When Valten hurts his hand and considers taking off the cast, he thinks 'his mother would cry, and he would put up with almost anything not to make her cry.' Is his mom seriously that much of a wimp that she would cry if he removed the cast? Also, when the stepmother tells Valten that Gisela ran off with another man, he's all 'A girl chose another guy over me again!' and seething and worried about his image. I simply DID NOT CARE what happened to them. The characters were hard to relate to and sympathize with. And that whole revenge issue is practically talked to death throughout the book. Also, the book is all about how God is good and revenge is bad and yet they have comments like 'then he could gather his father's knights and soldiers and go teach Ruexner a lesson he'd never forget.' It just seems a little hypocritical.

You'd think God would know you needed help the first time you asked, without you praying to him every 10 freaking seconds afterward. However, 127 references to God, 30 references to prayer, 5 to Jesus, and 6 to a religious 'Lord' is a bit extreme. I was raised in Catholic schools up until college. I really couldn't get into the story, and the book was difficult to enjoy.Īnd just to take a moment to mention the religious references: I knew this book was a Christian novel when I started it. Maybe it's just me, but I felt like the book might as well have been in bullet form. It was as if the author was in such a hurry to get to the next scene that she didn't thoroughly bring out the emotions and details in the present moment. I don't know how to describe it, exactly, but it was almost like it lacked detail. Young adults aren't stupid they'll understand some more complex sentences, I promise.

It was almost overly simplistic, and it made the main characters sound like children, rather than the 17- and 24-year-olds they were supposed to be. I'm usually a pretty big fan of fairy tale retellings, but between this book and the ones I've read recently by Alex Flinn, I've been feeling kinda let down.įirst of all, the book had a pretty slow start. I found this book extremely disappointing.

The captive maiden by melanie dickerson