Bitter Greens

For those of you who have a Good Reads account you may have noticed that you can get book recommendations based on other books you’ve read (and liked). Sometimes these recommendations fall short but occasionally I take a gamble and give one a read. In the case of Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth I struck gold.

It didn’t quite earn five stars for me on Good Reads but it did earn four. Bitter Greens is a beautiful telling of the fairy tale we now know as Rapunzel. Forsyth blends together the stories of three separate women to make this such an enjoyable tale.

I will admit that it began a little slow for me. I knew it was a retelling of Rapunzel and so when the story begins by following a French novelist, Charlotte Rose (who wrote Rapunzel as we now know it), as she is exiled from the court of Louis XIV. In the convent she is exiled to Charlotte Rose befriends an older nun who begins to tell her the tale of Margherita, a girl who is captured by a witch, Selena Leonelli, and held prisoner in a tower. The perspective switches back and forth from Charlotte Rose to Margherita’s story. Later the story of Selena emerges and weaves its way into the tale.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have already read/listened to another one of Kate Forsyth’s books and have a third one waiting in the wings. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and other fairy tales.