Harrison, Mette Ivie - The Princess and the Hound
Sun, Dec. 16th, 2007 07:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterGeorge is the prince of a country that demonizes and punishes bearers of animal magic, even though he wields that power. He's grown up wedded to duty and taught to think of the country before himself, and that's how he comes to his betrothal to Beatrice, princess of a former enemy country.
Beatrice herself is cold and wounded, and soon, George finds that he cares much more for her than duty calls for.
This book suffers from a lot of pacing problems. The first five chapters are so are all on George's childhood and how he deals with the death of his mother and his stern, just, loving father, who seems to love him, but as a king loves his subject. By the end of chapter two or so, I was rolling my eyes and asking the author to get on with it. Of course, some of this is because I picked the book up for the princess, but a lot of the chapters really could have been condensed. The book doesn't really start until George meets Beatrice.
I loved Beatrice; she's dangerous and cold and hurt and strong. There's also something very interesting going on with her and her beloved dog, Marit.
There's a plot twist in the book that I predicted long before it happened. I didn't want things to happen as I predicted, but they did. But in the end, it wasn't as bad as I thought -- Harrison doesn't stop at the resolution of the secret. I like that the book doesn't stop at the declaration of love; it takes the time to go beyond that. I also like that everything isn't magically solved by the end. There's a sense that there's still a lot of work to be done.
Spoilers start here!
The Big Secret that I ended up guessing was that Beatrice and Marit had somehow switched places -- the wild hound was controlling the girl's body and the girl was controlling the dog's body. I totally rolled my eyes at this. I loved Beatrice because she was ferocious and uncompromising, because her hound was nicer than she was. But thankfully, when the two return to their original bodies, Marit's personality doesn't get softened (the girl adopts "Marit" as a name, since she's used to it now). She's a little more unsure, but she's still awkward and fierce and smart, and I love how she takes her time to fall in love with George.
I found the development of their relationship rather believable, once Marit was restored to human form -- she doesn't quite trust him still. I do wish there had been more of the hound in her though. Oh well.
So, in the end I liked it, enough to keep an eye out for Harrison's next book.
Links:
-![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
buymeaclue on the first few chapters (I wasn't lying when I said it had pacing problems!)
Beatrice herself is cold and wounded, and soon, George finds that he cares much more for her than duty calls for.
This book suffers from a lot of pacing problems. The first five chapters are so are all on George's childhood and how he deals with the death of his mother and his stern, just, loving father, who seems to love him, but as a king loves his subject. By the end of chapter two or so, I was rolling my eyes and asking the author to get on with it. Of course, some of this is because I picked the book up for the princess, but a lot of the chapters really could have been condensed. The book doesn't really start until George meets Beatrice.
I loved Beatrice; she's dangerous and cold and hurt and strong. There's also something very interesting going on with her and her beloved dog, Marit.
There's a plot twist in the book that I predicted long before it happened. I didn't want things to happen as I predicted, but they did. But in the end, it wasn't as bad as I thought -- Harrison doesn't stop at the resolution of the secret. I like that the book doesn't stop at the declaration of love; it takes the time to go beyond that. I also like that everything isn't magically solved by the end. There's a sense that there's still a lot of work to be done.
Spoilers start here!
The Big Secret that I ended up guessing was that Beatrice and Marit had somehow switched places -- the wild hound was controlling the girl's body and the girl was controlling the dog's body. I totally rolled my eyes at this. I loved Beatrice because she was ferocious and uncompromising, because her hound was nicer than she was. But thankfully, when the two return to their original bodies, Marit's personality doesn't get softened (the girl adopts "Marit" as a name, since she's used to it now). She's a little more unsure, but she's still awkward and fierce and smart, and I love how she takes her time to fall in love with George.
I found the development of their relationship rather believable, once Marit was restored to human form -- she doesn't quite trust him still. I do wish there had been more of the hound in her though. Oh well.
So, in the end I liked it, enough to keep an eye out for Harrison's next book.
Links:
-
buymeaclue on the first few chapters (I wasn't lying when I said it had pacing problems!)
(no subject)
Mon, Dec. 17th, 2007 05:35 am (UTC)You may be amused by at least the very beginning of my post on this book: http://buymeaclue.livejournal.com/392204.html
(no subject)
Mon, Dec. 17th, 2007 05:43 am (UTC)It does get much better after the extremely plodding beginning, but as I said, there's a plot twist I saw coming from miles away, and while it wasn't as disappointing as I thought it would be, and while Harrison did manage to save the book in the last few chapters, I'm not sure if you want to read it.