The Fairest Beauty (Fairy Tale Romance, #3)

by Melanie Dickerson

A daring rescue. A difficult choice.

 

Sophie desperately wants to get away from her stepmother’s jealousy, and believes escape is her only chance to be happy. Then a young man named Gabe arrives from Hagenheim Castle, claiming she is betrothed to his older brother, and everything twists upside down. This could be Sophie’s one chance at freedom—but can she trust another person to keep her safe?

 

Gabe defied his parents Rose and Wilhelm by going to find Sophie, and now he believes they had a right to worry: the girl’s inner and outer beauty has enchanted him. Though romance is impossible—she is his brother’s future wife, and Gabe himself is betrothed to someone else—he promises himself he will see the mission through, no matter what.

When the pair flee to the Cottage of the Seven, they find help—but also find their feelings for each other have grown. Now both must not only protect each other from the dangers around them—they must also protect their hearts.

• ISBN10: 0310724392
• ISBN13: 9780310724391
• Publish Date: 29 January 2013 (first published 22 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: Zondervan
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[ladygrey]

I think mixed reviews are the hardest. When there's things I really pretty much liked but also things that just drive me bonkers all in the same book it's hard to be really enthusiastic about the things I like (not so much to criticize the annoying parts). This is one of those books.

The good:
The romance was really sweet and Gabe was a good hero because he really developed as a character throughout the story.

I liked how she modified the Snow White story to fit this plot and these characters. She kept several of the elements but really made the story her own.

I like the elements of faith in it.

The connection to [b:The Healer's Apprentice|7826101|The Healer's Apprentice (Fairy Tales #1)|Melanie Dickerson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1331421838s/7826101.jpg|10876284] was fun.

The annoying:
Mostly Sophie but a little bit the dialog. The dialog was just kind of stilted in some places and that just kind of always throws me out of the story.

And Sophie wasn't a wholly annoying heroine she just had a propensity for unreasonable insecurity. I mean, I get that she had an awful childhood and the author was trying to show that she believed all these lies her evil step-mother told her. But to me it didn't come across as an abused child - it came across as the cliche that litters all sorts of books with weak heroines who languish in insecurity. Like when he pays her a compliment and she just waves it away because he's just patronizing her. Again and again. Despite what they've been through and how his actions keep matching his words. There's no way he could possibly be sincere or actually like her or anything. I think mostly, in this case, the author was trying to make it a reasonable aspect of her character but it was expressed as a cliche I've come across too many times in other books so it just annoyed me.

Between that and the dialog about 40-53% of the book annoyed me. And the things I liked I didn't enjoy strongly enough to offset how annoyed I got. But I think for other people and younger readers this could be a fun, sweet book.