In the kingdom of Ayortha, two things are praised and valued above all else: the ability to sing, and beauty. Aza, the adopted daughter of an innkeeper, has a clear, beautiful singing voice, a voice that is often praised. In addition, she is able to throw her voice, so that it seems to come from anywhere, and she can make it sound like anyone’s singing voice. She is not, however, pretty. Her skin is too pale, her lips are too red, and her hair is too black. In addition, she is taller than many men and extremely large boned.
However, a duchess who is a regular guest of the inn is fond of Aza, and asks her to come with her to the king’s wedding as her companion. There, the new queen, Ivi, discovers her ability to throw her voice and blackmails Aza into becoming her Lady-in-waiting, threatening to ruin her family if she doesn’t. Despite her beauty (though she was described as “merely pretty” before her wedding) Ivi does not have a beautiful singing voice, and she wants Aza to sing for her. She also believes that having a girl who looks like Aza around her at all times will only make her own beauty stand out more. But then the king is hit in the head by a flying centaur shoe (I wonder how that’s different from a horse shoe?) and Ivi is left in charge of Ayortha. And Ivi is a very bad queen, and ignores all the advice of the Ayorthans, claiming to have a private advisor who gives her better advice than they ever coul.
Though there are elements of The Ugly Duckling and even stronger elements of Snow White, like Ella Enchanted it isn’t a direct retelling of either one. I noticed right away that Fairest was set in the same world as Ella Enchanted but was surprised to learn (within the first few chapters) that Aza is Areida’s sister. The books are taking place at roughly the same time, though, so Areida is barely in this. I’m hoping this means she’ll get to star in her own story eventually. I didn’t like this as much as Ella Enchanted or Two Princesses of Bamarre but it’s still very good, and I especially liked Levine’s take on the magic mirror. I think what held it back for me was that the only other major female character was the spiteful rival (Ella Enchanted had the evil stepmother and stepsisters, but it also had Areida and Mandy) and the fact that I wasn’t big on the romance between Aza and Ijori, the king’s nephew. Ijori was always way to eager to automatically jump to the worst possible conclusion when it came to Aza.
I also think I may be building up an immunity to the overwhelming angst Levine puts her characters through (these levels are usually reserved for characters who don’t start off likable so we’ll sympathize with them, not characters who start out likeable and sympathetic.) That, or I’m still reeling from the punch to the gut in Two Princesses of Bamarre.
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