Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

Title: Enchanted
Author: Alethea Kontis
Pages: 305
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
My rating: 5 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.97 stars
Published: May 8, 2012
{Kindly provided by the wonderful people at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Books for the joy of reading with the promise of review}

Description:

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?

Enchanted was... enchanting.  I love the way it was written - Alethea Kontis has a way with words and weaves an amazing fairytale.  Or, should I say fairytales?  Enchanted seems to encompass every fairytale: Jack and the Beanstalk, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, the Frog Prince... the list goes on.  But, its all blended wonderfully and the author makes it her own, which makes this book enchanting.  I love using that word for this book, because it just seems to sum it up very well.


The characters are all very intriguing, and I would love it if the author wrote a little more about them {especially the sisters and their stories}.  Sunday is a bright young girl, who, like most bright young girls, is loveable and quick to love, which works in Grumble's favor {he is also pretty loveable and quick to love, as all he remembers is being a frog}.  I love how sweet, yet sassy, Alethea Kontis makes Sunday.  She is cute, endearing, but she has that "wonder why" element that most children and young people have {and adults, too, if we're all being honest with ourselves}.  And there is so much more the Sunday than our first few encounters!  I won't spoil it, but she is just down to her very core wonderful.  And Rumbold {aka Grumble}?  He's so wonderful.  He's at war with himself in so many ways, and he doesn't even remember why {well, at least for some of it}.  He wants so desperately to be the strong and noble man Sunday deserves, but there is so much in his past that he knows will prevent her from seeing him as such.   And their families can't even be described...

One thing that might bother some is how it will shift from chapter to chapter between Sunday and Rumbold.  I'm actually getting used to this, as quite a few of my recent favorite reads have done that.  It adds a little more to the story than what I might otherwise get if it was just one POV or just followed the one main character.  I loved seeing what was going on with Rumbold during different times he wasn't with Sunday and what he was thinking, as well as what was going on with Sunday when she was not with Rumbold.

Alethea Kontis is taking fairytales to a whole new level with this book, and I honestly can't wait to see what she has to bring to the table next.  The world she weaves with her words are so convincing I felt like I was there observing everything!