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Wild Orchid: A Retelling Of "The Ballad Of Mulan" (2009)

by Cameron Dokey(Favorite Author)

4.15 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Simon Pulse

review 1: As much as I've raved about Dokey, a number of her books have lately let me down. Unfortunately, Wild Orchid falls into the let down category. I'm not overly familiar with the Mulan tale, but as far as I can tell Dokey did not add a new twist on the story. She fleshed out the characters and gave them sympathetic backstories and motivations, but the basic plot is largely unchanged (contrast this with her retelling of Sleeping Beauty, which was an excellent example of adding a completely new twist while still maintaining the core of the tale).This approach can be ok, but what really brought the story down for me was the inconsistencies in character. There were a few places where Mulan did or said something that was completely out of character and seemed to come from left fie... moreld. Compounding this was that the other characters did not comment on this inconsistency and so they were also inconsistent. This made the story seem sloppy. This sloppiness combined with the lack of creative twist made it seem like the author's heart wasn't really in this one. As a result, neither was this reader's. A good addition to the series, but not one of the best.
review 2: Mulan has always been one of my all time favorite characters. In the Disney movie I liked that she wasn't a damsel in distress. I loved her strength and I fell in love with her story. But in the book it was a whole new brand of love. I loved that she trained before going to war I loved that she knew people there. I love that Prince Jian was in love with her even when she was a 'man'. Now that's love. less

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