The Storyteller's Daughter

I loved the topic, but I was disappointed in the delivery. The writing style was clunky and clumsy. Things like Shahrazad's father not having a name until the middle of the book, which made it confusing for me, or how the author referred to the queen's lover was awkward and I had to reread his identity several times to distinguish that it was NOT the vizier, but rather one who had the potential to become the vizier. At other times the writing was overly sentimental (for my taste), as well as slightly jarring due to poor pacing, it was hard for me to discern the passage of time in certain places. Shahrazad is supposed to tell a story to the king, which is suppose to take the course of 1001 nights, or at least that's the usual myth, but she only tells him a partial story (over the course of what I presume is three nights) and a full story during a single afternoon. The rest of the time (the amount of which I have no clue) is spend in jail and is called the Days without Light.

The tone was inconstant, at times it was that of the classic fairy tale (good), at others you could tell the it was a ‘modern' retelling (not so good), but that the tone wavers is a sign that the writing could stand to improve.

Additionally, I found it annoying that Shahrazad only referred to her mother by her first name.

This was a nice fun romance. It came from the fairy tale about a king whose heart is turned to stone because of a betrayal and once a month at full moon will wed a wife and the next day she will be killed. The storyteller's daughter volunteers to be his wife. I have heard the tale before and this really did not have any twists or turns that were unexpected but that was part of the charm of it. It was a super quick read. I finished in a couple of hours. Would recommend anyone who likes fairy tales retold.