Book Synopsis:
Henry and Violet finally have a chance to be alone. Granted, it's on a school field trip, but with some clever planning and strategic maneuvering, they can orchestrate their own adventure in New York City, a fairytale land in its own right.
While they search for a treasured item that once belonged to Violet's father, they are met with obstacles they could never have predicted. What they thought would be a romantic getaway ends up being a true test of their relationship.
Are they destined for a happily ever after - or a new story altogether?
My Review:
3.25/5 stars. I wanted to like this book, I really did. I’m a huge fan of the Once Upon a Time show, so I was excited to have some more material for it. I was hoping this book would be like an extension of the show, but it just didn’t do that for me.
I thought this book would be like a really good fanfiction, but it wasn't like that at all. It just feels like a story with characters that happen to have the same name as the characters from the TV show. All of the characters, except for maybe Emma, feel out-of-character and nothing like the characters I know and love from OUAT. The way that they talk isn't at all like what they would sound like in the show.
Similarly, most of the dialogue is boring and sounds exactly the same, no matter who's saying it. It's very flat and usually just a character describing what something they're doing or what they see. It's like "I'm doing this", or "That looks like this thing" or "Hey, what's up?". It's not interesting at all. No one really has a unique voice, which is especially bad because the characters are already established who have unique personalities.
The whole book had way too much "tell" and not enough "show" and overly described simple things. Rather than letting us imagine how the characters were feeling, the author just flat-out told us. Every detail of the characters' actions was over-explained, as if the readers can't jump to basic conclusions to know what was happening. At one point, a character thought about what something they saw in the distance was, then literally spoke that thought we had just read out loud. It got very repetitive and dull.
In general, the plot of this book doesn't feel like an OUAT story. The whole thing takes place in a real-life city, and there are things that were never part of the TV show at all. Since when were there so many kids Henry's age, that was a big part of his character early on. I also never thought the school in Storybrooke was like a normal high school - with electives and out-of-state field trips - or that there even was a Storybrooke High or Storybrooke College. Everything just felt way too modern, which took away a lot of the charm of Once Upon a Time and the town they live in. The book even mentions properties like Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz, only as movies in the real world, completely ignoring the fact that those are actual realms that exist in the Once Upon a Time world.
The whole book was just one conflict, stretched out over the course of two days. The conflict didn't feel impactful at all; it was supposed to be this big thing Violet was doing to help out her dad who was sad all the time, but the book never showed any of Violet's relationship with her dad or how this affected him. I also felt that they were never in any real danger or problems. Any new problem they ran into was resolved almost immediately. They somehow figured out the solution in really dumb, quick ways that felt forced. Because of this, there was no element of suspense or mystery. The plot, especially the ending, was also very predictable at times. Something would happen and I would think about what the next problem that arose would be, which was right a lot of the time.
Another big conflict in this story was the relationship between Henry and Violet. I didn't feel any emotional impact over their drifting feelings for each other because there wasn't enough chemistry built up or cute moments between them to make me invested in their relationship. I thought they were cute on the TV show and wanted to see more of them together, which was why I was interested in this book, but it didn't give me that.
Enough about the stuff I disliked, I'll talk about the things I liked about this book. I liked that it showed us what happened between Henry and Violet between seasons 6 and 7 of Once Upon a Time. It gave closure to their relationship in a way that still kind of fit into the canon of the series. When I watched season 7 of OUAT, I wondered what happened to Violet, so this book gives a nice explanation for that in a way that's realistic.
I also liked the message of the book about growing apart as you get older and move on with your lives, that you can still love someone but not end up with them for the rest of your life. That's a very realistic thing that happens with teenage relationships, and this book presented it well. As much as I love reading about high school sweethearts who stay together their whole lives, I know that doesn't always happen.
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