Dearest by Alethea Kontis
![cover image](https://www.readplus.com.au/covers/dearest.jpg)
Woodcutter Sisters bk 3. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015.
ISBN 9780544074071
(Age: 12+) Recommended. Fairy tales retold. The third in the
Woodcutter Sisters series, following Enchanted
and Hero
is a delightful retelling primarily of The wild swans, but
with some other fairy tales incorporated into the tale. This is
Friday's story, the loving and giving child of the old rhyme:
Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day
Is blithe and bonny and good and gay.
After a huge ocean has devastated the kingdom, Friday is working
with refugee children at her sister's palace. She stumbles across
seven sleeping brothers in a tower and when she lays eyes on
Tristan, knows that he is her true love. But the brothers have been
cursed - each day they turn into swans.
What is so good about this series is the fact that the book is a
companion volume. The reader does not have to have read, or even
remember, the other books, to fully enjoy this one. Friday lives up
to her description of being loving and giving, helping the homeless,
working out ways to feed many people and giving each child a sense
of worth. However she is also very clever and she manages to work
out a way around the curse, using excellent problem solving skills
and organising everyone to help out.
This is a very rewarding series to read. The heroines are all
intelligent and capable and the fairy tale roots are woven so
cleverly that they bring a fresh outlook to a familiar story. Dearest
has an engrossing narrative and an enticing romance. It is sure to
appeal to anyone who enjoys the retelling of fairy tales.
Pat Pledger