The Silver Rings Book Review

The Silver Rings

Samuel Valentino

Rating (out of 5): 4.5

Genre: Children's Fantasy

Release Date: July 1, 2014

Series: None

Series Volume: N/A

Profanity: None

Violence: Very Mild

Sexual Content: None

Age Recommendation: 10+

Author Website: http://www.samuelvalentino.com/



Summary:

Alice and Celia are identical — as twins, and as the recipients of ghastly treatment from their horrid stepmother and stepsisters. To escape, they flee to their fairy godmother Mozzarella’s house. There, Mozzarella advises them to separate and make their way in the world, offering them the rather dubious assurances of troll skin disguises and silver, somewhat magical, rings.

Alice manages to find an abandoned cave of treasure, and settles in to blissful solitude. Celia, on the other hand, runs afoul of a bad-tempered witch, and is promptly turned into a frog. Informed by her magic ring of Celia’s peril, but not her whereabouts, Alice sets out to rescue her. Instead, she finds herself atop a glass mountain, avoiding the love-struck Prince Randall. With Alice’s quest at a standstill, and Celia still enchanted, will the sisters ever realize the high hopes that their godmother envisioned?

Review:

The Silver Rings caught my attention with it's fairy tale mash up plot and adorable cover, so naturally I was excited to start it. After reading the first few chapters of The Silver Rings I wanted to hate it. The whole thing seemed too over the top for me. I was expecting it to be a little ridiculous from the book's summary but what I was given was almost overwhelming. Thankfully I stuck it out to the end and was pleasantly surprised by the delightful story, hilarious characters, and silly hijinks of the plot. The writing style really grew on me, and I found myself looking forward to the next wild thing to happen.

This book tells the story of twin sisters who, despite their evil step mother's intentions, are bright and optimistic. Upon the most recent failure of one of their stepmother's many schemes to get rid of them they finally decide to leave home and seek their fortune's elsewhere. The story is every fairy tale you've heard and more with it's delightful mash up of characters and altered stories.

The Silver Rings is a hilarious story that teaches some surprising lessons along the way. Both children and adults will enjoy Alice and Celia's adventures. The author's refreshing views on love at first sight and perseverance remind us all that things don't always go the way we've been taught. This story is a wonderful introduction into fairy tales and adventure stories for girls and despite the situations that could come across as dark the stories atmosphere and the girls reactions to each situation keep it from getting too serious. 

I said earlier that I wanted to hate the book for it's almost overwhelming amount of zany situations, which at first did seem overwhelming. But the more I read the more I actually enjoyed it. It's just the sort of thing I use to read and write when I was younger and I think that kids would really enjoy it. Alice and Celia's awareness of the world around them adds just enough sanity that readers will stay grounded even when everything else is going haywire. 

The characters are well written and stay true to themselves through the plots progression. I found myself really growing to like each of the characters in the book from the over zelous Randall to the tale-telling fox, Rant. Each one had their own silly charms and added to the story. Rant was probably my favorite character because despite his outrageous stories he was a loyal friend who could make the best of any situation. 

Overall The Silver Rings was a delightfuly silly story with good lessons and fun illustrations. I'd recommend this to anyone wanting a good read and a laugh. I am very glad that I decided to finish this book. 

Note: I received an electronic copy of this book from Netgalley for my fair and honest opinion as I have stated above. 

~Dawn