So you know how you hear about a book, and you aren’t sure, but decide to try it out? That’s what happened with Elisabeth Aimee Brown’s book, What Comes of Attending the Commoners Ball.
This book is an interesting mashup of Cinderella meets Jane Austen. There are very few fantasy elements to the book. The female main character, Hester, is the daughter of pig farmers. She’s come to the big city from the countryside and works so she can save every bit of coin. Her goal is to bring her parents to the city. Because of this, she barely eats and doesn’t enjoy a lot of pleasures. Throughout the book, she adamantly refuses to accept any kind of help because of her strong belief in The Folk. The Folk are fairy creatures that take on human form and will trick anyone who trusts them. This leads to all kinds of issues for Hester.
The story begins with her wanting to attend the commoners’ ball. It is held at the palace, and Hester mistakenly believes that she’s allowed to attend because she’s as common as they come. Surprisingly, she catches the eye of the younger prince, who claims Hester is his guest. Now she is forced to spend her night dancing instead of feasting, like she had hoped. However, the older prince sees her and does feed her before she’s asked to leave.
And so begins poor Hester’s demise. The younger prince causes all kinds of mischief for Hester. I won’t go into the details as that will spoil the story, but her life consistently got worse.
As a character, Hester is a sweet, honest young woman who is highly superstitious. Because of her superstition, the well-meaning people who offer help her are met with her refusal. So Hester is her own enemy. You can’t help but like and pity the main character’s endearing qualities. Though I confess to being a bit frustrated with her. At one point, I wanted to put the book down because of her continual downfall. (The constant one bad thing after another started to get too much.)
The overall story was fun and light. The antics Hester finds herself in because of the second prince’s interference made me laugh. I wanted to keep reading because I couldn’t wait to find out how the story ended. The ending was predictable. However, what kept me reading was wondering how Hester would get her Happily Ever After.
The writing is clean, and the pacing is moderate. There were lots of sweet moments in the book. The characters were well defined and mostly likable, even the second prince. In a sense, everyone was a bit extra. This only added to the charm of the writing and the overall story.
I would highly recommend this book to someone who likes stories that are exaggerated for fun. The elements will keep you entertained and invested in the characters.
K. M. Wray 