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| The Rose Bride: A Retelling of "The White Bride and the Black Bride" by Nancy Holder |
"When Rose's mother dies, her only comfort is the exquisite rose garden her mother left behind. The purple blossoms serve as an assurance of her mother's love. But Rose is dealt a second blow when her father dies and his greedy widow, Ombrine, and her daughter, Desirée, move in and take over the manor in true Cinderella fashion.
Fate has been cruel to Ombrine and Desirée, too. So despite their harsh ways, Rose has compassion. But these feelings are bitterly tested when, in a rage, Ombrine tears out the garden. Rose nearly gives up all hope—until a chance meeting with the king. Happiness might be within her reach, but first she must prevail over Ombrine. And then she must determine if she has the courage to love."
Rating:
A shrug.
That’s the first thing I did after turning the last page of
“The Rose Bride”. Don’t get me wrong; this book had a pretty good start but
most of it dragged on. For a supposed short story, this took up quite a lot of
pages; and I’m never a fan of slow paced books.
I’m well aware of the original tale of “The White Bride and
The Black Bride” and this book has taken in the concept very well. It was mixed
in with a little mythology, which I found to be interesting. It also has this
Cinderella-like drama where our main character, Rose, goes through the many,
many, MANY trials before she finally reaches her happy ending. Well, is that
not enough to get you to pick up the book then?
But sadly, the story did not deliver.
As I consume more and more of the pages, the more and more
the story gets messy and confusing. My questions just kept piling up without
getting much of them answered.
In spite of the effort of creating Rose’s character to be
the cliché-kind (kind-hearted, beautiful, hard working, etcetera, etcetera),
adding up the fact that she became an orphan after her parents died and being
mistreated by her stepmother and stepsister, I didn’t find the heart to pity
her. Gosh! I’m so cruel. Forgive me! I guess my problem was that this part was
already too expected. There’s nothing new to it.
I also have the question regarding the hierarchy of the gods
and goddesses. Most of the time, Artemis was prayed to and called on, now what
exactly is Zeus doing? Shouldn’t he be bothered that even the king calls and
praises Artemis instead of him? If he has no say in the matter, in spite of
being mentioned that men should always sought Zeus out first, this is not quite
a solid use of mythology.
I found this book to have too much sorrow and pain. There’s
not enough joy and humor that could at least balance it out a bit.
I do have to say that I appreciate the ease of reading this
book. It’s light and easy to grasp on but I found it way too dramatic for my
taste.
