My Sparkling Misfortune

by Laura Lond

Alla Alekseyeva (Illustrator)

• ISBN10: 1460922360
• ISBN13: 9781460922361
• Publish Date: 1 March 2011 (first published 27 April 2010)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 128
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kim Deister]

My Sparkling Misfortune is the first in the Lakeland Knight series, and is a refreshing take on the fantasy and magic genre. Instead of being told as a hero's tale, it is the tale of a would-be villain. Despite his "villain" status, Lord Arkus is a likeable character around whom the story is told. Without those villains, there would be no heroes and villains have stories, too. There are always two sides to a story, and this is the villain's.

There was a great deal of humor in this story, along with mystery, magic, intrigue, danger, and action. The humor came in unexpected places, and it often served to change the reader's perception of the characters and their roles within the "hero/villain" framework. I will be definitely be picking up the next in the series, My Royal Pain Quest, due out in November.

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

I have seen a number of glowing reviews of this book, so I was very surprised when I began reading it at how bad I thought the writing style was; not a single review had mentioned it. Of course one might expect a chidren’s book to be written in a simpler style, but a lot of the phrasing seemed very awkward to me and there were poor transitions between ideas and events. It is easy for me to imagine that if I had pulled this book from a shelf in the store, unaware of said gushing reviews, and glanced through the beginning pages that I would have put it right back. That said, Lond’s style does improve as the book progresses, with only occasional relapses into awkwardness. I have every hope that with the experience of writing this book, and several others, Lond will have perfected her craft and I will not have the same issue with the forthcoming sequel.

Unfortunately, the structure of the book was also problematic, and I am not sure this is something Lond will fix. Throughout the story, events would occur with absolutely no lead-up. They were not fun and surprising, just random and ultimately confusing. Several times important transitions between events were so glaringly missing that I actually stopped, reread the same sentences, and checked to see whether my edition were missing text or pages. I have never done this with another book (besides an edition of The Silmarillion I own that actually is missing pages.) Again, I seem to be the only reviewer who thinks this was a fairly major flaw.

However, I must make it perfectly clear that I really did like My Sparkling Misfortune. Structural problems aside, it is a charming book with a great cast of characters including Lord Arkus, his sparkling Tulip, the would-be hero Prince Kellemar, a beautiful princess, a frightful monster, and others. It is clever, imaginative, and quite hilarious. I laughed out loud several times at poor Arkus’s “misfortunes” and his annoyed commentary on the matters; sometimes I actually pointed and laughed at his expense. If you want a light, very quick read to cheer you up and make you think good things about the world, this book is for you. I definitely recommend it for anyone who likes fantasy or who has a sense of humor, and I am looking forward to reading the sequel, My Royal Pain Quest.

This review was also posted at Pages Unbound Book Reviews.