Review--Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

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?

Althea Kontis writes a beautiful tale, much like the fairy tales I grew up with, with Enchanted. Enchanted is its own fairy tale and yet you cans see similar themes in it from other fairy tales, like The Frog Prince, The Princess and the Pea, Bluebeard, Rumpelstiltskin, Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and even bits of Peter Pan!

As a lover of fairy tales, I knew this would be a read I'd enjoy and I did. Sunday is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. What that ends up meaning for her is that she has a special set of powers, all her sisters seem to have a gift of some sort from their fairy godmother. Sunday's is the gift of telling stories and having them come true, but like with all magic, it doesn't always work out the way you want it too. So she's taken to only writing stories that have already happened, for writing about the past doesn't seem to count where her magic is concerned.

Then one day she meets a talking frog, he claims he used to be human once. But he enjoys hearing Sunday's stories. A fast friendship is formed. Like with the fairy tale, the frog asks for a kiss in hopes to break his spell, but alas Sunday's kiss doesn't change him back to human. And like with all fairy tales, by the end of the second day, they are falling in love. The girl with the frog and the frog with the girl. For in this story we get to see both Sunday and Rumbold--the prince's point of view. Rumbold gets his humanity back rather quickly too, and the moment he's able, he's ready to find his beloved Sunday.

But here's the catch, Sunday and her family, hate the prince. For a long time ago, he was the cause of her brother Jack dying. Winning Sunday back is going to be a lot harder than he thought and realizes that life as a frog was easier. But life isn't meant to be easy, even in fairy tales.

Rumbold has his own story going on as well, and I admit to getting a bit lost every once in awhile, trying to grasp what was going on and what had happened. Rumbold doesn't remember much from his past and it's the past that's important to his current problems. He's being haunted. There are whispering voices that only he can hear that disturb him and shadowy figure appears at night, causing him little sleep as he keeps by the fireplace and keeping the fire alive to keep the shadows at bay.

That's only the beginning of Rumbold and Sunday's problems. The king has his own dark secrets going on. There's so much going on with each of the characters in this story, and it's not a bad thing. Sometimes it gets a mite overwhelming, but I didn't feel lost when reading, just occasionally with Rumbold's past memories and that whatnot that was going on with him.

The ending was spectacular! Lots of action and adventure going on and lots of magic involved too! Enchanted is the perfect read for all fans of fairy tales! I enjoyed recognizing tidbits of this and that fairy tale throughout the novel.

The romance was perfect as well, for while there may be some insta-love between Sunday and her frog, there wasn't insta-love between Sunday and Rumbold--the prince. Rumbold had to work at winning her love because of the hate that she and her family feel towards him. So it was a very enjoyable read indeed, for while I don't like insta-love all that much, it can be done well, but still a part of me doesn't like it. The only time I find it acceptable is in my fairy tales, because that's just the way of things there!

Enchanted was a stunningly told fairy tale all on its own! I look forward to reading more from Alethea in this series as her next release in the series is Hero and this one will be Saturday's tale. Then in 2014 we get Beloved and that's Friday's tale! This is going to be one magical series and I can't wait to read it through!


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars