The Sweetest Spell

I had a feeling when I first read the summary for this novel a couple of weeks ago that it wouldn't exactly have a believable factor. I mean, a girl who can churn cream into chocolate? That's as unbelievable as it gets. But I thought that the story would be interesting and maybe some sort of spin on the Rumpelstiltskin story. However, apparently this story is supposed to be a retelling of The Ugly Duckling fairy tale. I didn't really see that though. It was kind of shown in a way but not exactly to the extent of the fairy tale.

the synopsis of the book...
Emmeline is a member of division of a mythical kingdom that has been cast out by the rest of it's members due to history and prejudice (they are marked by their red hair and called "dirt-scratchers"), then she in turn has been cast out of her society for not dying when her dad left her in the woods to die because she has a physical disability. However, some cows surround her and he decides to take her back. Everything changes the day that the royal soldiers come to her village and take all the unmarried men away for a way during the annual husband market (a dirt-scratcher tradition that auctions off eligible men in the community for the women to bid on). After the men are forced into service, the village floods and Emmeline's favorite cow dies, but not before bestowing a gift upon her.

Emmeline washes up in Normal-Citizens Land by a dairy boy who finds one of his cows guarding over her as she lays passed out on the shore. He and his family takes her in and she is revealed to be beautiful and the dairy boy, Owen, who of course is a lady's man, finds himself enthralled by her. While showing her around, Emmeline accidently brews a bucket of chocolate that Owen's family tells everyone in town about.
Before Owen and Emmeline ever have any real substantial conversation that can function as the basis of a relationship, Emmeline is kidnapped by someone wanting to exploit his gift for his own selfish reasons. Owen gets stabbed, Emmeline believes he's dead and gets carried off and eventually ends up serving the king and queen. Owen goes after her despite his doctor's orders but ends up getting thrown in jail and sentenced to mining, Les Mis style. It turns out that everyone stolen from Emmeline's village including her dad, was forced into slavery to mine gold for the king and queen who have been imposing ridiculous taxes (there's even a tax on water) on their kingdom and that's where Owen ends up.

In the beginning of the novel, Owen read Emmeline the story behind why her and her people were exiled in the first place and I was sure from the moment I heard it, that the history was fake. And as it turned out, I was right. The current queen and her son (who is a homosexual) are Flatlanders/dirt-scratchers who dye their hair. If anything the real history seemed like a combination of the European history between Native Americans and African Americans. But with chocolate.

In the end, Emmeline discovers Owen's alive and they declare their love for each other, she and the prince run his parents out of the kingdom and she teaches other women from her village how to make chocolate and the story ends happily ever after.

how i felt about it...
The love story in this book really bothered me. First off, Emmeline and Owen probably only got a few days if even two weeks with each other before being separated for God knows how long. But by the time they meet up with each other again, they've supposedly fallen in love. How? There was nothing in the novel that convinced me of their genuine feelings for each other, other than Owen commenting on Emmeline smiling at him more-then she gets kidnapped! They never talked about anything really. They didn't have anything in common and it literally was not until the last chapter in the book that was in Owen's POV that he stopped referring to her people by the derogatory term "dirt-scratcher" (I think this name is a reference to farmers). What kind of guy who loves a woman of a oppressed group of people, insists on calling that group by the worst name for them possible? Like I said, I'm so not convinced.

Another thing I hated was the switching of point of view between Emmeline and Owen. You could tell they were written by the same person and the author didn't label the chapters by the person speaking. It was really confusing.

Another thing that bothered me was some of the writing and terminology. At several points in the novel, Emmeline and Owen refer to the most attractive guy in her village as "the most popular guy in the Flatlands". Number One, who says that during the time of kingdoms?And Number Two, what GUY says that either?
Also the story about the cow queen who first bestowed the gift of chocolate-churning bothered me.
The scene in which the prince and Emmeline team up so that they can get rid of his money and chocolate hungry parents seems so silly and 100% unbelievable.

overall...
Although I thought this was a interesting concept, I felt like the plot and the writing could have been wayyy better. The different character POV's should've been labeled with names, the characters could've been fleshed out more because they all seemed like cardboard cutouts. You know, the ones that have another piece in the back that holds them up. It was like the author tried to make her characters more three-dimensional but failed.