Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

GoodReads

305 pages, YA Fantasy/Fairy Tales

Woodcutter series #1

Synopsis

It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.

When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises.

The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past - and hers?

My 2 cents

This book was a lot better than I thought it would be.  I expected it to be kind of cutesy, a little like Ella Enchanted.  It started out that way, but things turned very dark in the last half of the book.  I ended up taking it way more seriously than I previously thought.  

I have to give the author props--she referenced so many fairy tales in just this one story, it was amazing and incredible!  Fairy tale  retellings are lots of fun, but normally they stick to just one classic story.  Not this book!  She probably referenced 20 or more!  The world building was done really well, too.  It was so easy to leave my world behind and live in Sunday's beautiful world instead!

The characters were well done...although it was very confusing in the beginning to figure out which sister was who.  They are all named after days of the week, so that was hard to follow at first.  But this story was mostly focused on just a few, so I was able to follow along eventually.  The best character development was the prince, Rumbold.  I really felt his weirdness in coming back from a frog to a man.  Sunday was also very easy to relate to.

There is a lot of subject covered in just 300 pages.  At times things felt a little rushed, and I got confused towards the end on what was really happening.  But overall, the story flowed well.  If you like fairy tales, you will probably like this book! I give it 4 stars!