Thursday, May 22, 2014

Enchanted, by Alethea Kontis

Really the only reason we checked this out was because it was narrated by Katherine Kellgren. I personally wouldn't have checked it out because of the description, but Mom was sure it would be 'cute'.
A girl (Sunday) is the 7th 7th, or the 7th daughter of a 7th daughter. And as the poem goes, "Sunday's child is blithe and bonny and good and gay". Sunday, as it seems, is doomed to a happy life, whether she likes it or not.
One day, while waltzing through the woods, she happens upon a talking frog. Well, they get to talking, and.....you can probably figure out the rest. Of course he is a prince! She happens to not be so bright (she does know that he was a human turned into a frog, but how he got like that makes absolutely no sense) and wishes that he was human again. Of course. And after one meeting, Sunday decides that she is in love with him.
Katherine Kellgren's narrating is, of course, flawless, but she did make 'Grumble' the frog sound rather old when he was supposed to be a young prince.
One thing I did appreciate about this book was the bits of old fairy tales spun in.  A not-particularly-spoiler-example is when her brother goes to the market to sell the cow. Instead of selling the cow, he trades the beast for 5 magic beans.
Basically.....I would never recommend this book. While all the bits with her sister's was entertaining, it was the rest that was completely and utterly boring. Way too much romance, and it was a selfish romance.
When Sunday met Grumble, she loved him because he listened to her. She could tell stories to him and he would listen, which made her happy because she could dump her woefully dull life on him. In fact, she had nothing to complain about. And why did the frog love her? Still no clue. Other than he knew that she loved him, and that was enough to love her back.
I still can't figure out how the author thought this was a good idea. THERE WAS NO IDEA! Nothing really happened until the end, when the tiniest streak of evil appeared and there was actually conflict.
Maybe that is my problem with the story, is there was no conflict. Maybe if Sunday had a deep dark secret that the frog could never know, or if a troll had come barging through the house.
I was bothered that I knew the author loved her characters too much to hurt them. I knew that there was no way anyone would die. I have authors that love their characters too much to have anything tragic happen. Frankly I wished the Prince had died.

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