Review: Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

Book Description via Goodreads:
e-ARC, 319 pages
May 8, 2012, Harcourt Children’s Books


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?

Source: Alethea Kontis & Netgalley (Thank you!)

My Thoughts:
Sunday was the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. She was doomed to a happy life but all she wanted was to be interesting. Right from the start, I was able to relate to Sunday. She was a regular girl: she gets mad, gets annoyed, complains, endures, suffers and loves. She had the same desire like everybody else – she wanted to be interesting.

Monday’s child is fair of face,

Tuesday’s child is full of grace,

Wednesday’s child is full of woe,

Thursday’s child has far to go,

Friday’s child is loving and giving,

Saturday’s child works hard for a living,

But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day

Is blithe and bonny and good and gay.

-from Enchanted

Sunday’s family was far from normal. Jack Junior, Sunday’s eldest brother was a hero. Her sisters were special and they stood out. Monday was the beautiful sister. Tuesday was the fabulous dancer. Wednesday was the dramatic poet. Thursday was the Pirate Queen. Friday was the talented and loving seamstress. Saturday was the strong one, the warrior-like and boyish sister. Sunday was a writer. She wrote stories about things that have already happened in the past because if she wrote something that hasn’t happened yet, they have a tendency to come true. She didn’t want to alter the future in some way.

Rumbold’s life was divided into three parts: pre-enchanted, enchanted and post-enchanted. Living as a small, frog in the middle of the Woods changed him. He had become humble, learned to live a difficult life out of the palace and of course, he met Sunday. When Sunday’s kiss transformed him back to his true self, the process wasn’t fast and easy. Unlike in fairytales, transforming from an enchanted frog to a prince didn’t just happen with magical swirls of colors. In Enchanted, Kontis elaborated the process of going back. It was difficult, nauseous and weakening and you only get your body first, the memories will follow bit by bit afterwards. So for a little while, Rumbold didn’t really know what he was like before.

Fall in love with Rumbold and Sunday as they struggle to discover who they really were in a world filled with drama, curses, grudges and dark secrets that bound not only their family against each other but also their fate.

Imagine all your favorite fairytales blending together in a novel. That was what Kontis did in Enchanted. She stitched together the key elements of each fairytale and made a brilliant, magic-filled story. If you’re thinking that all the fairytales stitched up as one would be a mess, I have to tell you this: No, not at all. It was fun and interesting and the each fairytale, each piece of the story clicked together.

Enchanted is an intriguing, bizarre and addicting tale of magic, love and secrets. Familiar and unpredictable at the same time, Enchanted is sprinkled with dark secrets and twists and turns that will surprise readers. I highly recommended this to fairytale and fantasy readers!

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