This book dragged on for a long time. In every way, this book was the polar opposite of Stepsister, which I adored. The protagonist (Sophie) is uninteresting. I couldn't care less about the two future love interests. The storey is disjointed and erratic. When I read her last book, Donnelly made me sit up and shout with delight, and this one was just as sweet. I was anticipating a Snow White tale along the lines of Neil Gaiman's The Sleeper and the Spindle. This one was exhausting, and the characters kept doing dumb stuff, as one character put it. In this one, I didn't get a single "you go girl" moment. Instead, when we eventually got to the end, I just sighed and shook my head.
"Poisoned" is a Snow White retelling. Donnelly begins the tale with the Huntsman, who does not cheat the Queen in this storey. Instead, he murders Princess Sophie and returns her heart to the Queen. Sophie is rescued, however, by seven children, one of whom implanted a clock in her heart to keep it beating. The plot then jumps back in time to demonstrate why Sophie is despised by the Queen. She thinks she's too kind and gentle to be a ruler. And someone is listening to the Queen through her mirror, but it isn't who you think. The storey follows Sophie as she does everything she can to reclaim her heart and her kingdom from her stepmother.
Sophie hasn't grown up at all. Respectfully. The Queen was handled better in the book, and I became more interested in her and her backstory.
Sophie is adored by the other characters for various reasons. I assume. Sincerely.
Since it sets up more retellings, the ending felt like a challenge to readers, and now I'm worried about how poorly those books might turn out.
"Poisoned" is a Snow White retelling. Donnelly begins the tale with the Huntsman, who does not cheat the Queen in this storey. Instead, he murders Princess Sophie and returns her heart to the Queen. Sophie is rescued, however, by seven children, one of whom implanted a clock in her heart to keep it beating. The plot then jumps back in time to demonstrate why Sophie is despised by the Queen. She thinks she's too kind and gentle to be a ruler. And someone is listening to the Queen through her mirror, but it isn't who you think. The storey follows Sophie as she does everything she can to reclaim her heart and her kingdom from her stepmother.
Sophie hasn't grown up at all. Respectfully. The Queen was handled better in the book, and I became more interested in her and her backstory.
Sophie is adored by the other characters for various reasons. I assume. Sincerely.
Since it sets up more retellings, the ending felt like a challenge to readers, and now I'm worried about how poorly those books might turn out.