Sunlight and Shadow: A Retelling of "The Magic Flute"

Sunlight and Shadow by Cameron Dokey is the retelling of the operetta “The Magic Flute” by Mozart. The book is quite short so there isn’t much depth to this retelling, but there are musical references such as the bells that can bring you your one true love and, of course, the magic flute.

It is the story of a young girl, Mina who is the daughter of estranged parents, the Queen of the Night and the Mage of the Day. Mina has lived with her mother for sixteen years but now her father has claimed her and plans on picking a proper husband for her. But Mina arranges to have her true love come to her through the magic of the bells and he is a prince who happens to have made a magic flute that can put his love into music. Of course her show more father doesn’t approve and sets trials that they must complete if they want to be together.

One thing that I didn’t care for with this book is that the POV changed almost with every chapter which I thought was rather excessive for such a short story. But overall this is a light and simple tale of romance and magic and how fate unfolds to the satisfaction of all. show less

This was unique in the Dokey books I've read so far in that I haven't read/seen/heard the original tale (apparently an opera). The multiple viewpoints were fun. A couple of the characters were very flat - something Dokey seems to struggle with. Overall, another quick, pleasant read.

The POV changed between characters frequently and often without any indication between paragraphs. The reader just had to deal with the mental whiplash and read on hoping to identify which character was speaking within a few paragraphs of the character change. By about halfway through, I was skimming rather than reading. And instalove has never been my favorite, so that didn't help much either.

This was a very interesting book with many very intriguing characters. The story is full of the thoughts and emotions of many of the different characters and gives you the opportunity to see different points of view by alternating view points from time to time. This was a very enjoyable book to read.

I cute retelling of a wonderful opera. This book is well-written. The characters are not incredibly well developed, but perhaps that is because the author is expecting the reader to already be familiar with them. The plot is simple yet beautiful. I would recommend this book to teens.

Ok, I liked more [b:Before Midnight: A Retelling of "Cinderella"|367349|Before Midnight A Retelling of "Cinderella" (Once Upon a Time Fairytales)|Cameron Dokey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361126273s/367349.jpg|2197767].
Even if both books are retelling of fairy-tales, the main characters of this one were less interesting and the story itself, maybe, could have been a little more complete if it had not been so short. Moreover the secondary chararacters drew and interested me more than the primary.

I am truly in love with the retelling's of fairy tales done by this woman.