My last post was not really much of a success. I find that the picture is horrible when viewed on the computer. And it's not because it was bad in the first place -- my phone has an excellent camera and it was a nice picture. I don't think the mobile blogger is on my good list. So to make up for that, it's been way too long since I've had a book of the week post! This is a great one.
Title: Heartless
Author: Anne Elisabeth Stengl
Published: 2010
Short Synopsis: Princess Una of the kingdom of Parumvir has been looking forward to the time when suitors will come to pay their respects to her for what seems like her whole life. She cannot wait to be swept off of her feet by a handsome, romantic prince or nobleman.
Then the suitors start coming. Prince Athelbald is, in her words, "Stodgy," Gervais is romantic but has hidden problems, the Duke of Shippening is old and fat . . . and so it goes. Even though Una has been clear that she does not care for Athelbald, he keeps sticking around. This becomes even more annoying to her when she falls in love with an unintended suitor.
By giving her heart away, Una unwittingly unleashes a beast that has been far from the minds of her countrymen for ages. Only one man can help to save Una, her kingdom, and her family. And only she can allow him to do it.
Some things that I liked: This is a lovely fantasy that can be enjoyed by just about anyone. It is clean and simple enough for a young teenager or even tween, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I consider myself to be an adult. The thing that grabbed me the most (and this is going to make me sound like a crazy person, but here ya go) is that the story seemed very familiar to me. Waaay back, like when I was 12ish, my sister had this epic dream that she told me one morning, and asked me to write it down while she told it. The dream was all about a princess who met all these different possible future mates and some turned out to be rotten, others were ok, but only one was stalwart through her journeys and trials. That's the short version of the dream, anyway. I had written it down, and actually in the past 5 years have been tying to write it into decent story. I was shocked several times as I was reading this book because there are so many similarities between "my" story and this one. Not to worry, there is a twist in this book that is completely different than mine (it has to do with dragons!), so I'm not all the way back to the drawing board. I would be annoyed, but the story is done so well here that it really just made me excited about it.
Another thing I loved about this book is that the characters are fun. Una's nurse is hilarious and her brother Felix is pretty entertaining too. And I must not forget the blind cat, Monster, who is a personality all of his own.
Some things I couldn't decide whether I liked or not: In reading all sorts of reviews and descriptions of this book, I learned that its genre is "Christian fiction." I guess it is supposed to be in the same realm as C.S. Lewis and even Tolkien. Not trying to compare itself to the sheer epic-ness of those authors, but trying to have Christian undertones and comparisons like they do. On the one hand, I like that. Because unlike a lot of Christian fiction, in this book there is no preaching, no "Come to God" speeches, no awkward and unnatural conversion scenes. (Now you know how I feel about Christian fiction, haha). In this book there are simply depictions of absolute good and absolute evil, of Christlike characters, and other themes which contain much truth if you're looking for it. On the other hand, I don't like that this book is categorized that way because I think that description could scare some people away. I consider myself devout and faithful Christian and sometimes I pass on books with a Christian description for the above-mentioned reasons. I think also that someone who is not even religious could read this book and love it. But they might not even read it because of the description.
That was probably an over-long explanation. Sorry.
Some things I didn't like: The name Parumvir. How exactly is that supposed to be pronounced? Par-oom-vir? Pa-rum-vir? Pare-um-vir? I stumble over it every time it comes up. I also think that Una is overly bratty to a certain prince that she doesn't care for. I mean, it's cool that she's immature at first because that's part of her character and part of the story, but she's just way, way rude at the beginning, which is very un-princesslike.
My Rating: 3 out of 3 stars. Not as favorite for me as the Muirwood books, but still SO worth a read. I just learned the other day that there are 3 more books that go along with Heartless. The series is called "Tales of Goldstone Wood," and Heartless is the first book. So I am looking forward to reading those next.
