Book Lovers Inc.
Romance Novel Reviews, Author Interviews, Commentary
Review: Midnight Pearls by Debbie Viguie
Filed in 3 Stars , Debbie Viguie , Review , The Winged Lover Posted on August 11, 2010 @ 6:00 am
4 comments
Format Read: Paperback
Number of Pages: 198
Release Date: 24 October 2006
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Formats Available: Paperback
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, BookDepository US, BookDepository UK, Amazon
Book Blurb:
In a quiet fishing village, one lone fisherman rescued a child from the sea seventeen years ago. He and his wife raised the girl, Pearl, as their own daughter, never allowing themselves to wonder long about where she came from — or notice her silver hair, usually pale skin, and wide, dark blue eyes.
Pearl grows from a mysterious child into an unusual young woman, not always welcomed in the village. As all the other girls her age find husbands, she has only one friend to ease her loneliness. One very special, secret companion: Prince James.
But their friendship is shaken when trouble erupts in the kingdom — a conspiracy against the royal family combines with an evil enchantment from beneath the sea. Now, just when Pearl and James need each other most, bewitching magic and hints about Pearl’s past threaten to tear them apart…forever.
My Thoughts:
The Little Mermaid is one of my favourite fairytales and Midnight Pearls did it justice in its own way.
Pearl was found at sea by her father when she was five years old; she always knew she was different based purely on her looks and her troubles with walking. Not many people have silver-blue hair and trip over absolutely everything.
It has been hard for Pearl, growing up shunned by most and gawked at by the rest. The only person who doesn’t treat her differently is Prince James, her best friend. Their friendship developed at a young age but always kept a secret.
The friendship is tested though with the arrival of Kaye. Kaye is the real Little Mermaid, being the woman who traded her tail for legs after falling in love with the prince. This devastates Pearl at first because she is starting to fall in love with him.
Midnight Pearls tells the story from the land dwellers point of view instead of the mer-peoples. A lot of people think that Pearl is the Little Mermaid but it is clear about a third of the way through that she isn’t. She is an extra character that was turned into a main. Friend to the Prince who falls in love with a mermaid who saves his life.
The story is what sticks in my mind when it comes to Midnight Pearls; the characters are just blips of info dumps. It is interesting reading The Little Mermaid from a completely different view, and the story is definitely engaging.
What detract the most from Midnight Pearls though is the drawn out beginning and the lightning fast finish. We spent half the book on Pearl and her problems and the last quarter on the actual Little Mermaid story. Everything happens so quickly that it leaves you definitely wanting more, but not in the best of ways.
Midnight Pearls is a very quick read and a nice fresh perspective on a classic. Nice and light, good for a beach read, if you feel like having mermaid fantasies for the rest of the day.
I give Midnight Pearls 3 out of 5 Bookies
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review. All our links to the online bookstores are affiliate links. The money earned with these accounts is spent on books for contest exclusively. FYI I bought this book with my own funds.
Share This Post
Subscribe and stay up-to-date
4 Comments
Join the Discussion
Previous Post
« 13 to Life by Shannon Delany Next Post
All YA Love: My Favourite YA Couples + a winner »
« 13 to Life by Shannon Delany Next Post
All YA Love: My Favourite YA Couples + a winner »
Our Sponsors
Our Giveaways
Unfortunately Google Friend Connect will stop working for non Blogger blogs at the start of March.
To stay up-to-date use one of the other options above to subscribe to the newest Book Lovers Inc. action.Thank you!
| |||||||||
| 5 Stars: Perfect! I Love It! | |||||||||
| 4 Stars: Awesome Book! | |||||||||
| 3 Stars: I Liked It! | |||||||||
| 2 Stars: Not bad, but maybe not for me. | |||||||||
| 1 Star: Didn't like it! Did Not Finish it. | |||||||||
 | | | | | |||||
Blog RSS Feed
Follow Me on Twitter
My Facebook
Oh wow! I read this book way back then when it first came out. It was good from what I can remember.
This series that a selection of authors did in retelling fairy tales was pretty good. It's still going I think, or was going even farther still even after I stopped reading them.
Other good ones were Snow by Tracy Lynn I think and then there was…Red Moon?? I can't remember what the title was, but it was a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood basically and I can't remember the author either, but still it was good. A very different spin on Little Red.
Still my all time fave was Snow. Read that one like 3 or 4 times!
This isn't the kind of book I normally read, but I did read a book a few years ago that was based on Peter Pan (it was called "The Lost Girls") and it was also the kind of book that I don't normally read. But I really enjoyed it, so perhaps I would like this book too. I'll have to add it to my to-read list.
Thanks for the review!
Now I'm wondering if this retelling of The Little Mermaid leans more towards the original (with the creepy gothic torture) or disney (with the happy-go-lucky-capitlaism) version.
@Jessica: I will admit…the various authors in this series are really hard for me to remember. I also have the retelling of the frog prince sitting on one of my TBR piles, and i might pick up snow later (i loved snow white as a kid)
@Angie: I LOVE peter pan! i might check that out. Midnight pearls is definitely good for a quick read. it only took me a couple of hours, so it might be worth a try if you need to fill in time 🙂
@draconismoi: this is kind of in the middle. it is defintely NOT disney, but it's not dark either. i love the original, but this was definitely not creepy, gothic or torturous.