ONCE UPON A TIME SERIES: The Storyteller's Daughter

TITLE: The Storyteller's Daughter
TALE: Arabian Nights
AUTHOR: Cameron Dokey
ALSO BY AUTHOR: Beauty Sleep, Sunlight and Shadow, Golden, Before Midnight, Belle, Wild Orchid, Winter's Child

This may have been the first book I read in this series, though it's been so many years that I can't remember for sure. I have always considered this one of my favorites and it's still enjoyable.

Dokey weaves a tale within a tale within a tale quite well for the most part. One thing I don't care for, though, is that she has Shahrazad be blind, but not from birth. She goes blind when she gets the same fever that kills her mother, but she regains her sight after her duty as a storyteller is finished. One of the central themes of the book is that the main characters are blind to their own hearts, each other's hearts, yadda yadda. Having Shahrazad be physically blind is overkill. It also tends to be casually tossed aside when it's not being used as a scene point. I think the story would have been stronger without that little element. It can be completely removed from the story without affecting it much at all really.

I'm not really fond of the first queen's vengeful brothers aspect of the book either. It seems like too much of an outside antagonist when the story centers so much on inner turmoil. The crux of the tale is Shahrayar and Shahrazad, but then these typical vengeful brothers come in and massacre people and the clever, remorseful, youngest brother has to save all the good guys. Blah blah. It feels like we've read it before and it just doesn't mesh that well.

Overall though, I do really enjoy this one. I was never bored, even through the parts I didn't care for. (I can read something I don't think fits well and still want to know what happens.)

So who's read this one? Your thoughts?