Review: Spellbound

Spellbound

By

Dorian Tsukioka

ASIN: B01BTQX96U
Copyright 2016 by Dorian Tsukioka
130 Pages

In Spellbound, the author has taken two classic fairy-tales, combined into a historical setting
about which archaeological information is vague creating a fairy-tale all her own.

It has all of the accouterments of a classic fairy-tale; a beautiful peasant girl, a wicked, jealous queen, a devious sorcerer, a son to inherit the kingdom, a large, but decreasing number of legitimate gods and goddesses, and evil demon, plenty of monsters to guard things, a deadline to meet and, oh yes, did I mention a handsome potential lover that helps save the day! It even holds a suggestion of ‘happily ever after’. All together, it offers a little something for everyone in the fairy-tale world.

When Aniya’s father gambles and loses to Rahotep, the High Priest and Vizier of Egypt and promoter of the one god, Aten, she is thrust into slavery as a weaver of papyrus. Thus begin her supernatural journey into fame, fortune and the underworld, meeting goods, goddesses and learning to wield magic of her own in order to save her son and Egypt from the plots of the Vizier and the wicked Queen, Nephertiti.

Aniya is a strong character, although she quakes in fear on the inside, she does what she must do to
save those who are depending upon her. Nehi is a strong character who after changing his mind about
Aniya, defies Rahotep at every turn even though Rahotep literally controls every move he makes and
every breath he takes. Nephertiti is the stereotype evil queen who even has her own version of a magic mirror to foretell the future. Like the magic mirror in Snow White, it does not mind telling her pointedly when she is losing ground to a rival.

Even though I normally do not dabble in fair-tales, I found Spellbound to be an entertaining change of pace and smiling at times. It’s refreshing to see the old themes in new setting although their plots are as predictable as the passage of time. Spellbound is well written and generally well edited but suffers from a (very) few wrong words and misspellings missed in proofreading. However, they were minor glitches, surprising rather than distracting.

Spellbound should appeal to anyone looking for a quick read that is a fresh change of pace.

5-Stars,
Clabe Polk