Fair Maiden

I think, at base, Fair Maiden is an interesting treatment of the "Sleeping Beauty" storyline. But the book itself is in dire need of an editor...or, really, an entire con-crit group's feedback.

The characters are flat---a purely evil villain, a beautiful, angelic (if vapid) heroine, a beautiful, charming (if occasionally controlling) hero, none of whom really grows or changes in the course of the book. Plotholes litter the pages, as do historical inaccuracies, and while the writing isn't bad, it definitely feels lazy at times. The result is an uncomfortable, often boring read humming with unmet potential.

I think if Fair Maiden, and its author, had been challenged to provide stronger storytelling, a broader variety of detail and diction, show more and more complex characters, it would have been a truly engaging book. Perhaps that's something to hope for in Schmidt's future endeavors. show less

I would give the story itself 3.5 stars. It was a good concept and interesting twist with the paranormal genre. I think the story had great potential. However, the characters were one-dimensional and tended to get on my nerves, which brought down my rating for this book. The good characters were good and the bad characters were bad [speaking of, we never did see a return on a few of the characters that caused problems at the beginning of the story (or what became of them.)]For an example of the main character, I believe for about 90% of the story Tessa either pouted, cried, or ate. Half the time I wondered if I was reading about a child or someone that was old enough to get married.

This is a clean romance story, even the "curse" words show more were basically nonexistent. show less