Book Review: The Enchanted Sonata

Guess what? I'm going to be at LTUE this year!

I'm so excited! I'll be on 4 panels: Creating Realistic Friendships (10 am Th), Steps to Stronger Middle Grade Stories (4 pm Th), Writing Different Types of Love (10 am F), and Adventure Stories: How to Write Fun (5 pm F). So come see me if you can! Or just come; it's a good conference and I'm so thrilled and honored to be part of it this year.

Well, beyond that, it's been an eventful holiday for me. My family went to Disney World over Christmas, and it was a good time. Busy, both in terms of schedule and in terms of the sheer number of people in the parks (they capped Magic Kingdom by 11 am on Christmas Eve, but we were already inside), but very good.

Highlights include getting stuck on Rockin' Roller Coaster and seeing the ride with the lights on, the light show on the Tower of Terror on Christmas, the Pandora: Flight of Passage ride at Animal Kingdom (an immersive ride that I thought was worth the 2 1/2 hours we waited for it) and the cookie stroll at Epcot. And me being (still) the only member of my family that can stomach the orange mission on Mission: Space.

THE IRON STOMACH CANNOT BE DEFEATED!

Naturally, I had a lot of other great moments, but I want to keep this short. I had a great time, and I got a blanket to remember the trip by! I also learned that Disney handles its crowds a bit better than Universal Studios, but I still enjoyed going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

And, of course, we had Christmas over the break. We celebrated ours late, which threw off my timing groove for the vacation (New Year's seemed to come too fast). For Christmas, I gave my sister a book, The Enchanted Sonata by Heather Dixon Wallwork. And, after she read it, she magnanimously allowed me to read it next.

I've read this author's books before and really liked them, and this one was no exception. It's a fun, magical Christmas tale, based on the story of the Nutcracker as well as the Pied Piper, with some elements of The Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast thrown in. The story is about Clara, a talented pianist, who gets wrapped up in this magical world ruled by Prince Nikolai. When a piper with magical music comes and uses his music to turn children into toys, the prince sees a chance to prove himself and also faces danger to himself and his kingdom. He and Clara work together to save his kingdom, each of them growing in the process.

Oh, look. Just read the summary on the Amazon page here.

I don't want to go too into detail on story. You know these fairy tales already, and some of the joy, for me, was in seeing how they intertwined. I found myself wishing this was the Nutcracker story Disney chose to make into a movie instead of the tale they gave us recently. It was charming and Christmassy, keeping the whimsical feel of the ballet while still layering in enough darkness and danger to keep me engaged in the story.

Clara is a likeable, relatable protagonist, and her ability on a piano was described beautifully enough to make me wish the book came with a soundtrack. As for Nikolai, he's a huge dork. And I love him. I should also spare a mention for the Abbey of Indomitable Sisters, but really, you should see them for yourself.

The book does have some glaring grammatical errors, but they're few, and they don't distract too much from the story. As for the story, it's fun. It was the perfect book to read over Christmas break. I won't call it the deepest literature, but it was still enough to get my ankles wet, and it was like reading candy, or a magic spell. Which was exactly what I wanted.

(It also inspired me to try a new truffle recipe, so I expect you'll be hearing about that later.)

Final word: I recommend this as a casual read, when you want something enchanting. The title is not false advertising.

And here's the book trailer, for your enjoyment.

Until next week, and I hope to see you at LTUE this February!