Hero, book two in the Woodcutter series, is a harsher story. Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Enchanted is bound to be a pleasure. Overall, for anyone who has enjoyed things like Once Upon A Time, Robin McKinley’s fairy tale retellings, and Patricia C. We also get to visit the castle, and see both heated battles and dazzling balls. Seeing the siblings interact in playful and supportive ways, as well as in argumentative and annoyed ways, makes the time spent in their tower house feel familiar and cozy. The Woodcutter family is big and loving, and they feel quite real because all of them are flawed. It’s hardly a spoiler in such a tale to admit a happy ending is in store it’s how the story gets there that makes things interesting.Įnchanted is full of fun and interesting characters and subplots, and one of its strengths is in the ensemble nature of the narrative. Jack’s curse came about because of the prince, and her family is none too happy with him. When Grumble transforms into into his true form of Prince Rumbold, he expects that, as in the usual course of fairy tales, Sunday will fall in love with him, but things aren’t so simple. It quickly becomes clear that we are in not one fairy tale, but a magical mashup land, where many fairy tales overlap, and there are generous side helpings of politics, adventure, and magical rules. There are also two other boys, Peter and Trix, the former of whom seems nice and not terribly remarkable in this book, and the latter of whom is a foundling child, and half fairy. Monday married into royalty early, Tuesday danced herself to death in red shoes, Wednesday is a poet, Thursday ran off with a pirate king, Friday is a charitable and compassionate soul, Saturday is a tireless worker, and Sunday (in addition to being bonny and blithe and good and gay) is a storyteller whose stories come true. We also learn more about the other Woodcutter children. In the first few pages, we learn that Sunday’s oldest brother Jack is something of a legend, but that he was cursed sometime ago to become a dog.
Imagine my delight, then, when Kontis delivered something more.
The Princess and the Frog is a fine story, and I would have been content enough to read a straight retelling, even if it hadn’t gone anywhere new. She meets an enchanted frog named Grumble, and the rest, as they say, is history.Īlethea Kontis hooked me in quickly with the easy conversational tone of Sunday’s encounter with Grumble. When we first meet them, Sunday, the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, is out in the Wood, writing stories in a journal. This rhyme opens Enchanted, the first in a series of the tales of the Woodcutter sisters. Saturday’s child works hard for a living,īut the child who is born on the Sabbath Day
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