The Sweetest Spell

I wish all faery tales were like this. I thought it was one part Rumpelstiltskin, one part Cinderella, one part The Kitchen Knight and one part The Princess Bride. Emmeline Thistle and Owen Oak are two of the most likeable, interesting characters to come from the imagination in a long time. The third main character, Griffin Boar, reminded me of the obnoxious jocks in high school, the ones who thought they were God's greatest gift to everyone. Perhap that's what the author had in mind, but he was a little too predictable for me and I figured out the deal with Prince Beau as soon as he appeared in the story - I wish that could have been more of a mystery.

I did like the banter between Oak and Boar in the dungeon, though; it was one-upmanship and bluster, and honest.

Ms. Selfors weaves a tale that shows us the great and continuing divide between those who are privileged and wont for nothing and the rest of us, especially the very poor. The king and queen are despicable and hold dark secrets - one that threw me - and the people put up with their missrule to a point.

The central figure is Emmeline Thistle, one of the Kell - a red-haired tribe of people who become 'dirt scratchers.' farmers, who are shunned and dispised because of something that happened in the past. I won't share that, for you get several versions of the historic account until the truth is revealed and it was a delight to figure it out. Emmeline has a rare gift because of that past. Emmeline is used to be being shunned and treated with hatred for her disability. People cannot see her true beauty because they see the deformity that is an accident of birth, and that's all they want to see, even though under the dirt and deprivation she is a physically and intellectually beautiful girl, a true heroine and fighter.

Cows and chocolate figure prominently in the story. The cows are faery godparents of a sort and Emmeline has the gift to make chocolate. As one of a million and more people who love chocolate, that was draw for me! I won't say how she makes it - I was expecting a King Midas-sort of situation and was pleasantly surprised to discover something else. Boy, was it different!

Like Ms. Selfors' wonderful story, "Saving Juliet," "The Sweetest Spell" had me laughing out loud and staying up way past my bedtime to read, this time around, the continuing adventure of Emmeline. It is a darker, more serious story in places than "Saving Juliet;" it brings to the fore the very real problems of class division and discrimination still with us.

Excellent dialogue, description, sense of place and characters. I hope there's going to be a sequel for not only do I want chocolate, LOTS of chocolate, after reading "The Sweetest Spell," I want more adventures of Emmeline Thistle and Owen Oak. Pick up this book and read it! ( )

Why I chose to review this book:

I had put this book on my to read shelf on GoodReads a while ago. I thought that it sounded interesting because at the time I was going through a very intense chocolate craving. I don't normally like chocolate and even when I have chocolate cravings when I actually eat it I don't think that it tastes any different than when I don't have the craving. The reason that I did not buy the book as soon as I heard about it was because I had been looking up new books on GoodReads and I was not in the mood to look for every book that I was putting on my to read shelf. However, when I was browsing the books on Barnes and Noble for $2.99 and under I found it again. Before anyone says anything I know that I was being cheap but I believe that it is better to look in the bargain section before I go looking at the more normal priced books. I found two that I bought in the clearance section and this book just happened to be one of them. Upon looking at the cover I realized that it was on my to read shelf and I downloaded it and the next day on the bus I began to read it.

The beginning:

The book starts off with Emmeline's birth and how the parents follow the tradition of their town by setting her out to die when they find out that she is a cripple. She is saved by cows and is brought back to her house. A decade and some change later and she is all grown up. The beginning is straight forward. She is unwanted by all, even her parents and despite this fact she says that it is her duty to help her father. Maybe this is my daddy issues talking but just because your father help your birth does not mean that it cancels everything else that he did after it. Hello, he tried to kill her and when he gets her back all he does is ignore her if what she says herself is to be believed. I liked the beginning because I thought that it was setting up for something.

One, two, skip a few and suddenly she is washed away to meet Owen Oak. Owen Oak, how I dislike thee. Owen is not painted in a good light. He is a fighter. He is a womanizer. He is an all around ass. And yet within the first minutes of knowing Emmeline he suddenly decides to turn over a new leaf. Suddenly he is feeling closer to god. It is time to stop fighting and making out with the milkmaids behind the shed. He is officially a one woman kind of man. And while I disliked this lust at first sight it slowly started to win me over because Emmeline and Owen hung out and I could see the potential for a relationship between them.

And then something big happens.

The middle to the end:

The huge thing that happens in the book is pretty much the rest of the story-line. And it was this part that I disliked the most. It drags out and while things are happening it feels like nothing happens. I got really bored and the explanation of a lot of what happens and why is so ridiculous that I was pulled from the book and left dissatisfied. There was nothing all that wrong so much as I just didn't like it. It seemed like it was meant to be a love story/adventure but the build up for the relationship is dropped halfway through and the adventure takes over. It is not done in a way that I could really enjoy either aspect.

The Short Version:

I enjoyed the beginning but the middle to the end is unnecessarily long. A lot of the scenes could have been cut and nothing would have been lost. I just could not get into the book as much as I should have. Finally, I didn't realize that this book was a retelling of the ugly duckling but I really wish people would quit labeling every book a retelling of this or that story when in the end it is not a retelling. While the entire story does not have to be the same I believe that there should be some kind or resemblance to the original even if it is only an homage or two. The reason that this got a three star instead of a two is because of how much I enjoyed some of the parts and the potential that I felt that it had. ( )

3.5 is my rating.

My notes:


I enjoyed the historical aspects, relationship with cows, the evil queen, the twist with the prince, the peddler and his daughter, Griffen's change of heart and of course the brave and determined Owen Oak. Emmeline is courageous with a strong will and mind. I enjoyed this story. ( )

The magic of chocolate and the oppression of ginger people, wrapped up in a fairy tale package. I liked it a lot. ( )

This is apparently supposed to be a take on The Ugly Duckling, but I'm not too sure how that fits in to the story. It was mildly entertaining. One reviewer compared it to The Princess Bride, but in my estimation it doesn't even come close to that classic fairy tale/farce. The premise is promising and the characters intriguing, but some of the situations need you to completely suspend belief. However, I think teenagers will love it.

Areas of concern: A boy talks about his mother finding him with a half-naked milkmaid when he was 15. Someone is called a "rat bastard". One use of the "d" word. ( )