The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry
Up front, I have to say that I have a quibble with the contents of the book cover. First, the title of the book, because there's no such thing as "the amaranth enchantment" mentioned within the book, and the only enchantment I can find in the book is the enchantment that I felt as a reader whilst reading it. It is indeed a very minor sort of point, but I find that I'm having issues with lately with titles that don't really seem to tie into the books particularly well (and yes, it's primarily a Harlequin romance sort of issue, but my recent romance-novel binge made me very sensitive to the issue). There is, however, an Amaranth, a red flower also known as Love-Lies-Bleeding, mentioned in various places in the book, so it's not entirely misleading as titles go. And there's a witch - or at least someone who passes as a witch - so the fact that the title contains the notion of magic makes sense as well. Second, I've got issues with the image on the cover, which is entirely misleading as to what amaranth (aka "pigweed") looks like, since the pretty girl is holding some sort of lily, and Love-Lies-Bleeding looks like dangling bloody plumes, but in all honesty, the lily is prettier, so I understand its selection. Kind of. Therein lies the bulk of any negative comments I can offer you about this book, since I'm pretty happy with what lies between the covers, and the things I'm quibbling about regarding the cover are kinda silly, inasmuch as the title and cover made me want to pick the book up in the first place. Moving on.
I picked up this book after reading about it over at Kate Messner's blog, and Kate assured me that I'd like it. Kate was, as usual, correct. It is a charming fairy tale story that borrows cleverly from the Cinderella story (resulting in an "I see what u did thar" sort of moment about 3/4 of the way through the book), and adds a few interesting bits and bobs along the way. Like the explanation for Beryl, the Amaranth witch, which I will not spoil for you, but which crossed genres and made me emit a small "squee" of delight when I hit it.
Happy-making characters include: a beautiful witch (the aforementioned Beryl, whose name alone makes me happy), an orphaned girl (I do so love my orphans!) named Lucinda (and no, she is never. not ever called "Cindy", and I didn't even spy that until just now because I am a dunce), a handsome prince named Gregor (hooray! I love handsome princes and the name Gregor!), a handsome thief named Peter (pushy pickpockets with hearts of gold make me happy, too!), an evilish step-aunt named Aunt (okay - she has another name, too, but it really isn't used much apart from a key plot-point moment) and a bad guy named Lord Coxbury (that the first syllable of his surname sounds vaguely dickish is probably not a coincidence, I think). Oh, and a goat named Dog, whom/which I find utterly charming. Also? I kinda want a goat. Or two. No can do in suburbia, however. But I digress.
Happy-making plot points (which may or may not be faithfully related here, because I don't intend to provide you with any spoilers) include: mistaken identities, dancing, thievery, knife-play, escapes, hiding, secrets, jewels, portal-travel, romance, intrigue, bribery, revenge, imaginary gardening, and more.
Were there some fairly predictable plot elements? Heck yeah - and that is not a negative when one is reading a fairy tale, I think. But there are some lovely twists and turns along the way, including the aforementioned genre-twisting that I will not reveal here, but which is a thing of beauty, in my opinion. I will be schlepping my copy to Nashua in hopes of stalking finding Julie Berry to sign it for me. You know, before she becomes ultra-famous and reclusive, because I expect to hear good things about her career.
