Review Dearest by Alethea Kontis
5:00 AM
Hey Addicts! I'm back with a review of DEAREST by Alethea Kontis, the 3rd book in her Woodcutter Sisters series. We all know I love retellings and the creative ways authors make them their own. I have seen this series hanging about for a while now, heard blogger friends talking about it but never picked it up for myself. I have heard that you do not need to read the previous books to understand the story so I decided to start with DEAREST. I have to give credit to the publisher for creating such great covers for this series too! I love how you look at it and it's all clearly part of one series.
Dearest
(Woodcutter Sisters, #3)
by Alethea Kontis
by Alethea Kontis
Readers met the Woodcutter sisters (named after the days of the week) in Enchanted and Hero. In this delightful third book, Alethea Kontis weaves together some fine-feathered fairy tales to focus on Friday Woodcutter, the kind and loving seamstress. When Friday stumbles upon seven sleeping brothers in her sister Sunday’s palace, she takes one look at Tristan and knows he’s her future. But the brothers are cursed to be swans by day. Can Friday’s unique magic somehow break the spell?
The Other Woodcutter Sisters Books
Links for Enchanted
Links for Hero
Book Depository - Indie Bound - Powell's
MY REVIEW:
Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day
Is blithe and bonny and good and gay.
I stated above that you don't really need to read the first two books in the series to be able to pick up DEAREST by Alethea Kontis; and it's true. However, I feel I may have appreciated this book a little more if I had read the first two. There were great plots in this book and Alethea really did do a very nice job weaving together so many different fairy tales and making them her own--> she made it work. That fact is what brought this book up from a 2.5 star to a 3 star rating for me.
What I liked:
- Friday, she's the good sister. Very gentle, dedicated and sweet-->all as stated in the poem above. |I was kinda expecting her to be meh but she's also tough and doesn't give up. She is also a tiddy bit boy obsessed. She also has the magic ability to break spells with weaving and feeling the emotions of those around her. Can anyone say Empath?
- I loved Friday finding the 7 prince brothers that were cursed to be swans during the day
- Speaking of the brothers--> Tristan......yes please! He is your perfectly standard Prince Charming. And him with the rest of his brothers are down right laugh your pants off funny and sexy. No matter the differences in personalities.
- Getting to see a few of the other sisters: Sunday and Monday and getting to feel and see the wonderful family/sister bond between the sisters was cool.
- World building and humor in DEAREST was nicely done. Alethea also gets major points for taking such well know fairy tales and making them her own (as I stated above, it's what saved this book for me)
What I had problems and issues with:
- I really didn't like that Friday had to clean up her sister, Saturday, mess after the events in Hero. Understanding this fact and the world is why I recommend you read the other two books first. I really really didn't like Friday having to clean up after her sister while said sister sailed off on a pirate ship to go find treasure, or whatever.
- Considering what I just said, DEAREST doesn't exactly make me want to run out and get Hero and Enchanted. I just wanted more...from everything. As nice as the romance and action was I wanted more than nice.
- Insta-love.......We all know I'm addicted to it-->when it's done right and appropriate to the story. For me, the insta-love here between Friday and her Boo just didn't feel right. They did get a little tiny bit of time to get to know each other, but still. It just didn't do it for me this time.
- The ending left me feeling like huh. Say what? I feel like I was missing something big detail from the book, like I had skimmed over it, but I can't figure out what. It's the whole Death and talk of Gods and other things that just made me scratch my head.
- My last issue, though the world building was good, I felt like there were bits of things lacking. Info or emotions or resolutions or something. Some parts felt very weak when others were strong. Also too many things seemed to be left to fate or just happened that helped Friday and the boys out. I like books where the main characters have to earn and work for their happy ending. Just getting it seems like a cop-out from a really good author.
I really was excited to read this book (and I am grateful to HMH books and Prism blog tours for their review copy of this book) I just really wanted to like it so much more than I did. Maybe once the series is finished I'll give them all a second chance and see if my opinion improves.
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| Alethea Kontis courtesy of Lumos Studio 2012 |
Her published works include: The Wonderland Alphabet (with Janet K. Lee), Diary of a Mad Scientist Garden Gnome (with Janet K. Lee), the AlphaOops series (with Bob Kolar), the Woodcutter Sisters fairy tale series, and The Dark-Hunter Companion (with Sherrilyn Kenyon). Her short fiction, essays, and poetry have appeared in a myriad of anthologies and magazines.
Her YA fairy tale novel, Enchanted, won the Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award in 2012 and the Garden State Teen Book Award i 2015. Enchanted was nominated for the Audie Award in 2013, and was selected for World Book Night in 2014. Both Enchanted and its sequel, Hero, were nominated for the Andre Norton Award.
Born in Burlington, Vermont, Alethea currently lives and writes in Florida, on the Space Coast. She makes the best baklava you’ve ever tasted and sleeps with a teddy bear named Charlie.
Check out Alethea's Road Tour HERE!
Don't forget the giveaway Addicts!! I hope you enjoyed my review and I will see you all next time!
~Dynomoon
Tour-Wide Giveaway
3 Woodcutter Sisters Prize Packs (signed copies of Enchanted, Hero, & Dearest - US Only)
Ends March 8th
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