Violet Eyes by Debbie Viguié

Target Audience: Teens/Young Adults

Genre: Fantasy/Romance

As i'm sure i've said before, i love a good fairy tale re-telling especially ones that totally twist the nonsense out of a fairy tale and make it a little bit more wholesome as opposed to just stupid.

Considering the original version of this tale, in which a princess was able to feel a pea under lots of mattresses, i found the pea/mattress part in this book to be much better.

Although the elements are the same (there's princesses, a prince and tests involving various things including a pea!) but the rest is completely different. The princesses are tested but not on the aspects that, as the reader, i originally thought and it quickly becomes obvious that Prince Richard's parents are up to something.

When that something is finally revealed i was left pleasantly surprised, which makes a change in a re-telling.

The love story itself is no mystery as it's obvious from the beginning that Violet and Richard love one another despite the fact she has to endure all sorts of annoyance to win her true love. This, for me anyway, allowed for other aspects of the story to come to the front such as the mystery of the tests, the other princesses back stories and Violet's past, things that in most fairy tales wouldn't even be glanced at.


The characters are truly wonderful, quite a few of which are given amazing depth and backstory. Some of the princesses were simply awesome and i couldn't help but feel for Goldie in particular. It's a wonderful different take on the 'perfect' world of a princess.  I mean how annoying would it be if someone didn't even want you brushing your own hair?

Richard sounded perfect, and you know it's love when a guy sends notes via his pet dog (so cute by the way!).
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and i will definately be checking out more of Debbie Viguié's work in the future.