And I read this one this morning . . . RTC

This one is not nearly as good as the previous two in the series. It rehashes a lot of the same plot points as the other two, but not as well. The big twist is easy to guess about a hundred pages before it happens. The Christian messaging is too heavy handed. ( )

Quite a good fairy-tale re-writing. I enjoy Melanie Dickerson's characters and her action and dialog based plots. Although I am confused because the main character is not blonde, like the cover shows. ( )

Goose Girl reimagined!

Dickerson continues to take a well known fairy story and reimagine it to life in a new way. This time Grimm's tale of the Goose Girl is reborn. Lady Magdalen is to marry Steffan, the Duke of Wolfberg. This marriage will help lift her province out of poverty. En route she is forced by her maid and maid's father to exchange places. Agnes her maid will now marry the Duke. However at the Duke's castle, the wicked Lord has seen to it that his son Alexander will take Steffan's place. Men are sent to kill Steffan. Fortunately that plot fails.
Steffan and Magdalen have to find a way to regain their respective proper places and come to a mutual understanding of what love and worthiness truly is. I liked Magdalen, but Steffan left me somewhat unmoved. He certainly has more growing to do than Magdalen.
Theirs is not a straightforward path. However both Magdalene and Steffan have right, faith and endurance on their side. And after all this is a 'fairy story'.
I must say that Magdalene has far more compassion for Agnes, the maid who betrayed her, than I would have.
At times I found the going a little strained. I understand the perspective underlying Dickerson's faith based writings and applaud her for it. I sometimes felt that there was an over inclusion of Magdalen and Steffan's references to scripture and the God's will, leading to a somewhat stilted reading process that interfered with the flow of the storyline. What had all the hallmarks of being a nuanced literary endeavour just didn't eventuate to its full potential.
Dickerson's works do however continue to break new grounds in the realms of Christian fiction specifically, and fiction more generally, and that's very promising.

A NetGalley ARC ( )

3.5 Stars
A loose adaptation of The Goose Girl with Christian elements for tweens and teens. The two MCs are written with flaws that appear to be overcome by the end. I respect that the "good" characters struggle with forgiveness; makes it feel more authentic. The story flows nicely, although there is a small section in the middle that drags just for a moment. I wish the author had gone into more detail about what happened to certain supporting characters after their main part in the story was revealed. For YA readers who like historical romances and fairy tale retellings.

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