The Orphan's Wish - Melanie Dickerson

If you’re keeping track, this book has ties to the Hagenheim series of books.  I’ve been trying to keep track of all the tie-ins, and you can see my full post about it HERE.  The quick version is: Wilhelm and Rose (The Healer's Apprentice) are the parents of Valten (The Captive Bride), Gabe (The Fairest Beauty), Margaretha (The Princess Spy) and Kirstyn (The Orphan's Wish). Gerek (The Golden Braid) is a knight of Duke Wilhelm.

In this book, we’re following the story of Aladdin.  Taken from the streets, he’s given a chance to prove himself in Hagenheim.  He quickly makes friends with the Duke’s daughter, Kirstyn.  After he rescues her from a bear, they become closer.  This friendship grows as they get older.  Aladdin comes to realize that he’ll never be good enough to marry the duke’s daughter by working as a steward and decides to leave Hagenheim to find his riches in another city.

While he’s gone, Kirstyn is abducted and held for ransom.  When the kidnappers have a falling out, she’s held captive for a much longer period of time than she’d hoped.  Thoughts of how her family and Aladdin will never stop looking for her keep her going, and she tries more than once to get away.  Once she’s free, things aren’t quite the way she’s imagined, and she has a lot to sort out.

I liked this one.  I was a little bummed at the very beginning when the author was using Ala ad’din for the main character’s name.  I was just saying Aladdin in my head, but it was quickly changed.  I was happy when his name was Aladdin for the rest of the book.

Something I do want to mention: the characters spend a lot of time apart in this book.  Usually that’s a negative for me, but I think it was well done in this case.  The characters weren’t just thinking about each other, they were reliving memories of times they had together.  It made the distance seem not as far and helped me focus on how they felt about each other.

And here’s why I gave it four stars instead of five.  The sappiness at the end.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a good romance.  But the emotions flowed a bit too long for me at the end, and I ended up skimming a lot of it.  It’s still a good book.  If you’ve read any of this author’s retold fairy tales, I don’t think you’ll want to miss this one.  And if you’re considering this one and it’s your first one, go ahead and do it.  You won’t be lost since each of these tales can be read alone without feeling lost.  Good Book!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley.  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.