Book Review| The Golden Braid| HonestlyspeakingonBooks

 Book Review| The Golden Braid  by Melanie Dickerson

On The Back:

The one who needs rescuing isn’t always the one in the tower.

Rapunzel can throw a knife better than any man. She paints beautiful flowering vines on the walls of her plaster houses. She sings so sweetly she can coax even a beast to sleep. But there are two things she is afraid her mother might never allow her to do: learn to read and marry.

Fiercely devoted to Rapunzel, her mother is suspicious of every man who so much as looks at her daughter and warns her that no man can be trusted. After a young village farmer asks for Rapunzel's hand in marriage, Mother decides to move them once again—this time, to the large city of Hagenheim.

The journey proves treacherous, and after being rescued by a knight—Sir Gerek—Rapunzel in turn rescues him farther down the road. As a result, Sir Gerek agrees to repay his debt to Rapunzel by teaching her to read. Could there be more to this knight than his arrogance and desire to marry for riches and position?

As Rapunzel acclimates to life in a new city, she uncovers a mystery that will forever change her life. In this Rapunzel story unlike any other, a world of secrets and treachery is about to be revealed after seventeen years of lies. How will Rapunzel finally take control of her own destiny? And who will prove faithful to a lowly peasant girl with no one to turn to?

My Review:

Okay, so..

(* ahem *)

I must say....

MELANIE DICKERSON, I LOVE YOU!!!!

Her fairytale retellings are DA BEST!

I’ll admit, it’s possible that I may be a leetle biased, since I actually started reading fairytale romance because of The Hagenheim series. 

But this series is just SO GOOD!! EEEEE!!!

(Okay, I’ll try to calm down now.)

(* excessing screaming and sobbing in the background.*)

I feel like (bear with me as I speak about myself for a moment) I’m pretty serious about most of my reviews and not such a fangirl most of the time. 

BUT.

 I cannot deny nor can I repress my passionate emotions concerning this series.

Alright, enough of that. Let’s talk about The Golden Braid. (* calms down *)

So, I thought the entire story, plot, characters, dialogue, all of it, was well written.

Honestly, this was definitely not my favorite book in the series, even if it was pretty good.

The main reason why that is so, is because, Rapunzel wasn’t really my type (I’m sorry, Rapunzel). 

She’s good, loving, caring, yada yada.... but, I guess I wanted more character than that. I don’t mean to say that she’s a flat character, she has goals and ambitions, but to me, she seemed like the average bear. (No offence to average bears, I’m one of y’all, too.)

It’s a “me, not you” kinda thing. I tend to lean towards more independent (Rapunzel had some independence) and strong-minded(She was lacking here) female characters.

But besides that, I thought the romance between her and Gerek was great.

 (* Two thumbs up *)

I think it was sweet, a little too fast paced at the end, but otherwise, awesome. And clean aside from a few vaguely described kisses.

Gothel was a good character, too, and the relationship between her and Rapunzel was one of the best things in this book (please take it for granted that this is obviously just my opinion)! Gothel was convincing, and for a while, I really wondered if someone else was the “Bad guy”. (There is another “bad guy” but, you aren’t allowed to ask me who. My lips are s.e.a.l.e.d.)

There were a few things that were way too easy to predict, but I didn’t have too much of a problem with that (the ending made up for it).

Overall, I thought it was a beautiful, sweet story. If you like fairytale retellings and happily ever afters, then I recommend, recommend, RECOMMEND!

I recommend, all the books in this series (even if there’s a couple that I have yet to read, I have faith in Dickerson)!

                                                                                                                Sarah E