Thursday, October 16, 2008

Review: Aurelia


Aurelia by Anne Osterlund
3 stars


Reasons for reading: the cover; Young Adult Challenge

Book description: "Princess Aurelia is next in line to rule the kingdom of Tyralt, but she would rather be one of the common folk, free to learn and roam and . . . not marry the next tyrannical prince that comes courting. Naturally, the king wants Aurelia to marry for political power. Aurelia wants to marry for love. And someone in the kingdom wants her . . . dead. Assigned to investigate and protect Aurelia is Robert, the son of the king’s former royal spy and one of Aurelia’s oldest friends. As Aurelia and Robert slowly uncover clues as to who is threatening her, their friendship turns to romance. With everything possible on the line—her life, her kingdom, her heart—Aurelia is forced to take matters into her own hands, no matter the cost."

First line of chapter one: "On the night of her younger sister's coming-out party, Aurelia almost died."

My thoughts: This book isn't very long, but it seemed to take me a long time to read. It's not a bad book, but it didn't set me on fire. I think part of the problem was there seemed to be a lot of description where I didn't need it - one particular passage stands out in my mind, a description of a table that a character tosses something onto - just too many little bits like that, for my taste.

Still, I liked Aurelia - a smart, independent-minded young woman who truly cares about the people of her kingdom. She even manages to save herself without Robert's help and ends up helping to save him . And Robert was smart, kind, and brave. The storyline of the assassination plot wasn't bad, either.


I have a feeling I've just read too many fairy-tale-esque YA books already this year and I've had enough for a while. And I think teens would probably enjoy it more than I did.

4 comments:

Em said...

I've been eying this one for awhile. Sounds interesting. I haven't read too many fairy tale books this year so maybe I'll give it a try.

tinylittlelibrarian said...

It's not a bad book, you should give it a go if you're interested. I think for me it was a case of it not being the right book at the right now.

tinylittlelibrarian said...

If you do, be sure to leave me a link to your review. :)

Lana said...

I really enjoyed Aurelia (book and character), and I was happy to see a princess who actually cared about governing her people well. I agree that the story is probably very appealing to teens - especially because of the air of isolation surrounding the characters.

I've linked to your review here.