With a twist on the familiar tales
of sleeping beauty and rumpelstillskin combined C.S. Lakin tells the story of
Teralyn, a girl of great beauty and skill with music, who was foretold as a
babe to cause the destruction of Wentwater before her eighteenth birthday. For
her own survival she was hidden away in the mountains surrounding the superstitious
village, but on a visit to the little town below she meets a man that will
change her life, but will also cause the destruction of the village.
The story of Wentwater features Teralyn,
a gifted girl who goes through great lengths to save the town of Wentwater. I
feel that her character started out very well shaped and strong, developed
throughout, and carried through till the end; showing Mrs. Lakins skill. The
young man Former is Teralyn’s lover and I honestly feel he should have been
better shaped, we learn of his character and such, but for his roll in the
story, which is a large roll, he was underdeveloped. Honestly, at first review
of the book I was surprised to see how much the plot rotated around him. The
amount of time given to him is minimal, causing him to be slightly on the “flat”
side. The person I connected to the most was Justyn, which is odd but true.
Justyn is an educated young man from the Heights—a college like set up in the
mountains near Wentwater—who has left his superstitious family in the village
to learn all that he can about the physical world. I understood his views and,
though I didn’t agree with his reactions to his circumstances, to a degree
sympathize with him.
The book’s pace started out nicely, though it dragged slightly through the middle “The Unraveling of Wentwater” ended with a quicker pace for the reader. As far as originality goes for a fairy tale I thought the book was well done. There were enough things that remind one of the fairy tales we have grown up on, the Sleeping Beauty beginning and the Rumpelstillskin like ending for example, but it with the unique characters and other features Lakin had me wondering and interested from cover to cover. The story felt homey, and familiar but with twists that kept it fresh; the book is perfect for a relaxing read before bed.
In Mrs. Lakin’s past books she had written great plots that tie up all the lose ends and I was slightly disappointed to find this story didn’t. I was left with a couple of questions, menial questions granted, but the lack of understanding of bits of the story took away from the overall enjoyment of “The Unraveling of Wentwater”.
C.S. Lakin has once again
written a wonderful story that isn’t a fast pace action novel but more of a
wondering walk of enjoyment for a person to relax to. Though not my favorite in
“The Gates of Heaven Series”, “The Unraveling of Wentwater” still is a
wonderful book showing great writing style. The book’s pace started out nicely, though it dragged slightly through the middle “The Unraveling of Wentwater” ended with a quicker pace for the reader. As far as originality goes for a fairy tale I thought the book was well done. There were enough things that remind one of the fairy tales we have grown up on, the Sleeping Beauty beginning and the Rumpelstillskin like ending for example, but it with the unique characters and other features Lakin had me wondering and interested from cover to cover. The story felt homey, and familiar but with twists that kept it fresh; the book is perfect for a relaxing read before bed.
In Mrs. Lakin’s past books she had written great plots that tie up all the lose ends and I was slightly disappointed to find this story didn’t. I was left with a couple of questions, menial questions granted, but the lack of understanding of bits of the story took away from the overall enjoyment of “The Unraveling of Wentwater”.
B
