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When I was in college, my RA offered some valuable advice to her floor full of boy-crazy freshmen: you can’t expect someone else to love you unless you first learn to love yourself. And it’s a similar message that author Kym Petrie imparts in her short modern-day fairy tale, The Enchanted Truth.
This isn’t the same old story about a beautiful princess who gets swept off her feet by a handsome prince. Instead, it tells of a lonely young princess who finds herself dating one loser of a prince after another. When her fairy godmother shows up at her window, the princess is thrilled to get a little bit of magical assistance—but she doesn’t get the kind of help that she expects. Instead, she gets a word of advice and an ugly toy frog, both of which she quickly tosses aside in disgust.
As the princess continues to meet princes who are less than charming, though, she decides to give the fairy godmother’s advice a try—and she soon learns an important lesson about life and love.
Any woman who’s ever struggled to find her Prince Charming—and who’s kissed a whole lot of frogs in the process—will smile at the story of this poor young woman and her misguided quest for coupledom. After all, we’ve all been there: repeatedly falling head over heels for the wrong guys and wondering why it never works out.
Written for a similarly heartbroken friend, Petrie’s super-short, 40-page gift book offers a refreshing new twist on the same old story of princes and princesses and wand-waving fairy godmothers. The tone is light and playful, and the story is written in perfect (albeit tongue-in-cheek) fairy tale fashion, swiftly paced to make it the kind of book that you can read over and over again—whenever you need another reminder that there’s so much more to life than handsome princes.
Petrie’s style, however, is sometimes distracting. She attempts to add touches of clever humor to the story through her repeated use of silly descriptors (“bedazzled tutor,” “zealous zenith,” etc.). But although the gimmick is cute for a while, the ultimate effect is more annoying than amusing—and you might find yourself wishing that she’d set her thesaurus aside and get on with it already.
In the end, though, the important message far outweighs a few irritating little quirks. The Enchanted Truth is the kind of book that you’ll want to buy by the case, to give as gifts to all of your struggling singleton friends. Paired with a nice bottle of wine and a night out with the girls, it’s the perfect cure for a broken heart.
