My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Melanie’s step dad, Lionel, is a bullying, abusive, real-estate developer who’s more than willing to stoop to intimidation and violence to get what he wants. Fearing for her and her mother’s safety, Melanie begins investigating his shady dealings, looking for enough evidence to force him to stay away.
Esmerelda is a fairy Godmother, with two main jobs; to keep Rumpelstilskin from violating his parole, and to ensure that Melanie falls in love with with her frog prince, Gabriel, to ensure the fairy tale plays out as is required.
Cole is an undercover police officer, trying to get close to Lionel to gain enough evidence of criminal activity to put him in jail. When he bumps into Melanie, a mutual attraction develops, but it’s built on a lie, and may not last. Even so, it’s enough to risk interfering with the fairy tale, and risk Melanie’s happily ever after.
I enjoyed Enamoured, although I found it rather short – it felt more like a novella than a novel. Curtis has attempted to blend a traditional Frog Prince fairytale with a modern day detective investigation, which is an interesting combination. I’m not entirely sure she’s pulled it off successfully, but definite credit for the idea and implementation.
The story is well written and most of the characters are interesting, although I found the Frog Prince, to be somewhat superfluous, which meant both his scenes and the fairytale storyline lacked a certain realism or gravitas, and felt more like some slightly off centre comic relief.
Melanie was a good protagonist, and it was nice to see her written as a competent character with independence and determination, not a helpless heroine waiting for her prince.
The plot is nice and simple – Melanie wants to find some evidence to force Lionel Lowry away from her and her mum, while Cole wants to find some evidence to put Lionel in jail. Being a novella, rather than a novel, I did find the plot resolved a bit too quickly, but it did finish with a lovely climactic scene.
All up, if you want a quick read of a modern day detective story blended with a traditional fairytale, then you may well enjoy this, and I’d suggest giving it a try.
prk.
Disclaimer: Whilst I read this as a judge for the 2013 Aurealis Awards, this review is my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging co-ordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team.
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