I was not always an avid reader. I enjoyed stories, but the act of reading drained my energy even before I picked up a book. It always felt like a chore to do so. When I got into the story, however, I forgot that fact.

The problem was physical Braille books. Sighties get to have a more comfortable reading experience than me. You only have to worry about one book when you’re reading a story. One book could be many Braille books known as volumes. A textbook was between 20 to 30 volumes. A 300 page novel could be two to six volumes.

Reading Braille on paper is exhausting. It’s slow and takes more time than I’m willing to spend. More patience than I have.

I got my first BrailleNote taker, the BrailleNote Apex when I was nine, but it wasn’t until I was 13 that I got my first laptop. When I did, I finally had access to Bookshare, an accessible online library for people who have reading barriers. Visit their web site to learn more.

https://www.bookshare.org/cms/

The first book I downloaded is Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. Unfortunately, this was the only book I had access to for an entire summer, so I just read it over and over for about three months. I don’t remember what happened to my first laptop, but, before I started my first year of high school, I got another one from my school district. I had access to eBooks 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It was and continues to be glorious.

I read a bunch of their books as a teenager. From time to time, I look at Bookshare to see if there are new books available. I tend to gravitate to their fantasy. When I found this one, I couldn’t resist.

Synopsis

This reimagining of the Trojan war follows Cassandra, a young princess who worships Apollo. She’s delighted when he appears to her and makes her an offer. In exchange for allowing him to love her, he will give her the gift of future sight. She agrees, only to recoil when he kisses her. He allows her a second chance, but, when she rejects him again, he curses her gift, making it so no one will believe her predictions.

When images of war plague her, she risks her safety to prevent this future. It will take years and an unlikely friendship for there to be any hope.

Book Information

Genre: Fantasy
Category: Young adult
Explicit sex: No
Explicit violence: No
Content warnings I noticed: An attempt at suicide
This is a standalone.

Review

The prose is great. Accessible and easy to read.

This story is written in two parts. The first follows Cassandra’s point of view and the second is Rin’s. While I enjoyed it, I have mixed feelings about it. Cassandra’s point of view is written in past tense while Rin’s is in present tense. I don’t like this tense change very much because it doesn’t feel necessary. I don’t know why the tenses change. Compare this to Laura Sebastian’s Half Sick of Shadows where the tense changes are dependent on what the story is telling us. It’s not jarring the way it is in Sparrows in the Wind.

Another issue I have is that there’s a romantic plotline in this story. The way it’s written doesn’t help me ship the couple. It feels like it comes out of nowhere. It’s the same when it comes to Cassandra’s decision in the end.

The world-building is great. It’s crisp and feels lived in. I appreciate the soft world-building and soft magic system.

The pacing is good. It’s not too slow or too fast. Most of the events are built up really well.

The themes of friendship are very strong. Levine writes good friendships and, for the most part, romance. I was not disappointed.

The characters are good. I enjoyed following them. They’re not one-dimensional characters, but they don’t feel three-dimensional either.

The romance isn’t great as I mentioned previously. There was a moment where I felt very uncomfortable, but I’m glad it didn’t go there. Because it switches point of views for the second part, the romance is hard to root for. Usually, Levine’s stories are not written this way, so the romances are always great. They have more time to shine on the page. This one doesn’t get the same treatment.

Conclusion

Overall, it’s an enjoyable story. It’s always nostalgic to read Levine’s work. I rated it four stars.