Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Wildside Pr (1995), Edition: 1st, Hardcover, 92 pages
Description
A runaway princess and a poor young boy try to make a new life for themselves without revealing their pasts or the magical powers they possess.
User reviews
LibraryThing member exlibrisbitsy
A princess named Anastasia runs away from home and fakes her death to escape a marriage that is about to be forced upon her by her father the king. She finds herself in a run down hut and woefully unprepared for the life of an independent with no servants to wait upon her or skill to make up the
An Exchange of Gifts had all the makings of a really great novella, in my opinion: there was a great set-up, interesting plot, a back-story about magical Gifts and traditions, and characters that were engaging and well rounded. Unfortunately this novel was never really finished in my opinion. The book in its current form would have made a great rough first draft of said novella, but to publish it as it is, I think, took away a lot of what this book could have become if it had been fleshed out a little more.
I actually wanted to care about the characters and have a little more danger and a little more romance thrown into the mix, but as it was with the book so short there just wasn't any time for any development whatsoever. The romance that did make an appearance in the book came very late and was very rushed to the point of being unbelievable as there was almost no lead up to it. This was also true of the plot point about Gifts, everything we learned about them we learned as we went along with no discussion of them beforehand. So the big denouement involved an event that we didn't even know to anticipate or look forward to.
So, while a fun book to read for the 15-20 minutes you'll be reading it, I had to give it a low two stars. It just wasn't a fleshed out or finished novella in my opinion, and that made it all the more disappointing as it seemed to me that it really could have been with such a great set-up as was already present. The publisher should definitely not have published what was so obviously a rough first draft.
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lack. That’s when the boy Wisp stumbles into her life. A waif of a boy, he’s a runaway too and the two soon help each other to survive in the backwoods alone. Until the secrets they have kept from each other plunge them into danger and risk tearing them apart.An Exchange of Gifts had all the makings of a really great novella, in my opinion: there was a great set-up, interesting plot, a back-story about magical Gifts and traditions, and characters that were engaging and well rounded. Unfortunately this novel was never really finished in my opinion. The book in its current form would have made a great rough first draft of said novella, but to publish it as it is, I think, took away a lot of what this book could have become if it had been fleshed out a little more.
I actually wanted to care about the characters and have a little more danger and a little more romance thrown into the mix, but as it was with the book so short there just wasn't any time for any development whatsoever. The romance that did make an appearance in the book came very late and was very rushed to the point of being unbelievable as there was almost no lead up to it. This was also true of the plot point about Gifts, everything we learned about them we learned as we went along with no discussion of them beforehand. So the big denouement involved an event that we didn't even know to anticipate or look forward to.
So, while a fun book to read for the 15-20 minutes you'll be reading it, I had to give it a low two stars. It just wasn't a fleshed out or finished novella in my opinion, and that made it all the more disappointing as it seemed to me that it really could have been with such a great set-up as was already present. The publisher should definitely not have published what was so obviously a rough first draft.
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LibraryThing member IllanoyGal
Delightful story for children,especially little girls.
LibraryThing member SunnySD
Running away from home and setting up in an old charcoal maker's hut certainly didn't seem that difficult when she was planning her escape. But as Meanne quickly discovers, the simple life isn't an easy one. Luckily for her, four hands do better than two, and when her refuge is discovered by a
Written for her granddaughter to enjoy "when she's a tad older," this is a lovely example of why McCaffrey's books are so widely enjoyed.
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young boy fleeing troubles of his own, the pair make better progress. But Wisp has a secret of his own, and when he discovers what Meanne's has hidden, it just may spell the end of everything they've worked so hard to build.Written for her granddaughter to enjoy "when she's a tad older," this is a lovely example of why McCaffrey's books are so widely enjoyed.
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LibraryThing member SunnySD
Running away from home and setting up in an old charcoal maker's hut certainly didn't seem that difficult when she was planning her escape. But as Meanne quickly discovers, the simple life isn't an easy one. Luckily for her, four hands do better than two, and when her refuge is discovered by a
Written for her granddaughter to enjoy "when she's a tad older," this is a lovely example of why McCaffrey's books are so widely enjoyed.
Show More
young boy fleeing troubles of his own, the pair make better progress. But Wisp has a secret of his own, and when he discovers what Meanne's has hidden, it just may spell the end of everything they've worked so hard to build.Written for her granddaughter to enjoy "when she's a tad older," this is a lovely example of why McCaffrey's books are so widely enjoyed.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Greymowser
Lovely little Fairy tale story.
LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey
Not bad, but rather pointless. It seems that society is exactly as it was in our world, despite the presence of magic Gifts in each person - nobles, forced marriages, commoners, mid-ranks, no marriage across ranks, so on and so forth. It's too real to be a fairy tale, and too fairy-tale-ish to be
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believable. I knew Wisp's secret from the moment he was on the roof, though not how or why he got there. And Wisp's "solution" to the Forester is kind of short-sighted - he's going to give up on the hut just because he's diverted for a while? Not if he's even minimally competent. So on and so forth. It was cute, if I didn't think about it, but as soon as I think about it it falls apart. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Original publication date
1995-11
2018
Physical description
92 p.; 8.4 inches
ISBN
1880448483 / 9781880448489