Book Reviews

review; hero

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Hero
by Alethea Kontis

Rough and tumble Saturday Woodcutter thinks she’s the only one of her sisters without any magic—until the day she accidentally conjures an ocean in the backyard. With her sword in tow, Saturday sets sail on a pirate ship, only to find herself kidnapped and whisked off to the top of the world. Is Saturday powerful enough to kill the mountain witch who holds her captive and save the world from sure destruction? And, as she wonders grumpily, “Did romance have to be part of the adventure?” As in Enchanted, readers will revel in the fragments of fairy tales that embellish this action-packed story of adventure and, yes, romance.

Review:

I have spent many months searching for a copy of this novel. Since it came out, in fact. I enjoyed the first in this series tremendously, and I have been looking forward to this book since I heard there was a second.

Saturday Woodcutter is very different from Sunday. They are both very strong characters – headstrong and stubborn seems to be a Woodcutter trait – but the sisters are not copies of one another. This was evident in Enchanted, and made more so with Hero. I love that even mere mentions of the siblings showcase just how different they all are, even as they share common traits.

Saturday’s stubbornness and desire for adventure leads to trouble, as should be no surprise. Like Sunday, her love story is entangled with curses and faerie blessings. Unlike Sunday, she does not want to admit to her feelings. She is fun and spunky and sometimes you just want to shake her because she can be a little too pig-headed, but ultimately, a heroine I loved.

One of my favourite things about this story was that the hero is not so much your typical masculine character. He spends most of the story masquerading as a girl, adopting the traits of the woman he is pretending to be – and being good at it, sometimes even liking it. Cursed, as it seems most of the Woodcutter beaus are, to his fate, he is still strong and capable and determined to help Saturday.

Their love story is sweet in a way, a little rushed in others. I am not sure how I feel about the instant connection romances these days, or the predestined ones, but there is something endearing about the way these two come together.

I enjoyed the novel, perhaps not as much as I enjoyed the first, but definitely enough to want to read the next.

I’m Ara, a Southeast Asian writer who someday hopes to have published a novel, and who is currently losing herself in the worlds created by others. I love books and food and television and blogging and I get distracted and sidetracked easily.

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