Review: Before Midnight by Cameron Dokey

 Grade: 2 Butterflies

Name: Before Midnight, a Once Upon Time novel.
Author: Cameron Dokey
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: Paperback, 193

Goodreads summary

tienne de Brabant is brokenhearted. His wife has died in childbirth, leaving him alone with an infant daughter he cannot bear to name. But before he abandons her for king and court, he brings a second child to be raised alongside her, a boy whose identity he does not reveal.

The girl, La Cendrillon, and the boy, Raoul, pass sixteen years in the servants' care until one day a very fine lady arrives with her two daughters. The lady has married La Cendrillon's father, and her arrival changes their lives.

When an invitation to a great ball reaches the family, La Cendrillon's new stepmother will make a decision with far-reaching effects. Her choice will lead La Cendrillon and Raoul toward their destiny -- a choice that will challenge their understanding of family, test their loyalty and courage, and, ultimately, teach them who they are.

I read Cameron Dokey's Wild Orchid and didn't really like it much at all. However, I went into this book with an open mind hopping that it was just the book Wild Orchid I didn't like, not the series. And in the beginning of this book I thought that it was, but as the story went on I learned that Wild Orchid wasn't the black sheep in this series. Because if you asked me what I thought of this book I would say it was just to silly for me and I didn't like it.

Like I said this plot started out really good. The author put her own spin on the story tell Cinderella, but at the same time kept the aspects that makes the fairy-tale. And at first I was enjoying reading it, even though it was a little predictable, and the book flowed very well. However, the farther the plot went on the more forced and flat it felt. Like at the end I was just like, "why the heck did that happen again?". For example in the way end when her "True Love" put the glass slipper on her I felt like the author put that in there not because it fit the plot, but because the fairy-tale demanded it. The guy was just like "I have your shoe, and I really want to put it on your foot, so um....yah".

The other thing I didn't like about the plot was how I did get a little bored with it in the middle. It was going good, but then the plot really hit a road block. The plot picks up after a while, but I got so bored at one part I had to force myself to pick it back up again.

That's another thing I didn't like about this book was how everybody seemed to get a true love and a happy ever after. Which wouldn't have been so bad if most of these romances weren't based on Love at first sight. That just annoyed me to no end. That now leads me to a point I want to make and that is I feel like this book would make a good pre-teen book. I just think younger people would like the love at first sight and the weird symbolism better, then older teens.

"The Dead tree gave a groan, with a great crack, the blackened bark split open. A great trembling seized the tree's every limb, and then the bark peeled back like the skin of an onion. Revealing strong new bark beneath, glimmering pale and fresh."

That is an example of the weird symbolism that I was talking about. And I only call it symbolism because I don't know what else to call it. And passages like that are all over this book, which is why I think younger people would like this book better than older people. And it is also the reason I called the book silly. I just couldn't take this plot seriously, even with all the great points it was making, because of how they are told like that passage up there. And there really was great massages in this book, massages about death, grief, anger, finding who you are, growing up, and mourning. But I couldn't keep a straight pace because of how the symbolism plays out.

Overall, I didn't like this book, even though there was one or two enjoyable aspects in it. I just felt like it wasn't my kind of book as it was just a little to silly for me, even for a "feel good" book. But if you are younger or you like those kind of books, I think you would like this a lot more than I did.

This book got...

2 Butterflies

Boring, not really my kind of book.

Happy reading