Dearest

By Alethea Kontis

Readers met the Woodcutter sisters (named after the days of the week) in Enchanted and Hero. In this delightful third book, Alethea Kontis weaves together some fine-feathered fairy tales to focus on Firday Woodcutter, the kind and loving seamstress. When Friday stumbles upon seven sleeping brothers in her sister Sunday’s palace, she takes one look at Tristan and knows he’s her future. But the brothers are cursed to be swans by day. Can Friday’s unique magic somehow break the spell?

Alethea Kontis’s previous books about the Woodcutter sisters Sunday and Saturday were in turns charming, heartwarming, and entertaining. I admit that I enjoyed Sunday’s story the most, (Enchanted) and Saturday’s story was a little uncomfortable and not as engaging for me personally. Friday’s story, however, I was excited to read because she was always portrayed as so gentle and loving. I was a bit miffed at how they treated the love story, and I had hopes toward the end that it would not be as straightforward as I previously thought, but it ended up being a very contrived and destiny-driven love story. I’m not a fan of love at first sight. This was almost a forced romance. The story of the swans was a good choice for Friday, and I liked how it also mingled in with Swan Lake. This story occurs in sync with Saturday’s.  All in all, it was entertaining and fluffy.

This gets a 3 out of 5- Average.