Title: The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell
Genre: Fantasy/Fairytale retelling
Length: 300+ pages
General Set Up: Reveka is an herbalist's apprentice in a castle with a curse - this book is essentially a retelling of the 12 Dancing Princesses, but with a spunky heron and a few twists and turns thrown in along the way.
Plot: At first Reveka's motivation for untangling the curse on Castle Sylvain revolves around the reward that would enable her getting her own personal herberary. However, as more things come to light about the curse, her motives shift and change (yay for character growth!). One downside to this is that it takes a little while for the action to get going. But once it does, the pay-off is well worth it.
Characters: I can't talk in depth about all the characters because *spoilers,* but I will say that Merrie Haskell does a great job building a dynamic cast. Less time is spent on physical appearances, but more on the character's actual personality and perspective on the world. I would say it's a fair trade. Reveka herself is an entertaining and capable narrator for the store. As she is an herbalist, the reader also gets her input on 15th century herb lore, which is a fun touch.
Ending: As I said, once the action gets started, the payoff is worth the wait. The ending of "The Princess Curse" does well to resolve most of the problems by the last page. There are still a few (okay, a lot) of questions I have unanswered, but then at least I get to come up with my own answers.
Things to Watch For: The book sets an interesting dynamic for it's moral compass. Reveka was raised in a convent and has a background in the church. There is also instances of herbal folk lore, a little witch craft, and mentions of a fractured Underworld with Greek mythology/Universalistic undertones.
Other Media: Merrie Haskell has written other books, but none others that I know of set in Reveka's world.
