Julie Berry

A delightful fairytale by a lyrical new voice. When Lucinda Chapdelaine was a small child, her parents left for the royal ball and never returned. Ever since, Lucinda has been stuck in perpetual servitude at her evil aunt’s jewelry store. Then, on the very same day, a mysterious visitor and an even more bizarre piece of jewelry both enter the shop, setting in motion a string of twists and turns that will forever alter Lucinda’s path. In this magical story filled with delightful surprises, Lucinda will dance at the royal ball, fall under the Amaranth Witch’s spell, avenge her parents’ death, and maybe—just maybe—capture the heart of a prince.

The Amaranth Enchantment

MJ Laird

I found this book here on goodreads and thought it looked interesting. I honestly don't even remember what I read about it. But I must've thought it sounding good because I apparently requested it from the library. I went to pick up some other books and I had this one too. I vaguely recalled reading about it but I didn't know if I really wanted it. But, I decided it'd be nice to have an extra book so I checked it out with my other books. I read it yesterday without really knowing what I was getting into. Well, I'm glad I didn't leave it behind at the library. I absolutely loved it!

From this point on, there will be spoilers. Anything really big will be hidden.

The main character, Lucinda Chapdelaine, was a great character. I felt that she was very easy to understand and fairly simple in a way but she wasn't cliché and boring. She was really fun! The book is written from her point of view so you get to read her thoughts. Near the beginning of the book, she meets a boy who turns out to be the prince. Well, they're sort of flirting with each other a bit and she gives the reader some commentary on him. Normally, I find the whole "butterflies in my stomach because he's so amazingly attractive" thing really annoying and awkward - mind, I find awkward really cute and enjoyable in a character if it's handled well but I'm referring to the kind where you sort of feel embarrassed when you're reading - but I thought that it written very well and I found it adorable.

Now, Gregor was great. He wasn't actually present for most of the book but whenever he was, it felt like he was an old friend. I really liked him. I would like to have more to say about him but I really don't. I loved him a lot but I can't seem to put it into words. You'd just have to read it, I guess.

Another character is Peter. Peter is a thief and a very large part of the story. At first, I wasn't really sure what I thought of him. He's cocky and flirtatious and a bit aggravating. But I didn't really like or dislike it. I think at first I just didn't trust him. To really explain my feelings on Peter, I'll need to hide the rest. (view spoiler)[ Peter steals a very important stone from Lucinda and sells it to Gregor. When Lucinda finds Peter, she demands the he sell it back to her. When she hears that Gregor has it, she tells Peter to steal it back only to be told that Peter never steals back from his clients. At this point, I think everything pretty much goes downhill. Peter trains Lucinda so that she can steal the stone from Gregor. Now, here I think Peter really started to grow on me. I started to trust him a bit more. Some more stuff happened that I won't get into and Peter and Lucinda have to go talk to Gregor and get the stone back. Well, Peter takes Lucinda to the back of the castle and they climb up into Gregor's room. Sure, he's not happy that they did that but Gregor didn't really seem at surprised. There's also the fact that Peter seems to be bothered by the fact that Gregor is engaged. So, my theory was that he was actually Gregor's brother. But then he started to talk about someday he wanted to become a lord. Well, if he had been a prince who didn't like that life it would make since but why would he be living as a homeless thief and want to be a lord? Then they went to the ball and the king and queen don't seem to know him. Then it turns out that he is actually the long lost prince and he is made the crown prince and is to marry the princess, Beatrice, in place of Gregor. Well, that's where I got confused. I have a lot of questions now. Did Peter know? Did Gregor know? If either one knew, why not say anything? If Peter didn't know, why was he so upset by Gregor's engagement to Beatrice? I had thought that perhaps Peter and Beatrice were in love but she didn't know him at the ball either. I just don't get that. (hide spoiler)]

For most of the book I wondered if it would become a love triangle. The reason for this is that Lucinda first meets Gregor and immediately likes him. Then she meets Peter and basically hates him. But as the story goes on, (view spoiler)[ she begins to become friends him (hide spoiler)]. So, I could really see it going one of two ways. Either she would just end up with the prince or she would realize that she really liked Peter. I suppose it was also possible that she would like them both at the same time and have to choose but it didn't really feel like the story was going that way. Now, I'm not sure if this was intentional or not; making the reader try and guess if there would be a love triangle. Either way, it was amazing.

Negatives:

Honestly, I don't think there was really anything that bothered me but there were a few things the might bother others. One character tells the story of how she (view spoiler)[killed a man by throwing an axe at him (hide spoiler)]. Another character attacks the main character with a knife and taunts her (view spoiler)[by telling her how he killed her parents (hide spoiler)] and then (view spoiler)[slits the girl's wrist (hide spoiler)]. The main character is (view spoiler)[sentenced to death but escapes (hide spoiler)]. Near the beginning of the book, the main character finds . The main character's aunt hits her frequently. At one point the main character's pet goat is (view spoiler)[thought to be dead (hide spoiler)].

I don't recall any language but "mother of God" is said a few times.

I can't think of anything else, so if I've missed something, I'm sorry.

The Amaranth Enchantment

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