Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

by Mrs. Stanley's Bookshelf

Posted on September 9, 2014

Enchanted was interesting take on many different fairytale themes.  If you enjoy retold fairy tales, then you will enjoy this book.  Normally, I love this type of book, but I thought that there were parts where this story had a tendency to drag on.  Furthermore, I felt that the author tried to incorporate too many fairy tale elements into the story.  We had pieces from the story of The Frog Prince, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, The Princess and the Pea, the story of the Red Shoes, where the girl dies after being forced to dance continuously, and many others.  I would have liked to have seen the author focus on a couple of these elements more, rather than just throwing them all together.  However, I did enjoy the main story.  The seven woodcutter sisters are all named after the days of the week. The Woodcutter family has a lot of fairy blood, and each member of the family has his or her own special abilities.  Since Sunday is the the seventh daughter of a seventh son, she is very powerful.  Anything she writes will become true, and she can create magic through storytelling.  When she meets an enchanted frog at the well, she begins to tell him the story of her life with her siblings.  Through their time together, they fall in love.  One day as she is leaving the well, she kisses the frog.  Her kiss transforms him back into a man after she has already left.  Unfortunately, he is the price whom her family hates.  He knows that he must win her love in his new form, so he goes back to his castle and declares that there will be three balls.  Prince Rumbold then tries to capture Sunday's heart in his own form.