4.5 stars.
There’s a lot to unpack here. This book is just everything. EVERYTHING I WANT IN A STORY AND MORE. First; y’all, this ain’t a drill. WE HAVE CHILDHOOD BEST FRIENDS TO SWEETHEARTS BE STILL MY HEART. I don’t know if I’ve ever flailed about this but I FREAKING LOVE CHILDHOOD BEST FRIENDS TURNED SWEETHEARTS. Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes ALL OF THE YES.
This book has SO MUCH going on and I loved that! There was never a dull moment. We started out the book with Aladdin as a child and then we steadily went through his life, stopping for key moments, etc. I think that it’s a strong story, but I did find the retelling part a little lacking, just because it’s got Aladdin’s name in there and everything but I didn’t feel like it had much else in there from the story. However, I have only seen the Disney movie and I am by no means an expert on the original story, so this probably wasn’t retold from the Disney movie which would make much more sense.
I am going to put heavy content warnings here though. This is an adorable romance and I really loved it but there is some content you should know about. I will talk a little about this, but will also add trigger warnings to the bottom of this review.
This book largely focuses around Kirstyn being kidnapped. When I first got to that part in the book I rolled my eyes. Kidnapping plotlines are not new to the romance genre, especially historical and fantasy, this book being the former. But I was honestly pleasantly surprised by this book. Don’t disregard it for this storyline, perhaps even read it for it. The reason is simple. Most kidnappings in the romance and historical and fantasy genres are used, to put it simply, as plot devices. They usually happen to speed the story, but leave no lasting effects.
Y’all, if you were kidnapped, you would have some SERIOUS issues afterwards, including but not limited to, sometimes a form of PTSD, nightmares, depression, and it can cause serious mental health issues. What really won this book for me was that, rather than brushing off the kidnapping once it was over, Melanie met the issues head on, brought them into the story in a positive way.
I will say, it does feel a little like it was leaning towards “love of life solves all mental health issues”, and I did find that a little problematic. It’s not addressed how Kirstyn deals with these issues after the fact, just that they’re there. I did have some trouble with that, as it’s important to know, and I was really hoping they’d be dealt with in the story so we could have a view into how they handled the mental issues in historical times. It was slightly thrown over for the overarching romance plotline, which was understandable. But I think we could have had an extra 50-100 pages to deal with it, because it’s important to discuss mental health issues, especially in YA fiction.
That seemed a little negative, but I promise it isn’t! I really did love this book. I think it’s important to deal with mental health issues, even in historical romances, and this book does feature them. I think that’s great, but we still have a long way to go :)
This book is so well written and it absolutely pulls you in from the first page. It speaks to Melanie’s amazing writing abilities, clearly honed from years of writing and publishing amazing stories. I loved how she approached everything, and this is one of her more complicated stories yet she pulled it together effortlessly into a spellbinding story.
I also highly recommend listening to the Swan Princess soundtrack while reading this, mostly the end credits song or For as Long as Forever or the Other Side from the Greatest Showman because I just had those on repeat the whole book and it was perfect! But that could just be me.
I loved how Aladdin worked and worked and brought himself up from the streets to what he became in the end, not someone inhibited by his scars but rather propelled by them. He was such a strong character.
And of course I loved all the cameos from our beloved previous Hagenheim heroes and heroines! I love this series and the stories in it. You’d think after so many stories Melanie would have run out of things to add but with each one the stories and characters are so much richer and it creates a wonderful experience.
Overall, this is an amazing story with an adorable romance, but it also deals with more serious issues to create something worth reading, and worth loving.
TW: abuse(emotional and physical), kidnapping, ptsd, captivity
(that’s what I can currently remember, but if there’s more, comment them below and I’ll add them!)