Today’s review will be late, maybe by a couple of days. I’m in the midst of preparing for a cross country trip and it is taking more of my attention than expected. I thought I could at least get today’s post up on time, but I’m always overly optimistic. For the next three weeks my Internet access will be inconsistent. I hope to stay relatively on time with posts and reviews, but if I’m not, know that come May, everything will go back to normal.

         I never had a literature analysis class in high school and only half-appreciated my one college literature class. It’s not that I don’t like literature. Obviously, I do. I read voraciously. I read genre and literary and even classic works. While in high school, I made a list of literature that I felt I had to read in order to consider myself “well-read”. I don’t have that list anymore, but I remember it had an eclectic mix of stories. Gone with the Wind (which I’d already read), “The Iliad” and the “The Odyssey” (which I hadn’t), “Scarlet Letter,” “Jane Eyre,” “Little Women,” “Last of the Mohicans” (I never read the book, but loved the movie). In that college class I was exposed to a few I hadn’t known, like “Peer Gynt” and Chaucer’s tales. I read and enjoyed most of what I put on that list. And I’m still enjoying the discovery of old and new stories.

         But I’ve never thought I analyzed them very well.

         Why in the world then would I have a website dedicated to reviewing and commenting on books? I’ve asked myself the same question. LOL In my illogical mind, what I do here is vastly different than analyzing literature. (Yes, it is.) I read and comment on stories. First I experience the story. Then I evaluate the experience. But rarely do I look at how it is plotted or what techniques are used to tell the story or how the characters personify different themes or messages. I just experience the story.

         Now sometimes, when I have my “writer’s hat” on, I can pick apart some of those techniques. But this isn’t the place for me to be spouting off about point of view and foreshadowing and keeping the theme consistent and building tension. You’d be bored. I know because my family’s eyes start glazing over when I put on my “writer voice”. (If you are a writer and want to read my thoughts on writing I co-blog at Routines For Writers.)

         I just don’t analyze the mechanics of literature very well. I can’t count the times someone has remarked about how badly written something is and I will have not seen it. (Sometimes I can’t even see it after it is pointed out.) I either enjoy a story or I don’t. But I am also constantly trying to improve myself. To that end, I went looking and found this site that teaches how to analyze literature. And I discovered that, according to this professor, analyzing literature is basically just picking apart the story to see how it’s put together. And many of the suggestions on that list are things I already notice when reading.

         So maybe it isn’t that I don’t analyze well. Maybe it’s that I just see the whole quicker and clearer than the pieces that make up that whole. And that sometimes, in the hands of a good storyteller, the whole becomes more than the pieces. Which is why I can see a good story and others might see flawed pieces of that story.

         I think I’ll keep doing it my way . . . Seeking good storytellers telling good stories.

ISBN: 0-373-80202-1; published in 2004 by Luna (www.luna-books.com).

         Elena Klovis, is a Cinderella-like character in the land of Five Hundred Kingdoms. Instead of a prince and a happily-ever-after, though, she is recruited as a Fairy Godmother Apprentice. As she learns to use magic, and when to use ingenuity and hard work, she also learns of The Tradition. The Tradition is a sort of magical force that is attracted to and influences people whose lives resemble a “tale.” If that “tale” doesn’t happen, as in Elena’s case, where her “prince” was only 10 years old, magic accumulates around that person, continually nudging them toward another suitable “tale.” It will continue to do so unless used or siphoned off by a magical being, preferably a good one, like a Godmother.

         Elena has so much magic around her as a result of her thwarted “happily-ever-after,” she attracts the attention of the current Fairy Godmother, who has been searching for an Apprentice for years. Madame Bella takes Elena as her Apprentice. Elena’s confidence and skill blossoms under Bella’s tutelage. In far too short a time, at least in Elena’s mind, Bella deems Elena ready to Godmother alone. She leaves, to wherever it is retired Godmothers go, and Elena takes over the task of watching and guiding and protecting the people of her kingdoms under her authority. And that is when the story gets really interesting.

         This is an good story, full of likable characters, real struggles and life lessons learned amid a truly unique world. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I really only have one objection. It is one that I find in many modern romances. Too much intimacy. It is the current “acceptable standard” and one I find particularly undesirable. There are multiple scenes of extended petting with detailed accounts of the participants’ reactions. To the author’s credit, there is not the usual insinuation that if they are feeling passion, it must be love. Elena and her lover become friends first and it is obvious the relationship is built on more than passion. Even so, the explicit nature of the intimate scenes is disappointing.

         Given that objection, you might wonder why I still give this book a positive recommendation. It is because of the story. The story and the characters. The characters come alive on the page. They are real, some with glaring faults and inadequacies. They learn life lessons and change (or not) while still retaining their own personality. The romance between Elena and her lover, while important to the story, is not the only focus of the story. Overall, this story is about living honorably, even (especially?) in one’s daily life and how that prepares that person if/when supreme and heroic action is warranted. This message is one completely compatible with Christian principles. Ancillary messages, such as “struggles and hardship create character” or “great power is best used in service” or “there is merit in helping others overcome life-muddles” further illustrate and support Christian values.

         This is an uplifting and entertaining story. Just be aware of the intimacy scenes, which are clustered in a couple of chapters in the last third of the book. If you can skip or otherwise not be offended by them, you will probably enjoy reading this as much as I did.