Review: The Kiss That Saved Her

Item: The Kiss That Saved Her
Rating: 4
Author: Amanda Marie

Posted February 12, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments

The Kiss That Saved Her by E M McCarthy
(2015)
eARC (280 pages)
Via: Author
Rating:
Reading Challenges: 2015 Alphabet Soup, 2015 Fairytale Retelling, Read 2015

Synopsis

Princess Joanna is expected to marry to protect her kingdom from the threat of war but she loves David, a common man. She will only marry if she loves her husband. Her dearest friend, Prince Samuel, has loved her since he met her. Rumors swirl about Prince Samuel’s relationship with a princess whose country has had a major discovery of gold. Will there be a change of heart? Is there really such a thing as love at first sight?

Find the book: Goodreads

The overall plot was good. It is a retelling of Snow White. However, the story doesn’t stop with Snow White (Joanna) waking up. That is only about 40% in with the ebook. The story goes on to recount Joanna’s first year or so after she returns to the palace as the princess.

Joanna is a princess who flees when her stepmother tries to kill her. She hides out with a group of men, I almost want to call them misfits. They live in a cave and agree to take Joanna in even though they don’t know anything about her.

Joanna falls in love with a young man her own age, David, and ends up marrying him. But then the queen finds Joanna. She feeds Joanna a poisoned apple. David comes to save the day and kills the queen. He, however, dies because the queen managed to stuff some of the poisoned apple down his throat before she died.

After Joanna is awoken, she is crowned as Queen. There is some political stuff with neighboring countries/kingdoms and Joanna has to try to resolve all of this. Then there is Prince Samuel and Duke William.

Duke William seems to be a bit … shallow. He is not very consistent. First attacking Joanna’s kingdom and then apparently having feelings for her but not really because he calls it a game.

Prince Samuel I like a lot. He slowly lets his feelings grow and doesn’t always know how to act on them. In all, he is a sweet character.

I like the way marriage is portrayed in this book. It isn’t something for convenience. Marriage means something and Joanna knows that.

I really liked the way this book was written. The dialogue made each character distinct enough that I could tell them apart. It was a good retelling of Snow White.