Twice Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris Release Date: Buy it Today Harcourt Children’s Books Ratings Action Romance Characters Overall Purchase on Amazon. Purchase at Powell’s. Find independent bookstores.

Once Upon a Marigold, the awful Queen Olympia fell in the river and was rushed out of her family’s lives, much to their relief. Now though, she’s back. After spending a year with amnesia and a far more pleasant personality, she’s regained her memory and wants her kingdom back.

Christian, Marigold, and everyone else, on the other hand, are quite happy with the lives they’ve been living in their happily ever afters, and they’re ready to use any (non-lethal) means necessary to be rid of Olympia once and for all.

This is a sequel that didn’t really need to be written. The author has mentioned that she didn’t intend to write a sequel, but people kept asking about it. Really, the first book ends so nicely, even with the mention of Olympia still being alive, that this book just doesn’t fit together very well. All while reading it, I felt like it was rather forced, the author trying to come up with what to do next but not really knowing how to make it unique. All the elements that seemed fun and clever in the last book, like p-mail, were overdone in this one, making the book feel far too modern. With p-mail (pigeon mail), that was a clever taking of a modern element and reinventing it into a fantasy world. In this book, however, things were far more obvious, like inventing business cards.

Another thing about the book was that it was very slow because there was no real sense of danger. The world that Chris and Marigold live in is so extremely non-lethal, there was no real threat. Sure, Olympia wanted to kill King Swinberth, but as a reader I never believed for a second that it might happen. The last book already proved that nothing bad was going to happen to anyone. And even in the end Olympia doesn’t really get her comeuppance. And the sudden appearance of Santa Claus and modern languages (one of the characters is obsessed with languages and mentions pretty much every modern country)? No idea where that came from. I just felt there was a severe lack of focus in this book.

Still, if you enjoyed Once Upon a Marigold, you should give this one a try as you get to learn more about the characters and see how their lives turn out. But the value is almost more like that of fan fiction–a further journey into the lives of characters we love, but without a lot of real plot and story. More an additional piece than a whole story on its own.

One last thing that bugs me is the cover of the book. My copy’s an ARC, but the cover hasn’t changed. What bugs me is that every time I look at it, it looks like something got spilled on it. There seems to be some kind of muddy Photoshop effect across the cover. I’m not sure what the cover designer was thinking, since the rest of the cover looks nice and fits with the last one.

Ratings Reasons:
Action 3 - I didn’t feel like a whole lot actually happened in the book. Sure there where events, but nothing really changed from beginning to end.

Romance 3 - Eh, the romance was about average. I liked how the author tried to emphasize that all relationships have difficulties, but I felt it was a bit overdone by the end.

Characters 4 - The characters are very enjoyable, filled with quirks and personality. This book also goes into more depth about many of the minor characters in the first one.

Overall 3 - Not a bad read if you enjoyed the first book, but I don’t think you’re missing a whole lot if you don’t get around to it for a while.

Extras:
If you enjoyed the first book, Once Upon a Marigold, I’d also recommend the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede. The Frog Princess by E. D. Baker is also in a similar humorous fairytale style. Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst might also be right up your alley.

Parents: 10+ Appropriate for any age.

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