Title: The Fairytale Keeper
Author: Andrea Cefalo
Author Info: Website / Twitter / Goodreads / Facebook
Pub Date: June 1, 2012
Publisher: Scarlet Primrose Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 280
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes and Noble
Snow White was a pet name her mother had given her, but her mother’s dead now. Adelaide hates that name anyway. A rampant fever claimed Adelaide’s mother just like a thousand others in Cologne where the people die without Last Rites and the dead are dumped in a large pit outside of the city walls. Adelaide’s father is determined to obtain a funeral for his wife, but that requires bribing the parish priest, Father Soren. When Soren commits an unforgivable atrocity, he pushes Adelaide to her breaking point, but if she seeks justice against the cruel priest, she risks sacrificing everything: her father, her friends, her first love, and maybe even her life.
First I would like to jump up and down and say hooray for
the use of the actual Fairy Tales. I remember the first time I read the real
version of Cinderella, when the sisters were trying on the shoes…well I’ll
leave it that.
I thought this book was amazingly clever the way that Andrea
Cefalo worked the fairy tales into the actual story. I was excited every time
she would introduce us to another tale, wondering how it was going to relate to
our characters. The fairy tales did drop off towards the end and even though I
noticed it, I was so engrossed in the story at that point that I didn’t dwell
on it.
I loved Adelaide and Ivo. I felt that Adelaide is strong,
steady and fiery. Even though her mother passes away and she is grief stricken,
we see her slid quickly into her mothers shoes. Making sure things stay in
order and trying to keep her father out of trouble. Of course she is still a
kid and so she at times can be reckless. She takes the bad things that happen
to her and turns them into opportunity.
Ivo is of course the perfect guy. He is strong, caring and
protective of Adelaide. He has been her childhood friend and now love interest.
He is her rock and I think she is his as well. There is something we find out
about Ivo later on that makes you just want to hug him. The relationship
between Adelaide and him is so sweet and I think they keep each other well
balanced. You can tell that the things he does, he does them for her.
I love the historical setting of this book and the description
of the Cologne. It was easy to submerse myself into the story as if I was there
while reading. The plot was developed at a great pace. I wasn’t sure how things
were going to go along and I really liked the path they took. Adelaide takes on
the role of not only avenging the way her mother was treated but also how the
people in the city of Cologne are treated now. The way that things were set-up
at the end of the book makes me anxiously awaiting the next installment.