The Merchant's Daughter

Combine Jane Eyre with a bit of Beauty and the Beast and you might have found yourself in The Merchant's Daughter. Earlier this year I found myself reading Melanie Dickerson's debut being a mixture of Tristan and Isolde with Sleeping Beauty in [b:The Healer's Apprentice 7826101 The Healer's Apprentice Melanie Dickerson http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1277339504s/7826101.jpg 10876284]. I was very delighted to learn that this fall she had something new in [b:The Merchant's Daughter 10742462 The Merchant's Daughter Melanie Dickerson http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51t-WCD3S0L.SL75.jpg 15653522]. Again I have the same qualm as before in that... my first and only qualm is that this book is listed as young adult. I don't agree with that, it's not a teen novel. It is shorter than my normal read, but it is definitely one for girls of marriageable age and boy is it an adventure. ... but then perhaps I just do not understand the genre behind “young adult” as I thought I did. In a way, there is even a bit of Cinderella here. Not in the plot line perhaps, but in the personality of Annabel. There is not magic in the sense of the Disney Beauty and the Beast, he doesn't suddenly float in the air and become beautiful. In a sense, it's always there, just marred and hidden until an unexpected (to him) healing can occur. Yet... isn't that what the entire book is about? You read it, and tell me. :) Thanks to Zondervan for providing a copy for review.