| $@%&! level: Low (if any) “Bedroom” level: None Violence level: Low (aside from some history) Back Cover: “When a storm brings the dashing Prince Richard to her family's farm, Violet falls in love at first sight. Richard also gives Violet his heart, but he knows his marriage is destined to be an affair of state, not of passion. For the king and queen have devised a contest to determine who will win their son's hand in marriage. To be reunited with her prince, Violet must compete against princesses from across the land. It will take all of her wits—and a little help from an unexpected source—if Violet is to demonstrate the depth of her character and become Richard's bride.” |
This retelling is a little more sensible, though, and I like it for that. The test isn't just the thing with the mattresses, either. Violet has to go through a number of different trials in order to prove her worth. What I'm not so sure I like is the reward for cheating, because Violet certainly does cheat on most of the tests. Admittedly, most of the tests are covers for something else, and she passes the hidden tests all on her own. But one of them is whether she cares enough about it to succeed by any means at all, including cheating! Prince Richard's parents aren't nearly as idiotic about it as they seem, but that one just didn't fly straight in my mind. The other tests are actually very clever ways of finding a future queen who will be good at it, though.
Here's the part I liked best. There is one princess who passes every single trial without cheating at all, both the obvious trials and the hidden trials. Yeah, she's kind of impossible, but there you go. And the best part is that, at the end, she speaks up and says that Violet should be the one to marry Richard, because they are in love and because she believes Violet will make a wise and just queen. Because, as is surprisingly common in the Once Upon A Time series of fairytale retellings, the story spends a lot more time on the relationship between the various women (in this case, the friendships that grow between the princesses) than they do on the actual fairytale and love story. So one of the things that makes Violet perfect for Richard is that she makes friends easily and really cares about them. It's nice that they do eventually prove that she's a princess by birth, but it's that capacity to care for others that really makes her princess material.