Cinder Ellie (Faraway Castle)

Title: Cinder Ellie

Series: Faraway Castle (Book #0.5)

Year: 2018

Author: J.M. Stengl

Summary: Trained by an enchantress but obliged to work summers for her living, fifteen-year-old Ellie Calmer serves as a maid at a world-famous mountain resort. Her lowly rank keeps her always at a distance from the powerful, beautiful guests who spend their summers at Faraway Castle, yet Ellie dares to dream of one day exchanging even just a few words with shy Prince Omar of Khenifra. 

But when rare magical creatures show up in Faraway Castle’s gardens, Ellie’s life is suddenly complicated. Cinder sprites are causing fires and potentially endangering the beautiful resort. The resort director has sent for an exterminator to deal with these so-called pests. Can Ellie find a way to use her humble magic to save the cinder sprites and Faraway Castle before disaster strikes? (from Goodreads)

Main Characters:
~ Ellie

Review: This short story was just what it promised to be. It's a little bit of fun, fluff, and magic leading up to a new novel. To be honest, I liked it more than I thought I would. Ellie is a fun heroine, and you can't help but want to see her succeed. 

I really liked the interesting magical creatures popping up. Immediately in chapter one, we're introduced to a brownie as Ellie performs her maid's duties, and you know this isn't going to be any typical Cinderella story. There are pixies, sprites, lake serpents, and more, and they're just fun to follow. Very fairy-tale-ish. If you're looking for something sweet to read real quick between heavier novels, I'd recommend this one. 

Ellie's crush on Prince Omar bothered me a little bit. She has seen him interact kindly with his siblings and thinks well of him based on that, but I felt that the crush sometimes was almost unrealistic. More forced than anything else just because there needed to be a love interest somewhere in this story. Honestly, I think that this whole novella could have flowed a lot more smoothly without Omar getting in the way. I will add to that statement by stating that I realize this book is to set up the adventure and romance in J.M. Stengl's upcoming novel, Ellie and the Prince, and I'd be interested in reading that to see how the relationship progresses. Because right now, I'm rolling my eyes every time Ellie swoons. 

No spoilers, but I am very interested in what's going on with the lake serpent. *cough* J.M. Stengl set something big up and never answered. That had better be in the full-length novel! 

Advisory: This is definitely a magical story. It's full of magical creatures, and Ellie and other characters have various magical abilities. The whole fairy-tale feeling of this story didn't bother me too much with the magic, but it's hard to say definitely just from this small sampling of Ellie's world. Ellie is a human (or so I believe) with the ability to sweet-talk people, but this came across as more of a talent rather than something she learned through magic training. She also works with magical potions. For people wondering about magic in stories, know that the magic is definitely present in this one, but it didn't feel out of the fairy-tale box for me. At least not yet. Again, this is something difficult to discern just from a prequel novella. 

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

A Faraway Island (A Faraway Island)

Title: A Faraway Island 

Series: A Faraway Island (Book #1)

Year: 2009

Author: Annika Thor

Summary: It's the summer of 1939. Two Jewish sisters from Vienna—12-year-old Stephie Steiner and 8-year-old Nellie—are sent to Sweden to escape the Nazis. They expect to stay there six months, until their parents can flee to Amsterdam; then all four will go to America. But as the world war intensifies, the girls remain, each with her own host family, on a rugged island off the western coast of Sweden.

Nellie quickly settles in to her new surroundings. She’s happy with her foster family and soon favors the Swedish language over her native German. Not so for Stephie, who finds it hard to adapt; she feels stranded at the end of the world, with a foster mother who’s as cold and unforgiving as the island itself. Her main worry, though, is her parents—and whether she will ever see them again. (from Goodreads)

Main Characters:
~ Stephie
~ Nellie
~ Aunt Marta
~ Vera

Review: Anyone who knows me knows I love all things Swedish, and when I saw this book -- well, I knew I had to read it. And as far as Swedish expectations go, it did not disappoint. I loved the settings and descriptions, the character names. I mean, take a look at the author's name -- Annika Thor. How more Scandinavian can you get than that?? (Confession: I also have a biased attraction to the name Annika right now, so that was also a big part of my picking up this book.)

Anyway, this tale reminded me in many ways of stories like Pollyanna, The Secret Garden, Emily of New Moon, and the like. Young girls flung out of everything they're familiar with to go and live in a strange, new place. Stephie and Nellie are Jewish sisters who leave the dangers of German-controlled Austria to seek safety in Sweden. When they first set out, they believe that they're going together to a nice hotel with sandy beaches and a grand piano, but upon arriving at a faraway island, they discover nothing of the sort. Stephie and Nellie are to reside with two different families, and Stephie thinks she got the worst end of the deal. Aunt Marta is strict about rules and chores, and Stephie struggles with trying to fit in. 

The backdrop of WWII felt very real, even though this is only a children's novel. Multiple times, we're treated to one of Stephie's flashbacks as she remembers life before in Vienna or life when the Nazis came in. The horrors the Jewish people were exposed to are only mentioned in passing and in a tone appropriate for younger children, but they still felt very real. You spend the whole novel wondering and worrying about Stephie and Nellie's parents -- because they're still in Austria and you have no idea if they're even going to get out. *sadness* 

Stephie was an interesting character to follow, but she frustrated me sometimes. In her emotional moments, she'd fight with her younger sister, say stupid things, and clam up whenever someone tried to comfort her. More than once, I felt like she just needed to break down and have a good cry and let someone know what she was feeling. But, emotions aside, how she reacted made sense. As much as I'm not a fan of moody/broody people, I'd probably clam up too in her situation. 

This story was actually originally written in Swedish (too cool, huh?), and then translated into English. A fact that brings up two last things: First, I'm not sure if it's just how the translation worked, or if Annika Thor wrote the story this way, but it's all in present tense. That threw me off a little bit at the beginning, but it flowed fairly smoothly all the way through. Second, the author wrote a total of four books (read it: FOUR [4] BOOKS) in this series following Nellie and Stephie's Swedish adventures, and only two of theses books (read it: TWO [2] BOOKS) have been translated into English. *le sigh* Add it to my list of reasons why I need to learn the Swedish language. 

Advisory: Some violence as Stephie remembers the Nazi takeover, but not very graphic in the way of explanation. Stephie also encounters bullying at school. 

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars