SUNLIGHT AND SHADOW by Cameron Dokey

Title: Sunlight and Shadow
Series: Once Upon a Time
Author: Cameron Dokey

Summary

Mina is the daughter of Pamina, the Queen of the Night, and Sarastro, the Mage of the Day.  With her birth, a prophecy was given that her marriage would change the world in a way that would remove and give power to her parents.  So her parents made a pact that, for the first sixteen years of her life, Mina would live in the darkness with her mother; on the day of her sixteenth birthday, she would be given to her father and he would select a husband.

But when Mina's father breaks his oath, it takes all of Mina's strength, and the help of some friends, to find her heart's desire.

My Impression

I have never encountered The Magic Flute, so I am not sure how closely/loosely this story follows the original.  I liked this story for that fact, since it had familiar feel of a fairy tale but was at the same time new, even though some of the plot was predictable.  

The thing that I had the hardest time with in this book was the switching perspectives.  There are a total of five narrators for this story, and each one tells the story from a first-person perspective.  Though I really liked seeing inside the heads of various characters, the shifts are not clearly marked in the book, so it often took me a couple sentences before I realized that a different person was "speaking."

Why I Picked Up This Book

I have always had a love for retellings of myths and fairytales, so the Once Upon a Time series, and with it this book, have been on my "to read" list for a while.

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Romance

My Rating: Four Stars

Interested in more books from this series? Click here to see a list of the other books in the Once Upon a Time series and my reviews of them.

Once Upon a Time Series

The Once Upon a Time series is published by Simon Pulse and written by various authors.  Each book  in the series retells a fairy tale (or two).  The series began with the publishing of The Storyteller's Daughter in 2002; the most recent book in the series, The World Above, was published in 2010, with a total of 19 books in the series.

Cameron Dokey

• The Storyteller's Daughter
• Beauty Sleep
• Sunlight and Shadow
• Golden
• Before Midnight
• Belle
• Wild Orchid
• Winter's Child
• The World Above

Nancy Holder

• Spirited
• The Rose Bride

Tracy Lynn

• Snow

Debbie Viguié

• Midnight Pearls
• Scarlet Moon
• Violet Eyes

Suzanne Weyn

• The Night Dance
• Water Song
• The Crimson Thread
• The Diamond Secret

**Note: Each of these books were released as stand-alone novels.  However, Cameron Dokey's books are being re-released in collections.  In February 2012 the first collection was released, titled Once; this collection contains Before Midnight, Golden, and Wild Orchid.  A second collection, titled Kissed, is scheduled to be released in February 2013; it will contain Belle, Sunlight and Shadow, and Winter's Child.  

BEAUTY SLEEP by Cameron Dokey

Title: Beauty Sleep
Series: Once Upon a Time
Author: Cameron Dokey

Summary

Aurore is the daughter of  the king and queen, and on the one month anniversary of her birth, the kingdom comes together to celebrate her christening.  But one important person was not invited, and when she arrives she places a curse on Aurore: that in her sixteenth year she will prick her finger and her drop of blood with seal her death.  Even when the curse is modified to only cause a hundred-year sleep, Aurore's parents are overly cautious and determined to keep her safe, something which Aurore tries to fight as much as possible.

My Impression

My favorite part of this story is the development of Aurore's life between the placing of the curse and the inevitable pricking of her finger.  Dokey's development of this time made it a lot easier to love Aurore as a character and feel sorrow that she has been placed under this curse because of events outside of her control.

While I like some of Dokey's retellings more than this tale, I still really liked seeing Aurore as more than just a helpless girl who fumbles into the curse's fulfillment.

Why I Picked Up This Book

I had already read two other books in this series, Scarlet Moon and Midnight Pearls, and I have always had a love for fairy tale retellings, so I decided to read the rest of the series.

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Romance

My Rating: Four Stars

Interested in more books from this series? Click here to see a list of the other books in the Once Upon a Time series and my reviews of them.