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amyjoy's review
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
5.0
Second read: I adore star-crossed lovers, and I love the trope of someone choosing duty over love. I feel like this one is a particularly adept use of that, giving Rania a chance to see what a normal life might be like and realizing on her own that she was meant for greater things. There's something about the writing style in these 80's fantasy novels that really appeals to me, and I'm so glad to revisit these books periodically.
First read: This is a total nostalgia re-read. The first time I remember reading this was in 4th grade, and it left such an impression on me that I scoured the library shelves searching for it later, even though I only remembered what the cover looked like & not the title or author.
This is a short, lovely fantasy and was probably the first book I ever read that didn't have end "Happily Ever After." It's deeply bittersweet, as Hughes does a wonderful job of really making the reader feel how Rania is pulled in two different directions, between duty and love. The ending of this one, reminds me a lot of [b:The Pearl of the Soul of the World|92719|The Pearl of the Soul of the World (Darkangel Trilogy, #3)|Meredith Ann Pierce|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1171250401s/92719.jpg|89413], in that Spoilerultimately, Rania freely chooses duty over love and is a total shero while doing so (this also makes me want to re-read the Darkangel trilogy).
First read: This is a total nostalgia re-read. The first time I remember reading this was in 4th grade, and it left such an impression on me that I scoured the library shelves searching for it later, even though I only remembered what the cover looked like & not the title or author.
This is a short, lovely fantasy and was probably the first book I ever read that didn't have end "Happily Ever After." It's deeply bittersweet, as Hughes does a wonderful job of really making the reader feel how Rania is pulled in two different directions, between duty and love. The ending of this one, reminds me a lot of [b:The Pearl of the Soul of the World|92719|The Pearl of the Soul of the World (Darkangel Trilogy, #3)|Meredith Ann Pierce|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1171250401s/92719.jpg|89413], in that Spoilerultimately, Rania freely chooses duty over love and is a total shero while doing so (this also makes me want to re-read the Darkangel trilogy).
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