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Reviews of Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

Enchanted

by Alethea Kontis
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  • First Published:
  • May 8, 2012
  • Paperback:
  • May 2013
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About This Book

Book Summary

It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday's only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true...

It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday's only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.

When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland - and a man Sunday's family despises.

The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past - and hers?

Ages 12+

1
Fool's Gold and Fairy Stones

MY NAME IS SUNDAY WOODCUTTER, and I am doomed to a happy life.

I am the seventh daughter of Jack and Seven Woodcutter, Jack a seventh son and Seven a seventh daughter herself. Papa's dream was to give birth to the charmed, all- powerful Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Mama told him seven girls or seven boys, whichever came first. Jack Junior was first. Papa was elated. His dream died the morning I popped out, blithe and bonny and good and gay, seven daughters later.

Fortunately, coming first did not stop Jack Junior from being a wunderkind. I never knew my eldest sibling, but I know his legend. All of Arilland's children grew up in Jack's shadow, his younger siblings more than most. I have never known a time when I wasn't surrounded by the overdramatic songs and stories of Jack Junior's exploits. A good number of new ones continue to spring up about the countryside to this very day. I have heard them all. (Well, all but the Forbidden ...

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

Alethea Kontis's novel simultaneously offers readers the joy of recognizing old favorites in new clothing and the pleasure of discovering something entirely original and new. If Sunday is doomed to a happy life, her readers are blessed with an equally happy romp through a fairy tale landscape both familiar and unexpected...continued

Full Review (493 words)

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(Reviewed by Norah Piehl).

Media Reviews

Kirkus Reviews
Starred Review. A fabulous fairy-tale mashup that deserves hordes of avid readers. Absolutely delectable.

VOYA
Fantasy readers will undoubtedly enjoy the... mash-up of these famous stories, spiced with comedy, romance and magical powers.

Author Blurb J.T. Ellison, best-selling author of Where All the Dead Lie
If Neil Gaiman and the Brothers Grimm had a child who grew up to weave fairy tales, she would be Alethea Kontis. Read this book - it's an absolute winner.

Author Blurb Leanna Renee Hieber, author of the Strangely Beautiful and Magic Most Foul series
Kontis is a born spell-caster and her work is spellbinding. In the style of great fairy tales, Kontis has created a delightful, heartfelt new classic that can charm the sun out from behind the clouds.

Author Blurb Mary Robinette Kowal, award-winning author of Shades of Milk and Honey
Alethea Kontis's debut is full of inventive whimsy. Take your favorite fairytale and spin it to the side, throw in a half-dozen other tales all dancing, and you get this Enchanted ball.

Author Blurb Sean Williams, New York Times best-selling author
As mischievous a garden full of fairies and twice as clever, Enchanted proves there's more than life left in the oldest genre in the world - there's a lot of heart, too.

Author Blurb Sharon Shinn, best-selling author of the Samaria series
A charming tumble of fairy tales, spiced with humor and sprinkled with true love.

Reader Reviews

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Beyond the Book



Andrew Lang's Fairy Books

As readers enjoy Enchanted, they're exposed to dozens of fairy tale-inspired plot points, some of which are instantly recognizable while others are less familiar. For readers who are inspired to go back to the source of these stories, there are few better resources for fairy tales of all sorts than Andrew Lang's famous Fairy Books.

Crimson Fairy Book Andrew Lang was a novelist, critic, and anthropologist born in Scotland in 1844 and is now chiefly known for his Fairy Books. Twelve of these books - each of which is known by the color of its jacket - were published between 1889 and 1910, collecting 437 stories altogether. Grey Fairy Book Some of the volumes, such as the Blue Fairy Book and Red Fairy Book, include familiar favorites from Grimm, Andersen, and ...

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