Midnight Sisters

by Sarah E Boucher

[Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub]

Once Upon a Time…there was a reimagining of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. I really liked that fairy tale when I was a child, so I thought I’d give this book a go. It looked to be a far cry from the other recent retelling of this tale, so I was curious about the direction the author would take.

The reader grabs her trusty bookmark and is ready for adventure. The story-line was relatively close to the original tale, with minor changes here and there. The main character is a gardener named Jonas. He has the misfortune to fall in love with one of the king’s daughters, the one thing all the staff is warned against. As he gets to know the princess better, he starts to think he is the only one who can save all of the princesses from both their father and themselves.

There are dangers ahead. Unfortunately, I had a bit of an issue with the main character. Jonas seemed forever surprised that the princess had the ability to be both attractive and intelligent. A misogynist hero isn’t quite to my liking. He was also kind of a jerk to his fellow gardener who was in a similar situation. As for his fellow gardener: he vacillated between using any female who seemed to find him attractive and being a decent guy. He was the most likable character in the book, however. I suppose that sort of says something about the characters.

Magic abounds. While it took a while to get flowing, the story settled into a nice pacing. It was obvious that the author is a fan of the original fairy tale and she carried some of that wonder over to Midnight Sisters. The setting felt very real and was well thought out.

They lived happily ever after? To be entirely honest, this book fell a little flat. I place the blame on the characters. It’s hard to enjoy a book when the characters are so difficult to read about. I don’t mind having a character that’s a little rough around the edges, or even a character that’s a jerk, as long as they aren’t all like that. If you don’t mind wanting to smack each character multiple times throughout the book, Midnight Sisters might be enjoyable for you.

https://wittyandsarcasticbookclub.home.blog/2020/08/10/midnight-sisters-by-sarah-e-boucher/