The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson

The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book was my first Kindle e-book purchase and I anxiously dived in after hearing many good things about it.

Rose is a young woman who is apprenticing under the town healer. Rose, however, does not like blood and cannot stand the smells associated with illness. What else is there for this young woodcutter's daughter to do?

Lord Hamlin has long been betrothed (since the age of 5 actually) to Lady Salomea. He's never met her because she's in hiding from the evil Moncure. Setting his sights on Rose gives him a bit of challenge though. Can he possibly be faithful to his betrothed or will his brother Lord Rupert win Rose's favor?

This is a spin-off so to speak of the story of Sleeping Beauty, only with a few twists. It is a good story but I did feel that the characters were lacking a bit. I wasn't really connected to any one character and became slightly bored with the story in the middle. It did pick up and had a very predictable ending that I figured out around the middle of the book. I do think young girls (8+) will enjoy this book as it gives hope for the fairytale ending.

I appreciate the author's note about how she came about developing this story and how she strived to keep to keep this book as historically accurate as possible. She is honest about a couple of areas where she knows she struggled in doing so.

I would have to say that the most discouraging thing to me about this book is that I never got a clear picture of what the characters looked like. I kept asking myself what each one would look like if I were to jump in the book and see them.

I do recommend this book and believe that the younger set will have a larger appreciation for this book!



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