Princess Adela loves her gardens, yet not in that distant dreamy way you might assume of a princess. She actually loves the act of gardening, weeding, planting bulbs, all of it. It’s a huge part of who she is. So much so, that when her gardener’s son is invited to a very exclusive and supposedly exquisite garden she commits a terrific breach of etiquette and invites herself along. Adela is not all that a princess traditionally should be, so this is not incredibly shocking. She is plain, not slim (nor concerned with becoming slim) and places much more value on who a person is that she does on what a person looks like.
When she arrives at the garden party, the true fairy tale part of the story begins, and Adela finds herself in a dangerous situation (which okay, fine, she has to be rescued from).
The book naturally falls into two main parts, the initial fairy tale situation, which resolves, as fairy tales do, and then a bit of a romance (very tame) to wrap things up. Overall, it was incredibly…average. I would recommend it in a minute to little lovers of fairy tales, particularly those that are not quite strong enough readers to tackle Ella Enchanted, but while pleasing, it wasn’t special. The main force of my endorsement (and I do endorse it) comes from the fact that Adela is smart and capable and ends up being respected for those qualities rather than for her external appearance or her rank. While she is technically rescued, her own role is major and acknowledged by many. So bonus points for a strong, positive, female lead. While the book is accessible to readers as young as third grade (especially those with strong vocabularies and reading skills), it may entertain up to middle school. The romance is mild, but may be enough to capture the interest of girls who are just starting to think about those things without horrifying any parents.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – The son of the gardener is very handsome and girls notice. Adela’s stepmother is trying to marry her off since she is 17. Adela’s mother married at 16 and Cecile at 18. Men fall in love with Marguerite all the time. There’s some flirting and consideration of what an appropriate husband would be like. There is hand-holding. A man wants to get kisses from a lady. People say “I love you.”
Profanity – “ass,”
Death, Violence and Gore – Adela’s mother died when she was born. A long time ago an earthquake had killed many people. A king once cut the heads off of dragons. A bird bites a girl drawing blood. A girl is badly cut by thorns. Someone threatens to slit someone’s throat or boil them alive. A bird attacks using his beak and claws, digging them into flesh. Adela worries that a thief has slit someone’s throat. A man’s father died when he was young.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Hortensia serves wine.
Frightening or Intense Things – Due to magic people are made to do things against their will.
