A Tale Of Two Castles, Book Review

Mysteries abound, especially in Two Castles.

A handsome cat trainer, black-and-white cats, thieves on four legs and two, suspicious townsfolk, a greedy king, a giddy princess, a shape-shifting ogre, a brilliant dragon. Which is the villainous whited sepulcher?

Elodie journeys to the town of Two Castles to become a mansioner—an actress—but luck is against her. She is saved from starvation by the dragon Meenore, who sends her on a dangerous mission inside the ogre's castle. There, disguised as a kitchen maid at an ogre's feast, she finds herself cast in the role of a lifetime and pitted against a foe intent on murder.

Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine weaves an entrancing tale of a fearsome ogre, a dragon detective, and a remarkable heroine, who finds friendship where she least expects it, learns that there are many ways to mansion, and discovers that goodness and evil come in all shapes and sizes.


A Tale Of Two Castles by Gail Carson Levine
ebook, 336 pages
Published May 2011 by HarperCollins Publishers

REVIEW:
I would describe A Tale Of Two Castles as cute fantasy book. More like a fairytale with mystery, i would tell to my children. 
 
I haven't read any of the other books of Gail Carson Levine (i have watch Ella Enchanted Movie though) though it took me some time to get used to her writing style. She combined knows to us fantasy creatures and her ideas of them and created fast paced fantasy story. Little naive at times.

It was one of those books, that our hero/heroine are not one of my favorite characters. In fact, Elodie didn't really speak to me. You may already know, that i'm a little picky with ages and i couldn't used to the freedom she had for her age. Plus, who want to leave a dragon for acting? Well, that just doesn't make sense to me. I disliked her for that but that's clearly because i love dragons.
Favorite to follow characters were the ogre and the dragon. The dragon was the fearsome but at the same time clever and kind dragon. People who didn't know him, they were afraid of him. As for the ogre, he was a character misunderstood from the world cause of his family's past. But he was so different that was one of the most interesting characters as of his ideas and actions towards the people who didn't like them.

What really kept me reading though was the mystery. It was actually really good, with small surprises now and then, and i totally guessed wrong. There were hints that Elodie was following and almost felt like a game to me, but you couldn't really see what will happen in the end. And along, with descriptions of the kingdom (which reminded me a Disney city) made a story really unique. 

Again, was a nice change of what i usually read. Something simple but entertaining and i'm thinking to try the rest of Gail Carson Levine books starting by Ella Enchanted.

View also A Tale of Two Castles Review by Small Review.

Thanks Netgalley and HarperCollings publishers for a digital copy of the book.