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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
I'm back reading this author again. I missed the short and sweet fairy tale-inspired romances. This one promised to be interesting since it was a Cinderella reversal, but... well, to be honest this one felt a little bit closer to an Aladdin re-telling than the actual one with Aladdin. Which would have been fine, except the writing felt more mediocre than usual and there was a lot of repeating. Not sure if the author was rushed to get this one out or just wasn't as passionate about it, but it was definitely lacking in comparison to some of the others in this series.
I think my biggest disappointment is in Frederick's character. Something about his parentage is revealed that made the whole concept that he was a peasant in love with a duke's daughter pointless. But then the reveal itself turned out to be pointless because in the end, he was still living as a poor wood-carver. So why even put that reveal in there? What purpose did it serve? So little of the story and plot would have changed if he was just kept the son of a farmer.
This book also suffers from a lot of "tell" versus "show". The narrative constantly tells that Adela is spoiled, but I saw very little evidence of it in the book. I guess in the sense that her parents actually allowed her to choose her own husband, that might be considered spoiled, but they were like that with all their kids. In fact, it was a little odd how initially wary of Frederick they were considering who all the other kids married. You guys were fine with one daughter marrying a knight and another a merchant (or whatever Aladdin was), so what's the problem with a wood-carver? Anyway, Adela didn't seem selfish and in fact was concerned about how she could help others but just wasn't given any guidance or direction. I think "sheltered" would have been a better word.
I also feel bad for the other character vying for Adela. He seemed like a decent guy, just quiet. And in the end it felt like he got shafted. First, finding out he's not the oldest child and that his father loved someone before his mother, and then losing the girl who he wanted to marry to his surprise half-brother. His last appearance in the book is worrying that his room was given away! Why is this book kicking this poor guy when he's down? The only problem Adela had with him was he was quiet. Girl, your oldest brother is quiet. That's not a flaw in character.
The chemistry was sadly lacking. It was a "wow he's hot" insta-love situation. At least with some of these, the characters got to know each other. In this one, all the two knew about each other was that they were good-looking and both artists. And to be quite honest, the two of them were just plain boring. Again, the other characters in these books had some personality. These two were so uninteresting and bland. The only time Frederick got interesting was around his abusive father, his thief friends, and his sisters. In other words, when he had some conflict to play off of. But even the main conflict was boring because the antagonist showed up halfway through the book and the motivation felt very weak. This dude was getting way too involved in the concerns of the duke and I'm not even sure why.
I like to say something positive to end on but all I can think of is that it did some parts of the Aladdin story well. It had the peasant boy locked in a dungeon, it had the girl dressing as a peasant to be able to go out to the market, it had a liar reveal (done poorly but it was there), it had guys who were trying to steal treasure. Which considering that wasn't even the tale it was going for, doesn't really feel like a positive?
So yeah, this was definitely on the weaker side of this series. It had promise but it just never took advantage. It's a slightly better version of the Aladdin story but the main leads are boring, the writing is repetitive, and the conflict feels almost forced just to make SOMETHING happen.
I think my biggest disappointment is in Frederick's character. Something about his parentage is revealed that made the whole concept that he was a peasant in love with a duke's daughter pointless. But then the reveal itself turned out to be pointless because in the end, he was still living as a poor wood-carver. So why even put that reveal in there? What purpose did it serve? So little of the story and plot would have changed if he was just kept the son of a farmer.
This book also suffers from a lot of "tell" versus "show". The narrative constantly tells that Adela is spoiled, but I saw very little evidence of it in the book. I guess in the sense that her parents actually allowed her to choose her own husband, that might be considered spoiled, but they were like that with all their kids. In fact, it was a little odd how initially wary of Frederick they were considering who all the other kids married. You guys were fine with one daughter marrying a knight and another a merchant (or whatever Aladdin was), so what's the problem with a wood-carver? Anyway, Adela didn't seem selfish and in fact was concerned about how she could help others but just wasn't given any guidance or direction. I think "sheltered" would have been a better word.
I also feel bad for the other character vying for Adela. He seemed like a decent guy, just quiet. And in the end it felt like he got shafted. First, finding out he's not the oldest child and that his father loved someone before his mother, and then losing the girl who he wanted to marry to his surprise half-brother. His last appearance in the book is worrying that his room was given away! Why is this book kicking this poor guy when he's down? The only problem Adela had with him was he was quiet. Girl, your oldest brother is quiet. That's not a flaw in character.
The chemistry was sadly lacking. It was a "wow he's hot" insta-love situation. At least with some of these, the characters got to know each other. In this one, all the two knew about each other was that they were good-looking and both artists. And to be quite honest, the two of them were just plain boring. Again, the other characters in these books had some personality. These two were so uninteresting and bland. The only time Frederick got interesting was around his abusive father, his thief friends, and his sisters. In other words, when he had some conflict to play off of. But even the main conflict was boring because the antagonist showed up halfway through the book and the motivation felt very weak. This dude was getting way too involved in the concerns of the duke and I'm not even sure why.
I like to say something positive to end on but all I can think of is that it did some parts of the Aladdin story well. It had the peasant boy locked in a dungeon, it had the girl dressing as a peasant to be able to go out to the market, it had a liar reveal (done poorly but it was there), it had guys who were trying to steal treasure. Which considering that wasn't even the tale it was going for, doesn't really feel like a positive?
So yeah, this was definitely on the weaker side of this series. It had promise but it just never took advantage. It's a slightly better version of the Aladdin story but the main leads are boring, the writing is repetitive, and the conflict feels almost forced just to make SOMETHING happen.
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent
As this is a reverse Cinderella retelling, I didn’t think that I’d need to have read the rest of the series before diving into this story. I’d originally hoped to read this story in January as another read for the Buzzword Readathon/Reading Challenge, but the copy from my local library wasn’t available until mid to late March. So, I waited until the book was available and enjoyed the read.
While this was a decent story, I wouldn’t really call it a “Cinderella retelling” per say – or even a reverse retelling. While there was a very brief ball scene, the main Cinderella storyline doesn’t really happen in this story. While there’s nothing to say that a retelling has to stay true to the original – in fact, one of my favourite retellings ever is a twisted story that only follows the original bones of the source material – I still prefer the story to clearly pull from the source material.
It felt more like a traditional Historical YA read than a fairy tale retelling to me, but that’s a personal perspective. Historical fiction isn’t my favourite genre – unless it’s got a fantastical twist or is further broken down into the Steampunk subgenre – which also impacted my enjoyment of the story. Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand why some people would enjoy the historical aspect of this story. I’m just not the intended audience for this story (no matter how much I thought I was going into this read).
It was a cute story if you’re not trying to force it into the confines of a retelling, but I found the side storylines and characters more compelling than the main plot of this story. While I don’t regret reading this story, I don’t know if I’ll bother reading anything else from this series.
That isn’t to say I won’t read more of Dickerson’s works, I will. I enjoyed the writing style of this story immensely. It’s just the specific series that I don’t think is my speed.
Full spoilery thoughts here: https://phantomofthelibrarycom.wordpress.com/2021/04/13/the-peasants-dream-by-melanie-dickerson/
While this was a decent story, I wouldn’t really call it a “Cinderella retelling” per say – or even a reverse retelling. While there was a very brief ball scene, the main Cinderella storyline doesn’t really happen in this story. While there’s nothing to say that a retelling has to stay true to the original – in fact, one of my favourite retellings ever is a twisted story that only follows the original bones of the source material – I still prefer the story to clearly pull from the source material.
It felt more like a traditional Historical YA read than a fairy tale retelling to me, but that’s a personal perspective. Historical fiction isn’t my favourite genre – unless it’s got a fantastical twist or is further broken down into the Steampunk subgenre – which also impacted my enjoyment of the story. Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand why some people would enjoy the historical aspect of this story. I’m just not the intended audience for this story (no matter how much I thought I was going into this read).
It was a cute story if you’re not trying to force it into the confines of a retelling, but I found the side storylines and characters more compelling than the main plot of this story. While I don’t regret reading this story, I don’t know if I’ll bother reading anything else from this series.
That isn’t to say I won’t read more of Dickerson’s works, I will. I enjoyed the writing style of this story immensely. It’s just the specific series that I don’t think is my speed.
Full spoilery thoughts here: https://phantomofthelibrarycom.wordpress.com/2021/04/13/the-peasants-dream-by-melanie-dickerson/
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
This book was a very good end to the series. I do feel like it started a bit slow until about halfway. It was more romance then action to start which I prefer action but I still really enjoyed this book.
I didn’t realize this was the 11th book in a series when I requested this book from Netgalley. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the first 10 books. But I doubt it. For me as a new reader, it was a simple, predictable, extremely religious fairy tale. The characters were flat, and the plot was so dull it was a slog to finish it. The romance was very very not-very-romantic. This is supposed to be YA but if I didn’t know otherwise I would guess it was written for children as a read-by-yourself chapter book.
Fans of the author may love it. Otherwise I can’t recommend it.
I read an advance reader copy from Netgalley.
Fans of the author may love it. Otherwise I can’t recommend it.
I read an advance reader copy from Netgalley.
Adela, the daughter of the Duke of Hagenheim just wants an adventure. She's tired of not being allowed to go anywhere or do anything. Her sisters had grand adventures, why shouldn't she? She dresses as a peasant and sneaks away to the market to see what life is like outside the castle walls. On one such excursion she meets Frederick, a peasant who dreams of being more than just a farmer. He desires to get himself and his mother away from their abusive father/husband and finds work as a carpenter doing what he loves most. Adela and Frederick strike up an unlikely friendship. She doesn't really know much about him and his past and he has no idea that she is the Duke's daughter. The adventure Adela seeks soon unfolds but not quite how she imagines it would be.
This is the 11th book in this "series". However, this book could stand alone without any prior knowledge of what occurred before Adela's story. With that being said, I really wanted to like this book. I have read many of Ms. Dickerson's novels and honestly this one was not my favorite. I found the characters to be shallow, the plot to be maddeningly slow at times, and just overall very predictable. The characters said a lot of the same things over and over again. I would read something a character said and think "oh she/he said that many times already." I know that it was a reverse telling of Cinderella but felt that this story was just not quite the best at the telling. I do appreciate that this was a clean romance story. I would have no qualms about recommending to pre-teen and YA readers. Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Publishing for providing an ARC of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.
This is the 11th book in this "series". However, this book could stand alone without any prior knowledge of what occurred before Adela's story. With that being said, I really wanted to like this book. I have read many of Ms. Dickerson's novels and honestly this one was not my favorite. I found the characters to be shallow, the plot to be maddeningly slow at times, and just overall very predictable. The characters said a lot of the same things over and over again. I would read something a character said and think "oh she/he said that many times already." I know that it was a reverse telling of Cinderella but felt that this story was just not quite the best at the telling. I do appreciate that this was a clean romance story. I would have no qualms about recommending to pre-teen and YA readers. Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Publishing for providing an ARC of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.
I received an ebook copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
3.5/5 Stars
Adela, the last daughter of Duke Wilhelm is finally looking for a husband. But that means soon she’ll be whisked away to some other country with possibly even less freedom than she has now. As Adela’s last hurrah as a free young lady before a courtship begins, she does what any respectable noble girl does: sneaks out for a peek at normal life. But what she didn’t expect to find was a handsome, honest (and poor) wood-carver to steal her heart.
This is a book alright. A light, fairy-tale based book. It was cute. It was simple. It was easy, breezy, beautiful. No, it’s not Aladdin (again), but actually Cinderella (again). But this time the girl’s got the riches whilst the boy’s got the rags.
As always, this world Melanie Dickerson has created is straightforward and to the point. You know what you’re getting in each book. And that’s not a bad thing. Sometimes I just need a little refreshing, low stakes, romantic story to lighten my old, angry lady heart.
Though I was a little peeved about 1 certain plot point. Oh well. Still enjoyed the story.
I’d be interested to read the next story as it seems Duke Wilhelm will have run out of children once Toby is married.
3.5/5 Stars
Adela, the last daughter of Duke Wilhelm is finally looking for a husband. But that means soon she’ll be whisked away to some other country with possibly even less freedom than she has now. As Adela’s last hurrah as a free young lady before a courtship begins, she does what any respectable noble girl does: sneaks out for a peek at normal life. But what she didn’t expect to find was a handsome, honest (and poor) wood-carver to steal her heart.
This is a book alright. A light, fairy-tale based book. It was cute. It was simple. It was easy, breezy, beautiful. No, it’s not Aladdin (again), but actually Cinderella (again). But this time the girl’s got the riches whilst the boy’s got the rags.
As always, this world Melanie Dickerson has created is straightforward and to the point. You know what you’re getting in each book. And that’s not a bad thing. Sometimes I just need a little refreshing, low stakes, romantic story to lighten my old, angry lady heart.
Though I was a little peeved about 1 certain plot point. Oh well. Still enjoyed the story.
I’d be interested to read the next story as it seems Duke Wilhelm will have run out of children once Toby is married.