Book Review!

 

I just finished reading the Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry.  It was a very quick read that falls in the Young Adult category.

Huh.  

Not quite sure how to start here because I have mixed emotions about this one.  I looked on a few sights and so many readers gave it rave reviews with very few negative ones, so I am confused.  I am wondering if I read the same book they did. Yet, I didn't hate it.  I am somewhere in the middle on this one.  Let me break it down.

First, I would not put it in the Young Adult category, it would fit in more of a fifth and sixth grade area.  

Things I liked:

• A creative retelling of a Cinderella story
• Lucinda, the heroine, although whiney here and there, wasn't afraid to take charge of her situation.
• Peter, the thief, was interesting and added some witty banter to the story.

Things I didn't like:

• The heroine falls completely in love after one small encounter with the prince.  It felt like she just decided one minute to be in love.  There wasn't any relationship development.  It just felt flat.
• Beryl, the woman from another world, was a great opportunity lost.  She could have added a huge dimension to the story and it wasn't really played out very well.  
• The traveling back and forth between the worlds wasn't thought out very well.  Beryl says she is trapped, yet, with the heroines help she returns to her world, then comes back again to help the heroine.  I thought there wasn't any way for them to go back and forth.  It was confusing.
• The protagonist was flat. Why was he banished?  Where was the person who was banished with him?  If he knew who and what Beryl was when he first met her, why didn't she know about him?  
• The prince.  We don't really get a chance to meet him, yet he and Lucinda are so in love with each other he decides she needs to stay away so he can fulfill his duty.  Who is this guy?  What is it she loves about him?  What made him fall in love with a commoner and a thief for that matter?

I don't mean to sound like I am tearing this book apart.  It was a fun, easy, cute read.  But, like I mentioned earlier, more for the preteen crowd.  I would recommend it to a 10 year old girl in a heartbeat!