The Captive Maiden

Charming! I enjoyed this Cinderella retelling. The slipper wasn't woven in very seamlessly, but the cinders and forbidden romance were well delivered. The blue dress Gisela wore was beautifully described so that it was easy to imagine it. I adored that a medieval tournament was featured. Jousting, sword fighting, et cetera... I was one happy reader! Those scenes definitely reminded me of A Knight's Tale (a Heath Ledger movie), so that was especially fun. The faith thread was pretty good. I liked that there was this internal tug in the male lead, that he had to choose between trusting his own strength and trusting that of God. This was well written and pinched my heart in some really good ways.

One negative: The leads slept beside each other in a cave. They didn't see anything wrong with this, though there was another character who clearly knew it was wrong and ruined their reputations. I was disappointed that neither lead felt convicted about this, as that is not a good example for the target audience of this book.

Content: sexual innuendo, one expletive