Dearest - September 2015

[Rachmi]

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 Friday 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?

It's Friday Woodcutter time to tell her story. Happy reading everyone!

[Heidi]

Rach, I haven't ordered this one from the library yet, but they have it! I'm going to read Hero first and see where I'm at when I finish that one.

[Lisa]

This one is on hold for me, and I was going to get it today, but something came up, so I'll pick it up Saturday. I didn't realize it was a twist on the swan tale!

[Rachmi]

Again, I'm really jealous of your library! Thank goodness I already have this book before Indonesia currency to USD drop so badly I have to stop buying books from Kobo and Book Depository for these last two months :(

I never read the swan tale, though. So it'll feel like this is my first time reading the tale.

[Lisa]

Sorry about the currency difference and really wish you had good libraries to use too, Rach! That is one thing these group discussions do - teach us all about the cultural differences between so many countries and even areas within the same country.

[Rachmi]

They said Indonesia currency now is the worst in five years, I think. I don't know how long it'll happen.

The only thing I can do now, while I stay away from Kobo and Book Depository, is reading books I've already bought but never read. I'm a book haul so I have lots of books and ebooks I haven't read, including eARC from NetGalley. I've doing this since last month. I think it's the bright side of this situation because this way I can decrese my book pile :D

And there is a big book fair too here in Jakarta, Indonesia capital city, for a week. I'm going to go there today and shop books till I drop because usually they offer a very big sale :D Hopefully I can get books I want. Finger-crossed!

[Lisa]

Good luck at the sale!

[Rachmi]

Thank you! I got And The Mountains Echoed by Khaleed Hosseini (hardbound), Struck by Lightning by Chris Colfer and The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead (both are paperback) for about USD 5,30. I got Indonesian books with great price too. So happy!

[Lisa]

Three books for $5.30 is great! Sounds like you had a very profitable day. I'm so glad!

[Lisa]

So I am finally getting around to reading this! I guess I'm between a third and half way through, and once again I am enjoying the literary references - those were also something that seemed to be missing in Hero! Love the fact that Friday's original "Darlings" are named John, Michael and Wendy! It's also fun that Friday keeps discovering new talents. As for the golden eyed man, I'm sure I have came across this in another tale, but can't think which one. Could anyone help me identify that?

[Heidi]

Lisa wrote: "So I am finally getting around to reading this! I guess I'm between a third and half way through, and once again I am enjoying the literary references - those were also something that seemed to be ..."

Glad to hear that you're enjoying it!

[Rachmi]

I still haven't picked this book up yet :D I'm reading another books, instead. And after Hero, am not that eager to read it.

So what do you think, Lisa? Is it better than Hero? I may read it one way or another one of these days if it's better than Hero.

[Lisa]

Yes, I do think it's better than Hero! So many things that I enjoyed reading Enchanted were missing in Hero, such as the literary references, and the interaction with other family members. Those elements are back in Dearest. Also, Hero really wasn't a retelling of any of the "classic" fairy tales, even though it had fairy tale themes. Dearest is a definite re-telling of the Seven Swans, with a Woodcutter twist.

[Heidi]

Lisa, thank you for sharing your insights about this book! If others read it in the future, you're always welcome to continue posting your thoughts and comments about Dearest here.

[Melanie]

I know this is an older thread but I thought I would post just to say thanks to Lisa for the helpful info! I enjoyed Enchanted but wasn't sure I wanted to continue with the series after Hero. Originally I thought I might read the third one because I thought it was going to be about Monday and Wednesday. So I wasn't too interested when I saw it was Friday's story. I might have to go back and give it a go now though!

[Lisa]

Thank you, Melanie! I honestly felt the same way, since I had found Friday somewhat boring in Enchanted. However, Dearest was definitely not boring in the least.