The Amaranth Enchantment by: Julie Berry is an amazing book. It is a wonderful story about a young teenage girl caring for herself. In The Amaranth Enchantment, we learn that we all need some one to look after us. We learn this because the main character gets in a lot of trouble when nobody is looking after her.
Before I tell you about the story, I need to give you some background information. You need to know that Beryl is not from our world. She came to our world on accident. In order to get back to her world,
In this story, the main charater's name is Lucinda. When Lucinda is very young, her parents die in a carriage accident. She goes to live her aunt and uncle. Lucinda adores and loves her uncle but hates her aunt because her aunt treats her like a maid or slave. Her aunt makes sure that Lucinda earns her stay by cleaning their little goldsmith's shop.
One day, a mysterious woman came into the shop and asked if her large, shiny stone could be placed in a protective lining. She leaves the stone with Lucinda's aunt. Lucinda learns that this woman's name is Beryl. A few minutes after Beryl leaves, the prince enters the shop looking for an engagement ring. Lucinda immediately develops this love for him. She doesn't realize that he is the prince until she runs into him later in the plot.
That night, a strange boy named Peter enters Lucinda's bedroom. He is a runaway criminal. Peter decides to stay the night and Lucinda reluctantly agrees. When Lucinda wakes up the next morning, Peter and Beryl's stone are missing. When she goes downstairs, she learns that her uncle passed away in his sleep. Her aunt thinks she killed him so she kicks her out of her house. Later that day, Lucinda runs into Peter. She asks him to give the stone back to her. Peter told her that he had already sold it to the prince.
Lucinda tells Peter that it wasn't her stone and she needs to get it back to Beryl. She bribes him into helping her get it back. Peter teaches Lucinda how to steal from someone without them knowing that you are reaching in their pocket. That night, at a celebration, Lucinda successfully steals the stone out of teh prince' s shirt pocket. However, the royal guards catch her. They throw her in jail. After someone (who is to remain unnamed) bails her out, she runs to give Beryl her stone. She learns that Beryl is living in her childhood home. She makes a deal with Beryl. They decide that if Lucinda helps Beryl return to her own world, Lucinda will have her childhood home back to herself.
In the process of helping Beryl get back home, Lucinda reunites the lost prince with his family. Once Beryl is back in her world with her family, Lucinda moved back into her home and lived happily ever after.
This book was an entertaining and surprising novel. I loved reading it because it wasn't predictable. I found it fun to predict that something would happen and then have the complete opposite of what I thought was going to happen occur. I found it entertaing because it had parts of popular fairy tales, like Cinderella and Rapunzel, tied into it as well as being it's own story.
The author, Julie Berry, brings up something that I agree with and don't agree with. I agree that everyone has a chance to obtain what was once theirs. I don't think that it is okay to steal in order to gain these things. I think that you should have to earn them.
This book can be related to a large topic that is huge in our everyday world. I related this book to child abuse and neglect. This is constantly going on in this book. For example, when Lucinda is kicked out of her aunt's house, she is left to her own devices. When she was living with her aunt, she would sometimes be sent to bed without a meal. These are examples of neglect. Sometimes Lucinda's aunt would punish her by hitting her. This is an example of abuse. This is the biggest issue in the book. A smaller issue is thievery.
I absolutely loved this book! I thought it was well-written and fun to read. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy and fairy tale stories. I would rate this book an A+.
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