Let Down Your Hair

I may be wrong, but the synopsis of Let Down Your Hair really made it sound like it would be a read on the lighter side. I was hoping for a story of growth. One of first experiences and hopefully a fairy tale romance. What I was given was definitely a lot different than what I expected. I'll tell you right now, this isn't a light read by any means. Poor Sage goes through hell and back again. If you're looking for a sweet and fluffy read? This isn't it.

It's plainly obvious that Sage is meant to be our Rapunzel character. Her last name is Rampion, her hair cascades down her back in a platinum blonde waterfall, and there's even a scene where her “Prince” sees her in a high window. Which, since this all happened at the beginning, lead me to believe that this would be a story about Sage growing out of the feminist views pushed on her by her grandmother, and into someone who welcome some romance in her life. I'm not sure how I feel about where things went.

First off, Sage starts the story knowing absolutely nothing about mainstream society or men. Her grandmother raises her as a hermit of sorts, and then pushes her into Women's Studies. That was fine with me. Seeing someone learn about the world at an older age is always pretty amazing. What drove me crazy though was how easily Sage let go of everything she was taught for 20+ years of her life and just dove into the events that would send her on a downhill slide. Would someone raised to essentially despise men really dive head first into having sex with a guy she just met? I don't honestly know, but it didn't feel real.

There are a lot of heavy handed feminist views in this book which, since they're masked by the Rapunzel story, almost fit in okay. I wasn't necessarily comfortable with the ideas being pushed regarding words like “pretty” and “womanly”, but I let it go. My issue was mostly that I wanted more romance. This seemed like it would be a “coming of age” story. One with sweet scenes and lots of growth. I didn't see any of that and, while Sage did come out a new person on the other side, I was so annoyed with her at that point that I couldn't see straight. Maybe this book just wasn't for me, and that's fine, but I really wish the synopsis hadn't lead me to believe that it would be.