twists but nothing way too shocking. The godmother of the story is a character you won't forget. I hope we see some kind of sequel to this book to see more of what happens to her and that retched stone. Beautiful but very troublesome. Peter the street thief is great. He is a little conceited I guess but I loved the way things ended up for him. Gregor is a dreamboat even if we don't get to see him that much.

I did have some qualms about the ending though. It isn't as neat as I would have hoped. Like when nobody really seems to care or notice what happened to the villain? What's up with that? Also we aren't sure if Lucinda tells Gregor how the big showdown happened. One thing I really did give kudo points to Lucinda for is that her whole happiness didn't cling on to the prince, but at the same time you knew she really cared and loved him. Not easy to do but the author did it.

I can't believe I almost forgot to mention Dog the goat. He's the real hero of the story:) You'll see when you read it.