Once Upon A Marigold

Title: Once Upon A Marigold
Author: Jean Ferris

What it's about: Christian runs away from home and is raised by a troll as his foster father for eleven years. He eventually starts a long-distance friendship with the princess in the castle across the river by sending messages with trained pigeons. Eventually, Chris realizes it's time to strike out on his own, so he goes to the castle for a job and ends up way over his head in trouble and all sorts of stuff like that.

What I thought: If there were to ever be a movie version of this story, I think it would be like a combination of the movie Stardust and the television series Pushing Daisies. Very whimsical feel to it. This is a hopeful, optimistic book. It's slightly cheesy, but not enough so that it really detracts. I mean, pragmatic ol' me sometimes was like, okay, guys, seriously, let's cut the power of love stuff here. This isn't an anime or bad fan fiction. But still, for a story that's so much about love and friendship and good guys coming out on top, this is really well-executed. There's very much a theme of coming of age to this book, too. I think the main thing I could say is that there's never really any suspense. Bad stuff happens, but the tone of the book just makes you feel like everything will be all right in the end, so you don't need to really worry.

Overall: A good, uplifting read. Give it a shot, I say.