Margaretha has always been a romantic, and hopes her newest suitor, Lord Claybrook, is destined to be her one true love. But then an injured man is brought to Hagenheim Castle, claiming to be an English lord who was attacked by Claybrook and left for dead. And only Margaretha---one of the few who speaks his language---understands the wild story. Margaretha finds herself unable to pass Colin's message along to her father, the duke, and convinces herself 'Lord Colin' is just an addled stranger. Then Colin retrieves an heirloom she lost in a well, and asks her to spy on Claybrook as repayment. Margaretha knows she could never be a spy---not only is she unable to keep anything secret, she's sure Colin is completely wrong about her potential betrothed. Though when Margaretha overhears Claybrook one day, she discovers her romantic notions may have been clouding her judgment about not only Colin but Claybrook as well. It is up to her to save her father and Hagenheim itself from Claybrook's wicked plot.


Guys, I FLEW through this one. The day I got it, I sat down and read it straight through. I can't even remember the last time I did that. I mean, I loooove my fairytale retellings. I actually couldn't tell what this one was from the description, but it hit me while reading. Yes, ladies and possible gents, this is a retelling of...The Frog Prince.

Margaretha is the daughter of a duke, and lives a pretty naive and sheltered life. She is a romantic at heart, having rejected all of her suitors so far. But she is considering her current suitor, Lord Claybrook, even though she secretly desires a loving relationship. That is, until her world is thrown in disarray by the arrival of an injured Englishman. Margaretha is the only one who can speak his language, but the man seems addled. He tells her that Lord Claybrook is not who he seems, and asks her to spy on him. Which Margaretha does, to find out that the stranger is telling the truth. And it is up to Margaretha and Colin to save her family and the entire town.

Margaretha's worst fault is that she talks alot. And she mentions this quite a bit. But she was easy to like. She was sweet and kind, if a bit naive. But as soon as she finds out that her family is in danger, her first and only thought is how to save them with no regard to herself. She was pretty selfless and brave. She spoke her mind and was pretty humorous. Colin himself was easy to like. Although a bit pigheaded, he really did care about these people that he had hardly met, and put himself in danger for them. He was adorable.

This was pretty fast-paced. Like I said, I flew through it. There were not parts where the story lagged, or nothing seemed to be happening. It flowed naturally. The descriptions of the world and the castles were detailed and beautiful. I mean, I'm not entirely sure what things were like back then, but the author seemed to do a pretty good job of describing them so you could actually imagine what it was like. Also, the language barrier between Colin and everyone else was made clear. There wasn't any confusion about who was speaking what language, or what was going on.

And thankfully, no insta-love. I loved how Margaretha and Colin slowly became allies, then friends, and then realized they loved each other. Was it still a bit fast? Yeah, they knew each other for barely weeks. But I was still rooting for them.

This was a beautiful story, one that I thought was so well done. While I need to brush up on my knowledge of The Frog Prince to see how it actually matches up to the story, I thought this was a great story.

My review of The Merchant's Daughter here
Melanie Dickerson:

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