Loved it! 😍

Such a feel-good fairy tale of a story. For those who enjoy historical fiction and poetic prose.

Synopsis

In the Kingdom of Gora, in early 1400s Europe, the King of Gora has assembled a collection of entertainers, scholars, cooks, and others, to care for and educate his young children, the Prince and Princess. Tycho, the children's storyteller, and Samuel, the court jester, are happy in Gora, yet it becomes apparent that the children's cook, Agnieszka, was lured to the castle under false pretenses, and will not be allowed to return to her home city, and her husband and her family.
When the deception is revealed, Agnieszka's friends must decide what to do - assist in her escape and risk death? Or stay quiet, and let their friend remain bound to the castle, far from those she loves?

Close Your Eyes is a meditation on love, and destiny.

I really enjoyed this book! It is truly a fairy tale, and a love story, at its core. It’s a sweet bit of historical fiction with a sentimental, but never sappy, tone, and is written beautifully. I loved the author’s prose. I was interested in the story from the very beginning, because of the narrator’s easy familiarity with the reader, and the imagery of 15th century Gora, the imagined part of Europe where the story takes place.

The narrator became my very favorite character. A court jester with dwarfism, he sets out to tell the story of the court’s storyteller, and ends up telling the story of the group of individuals tasked with caring for the king’s children after his wife dies, as well as the children themselves. This group includes Sam, the narrator, the court storyteller, and the cook, as well as the prince and princess of Gora. Part of what I loved about this book was the imagery of the castle where they lived, and where the king roams the halls at night. The imagery is lovely. I also so enjoyed that the author varies the style of story-telling. Sam tells much of the story, but we also hear some of the stories the storyteller tells the children (these stories are so much fun), and we read letters between some of the characters as well. This keeps the story moving back and forth and keeps the reader engaged.

This is an easy book in that the good guys win, the villains lose, and you get the warm & fuzzies at the end. Read it when you need a relaxing bit of fiction to take your mind off the real world.

Apparently I need to write 300 words in order to publish this review. So here they are. 300.

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Close Your Eyes: A Fairy Tale

Loved it! 😍

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Loved it! 😍

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