Naomi Dawn Musch

I can never ignore a new novel spin-off the ever-enchanting Beauty and the Beast story. Now Melanie Dickerson has put her own stamp on this timeless tale. It's one of the best I've read so far.  In The Merchant's Daughter, Ms. Dickenson doesn't adhere to a magical or fantasy telling of the childhood story, but sets it in a very realistic medieval village, in mid-1300s England.

What I liked most about this book was the way she managed to bring the original story elements into this realistic setting:

**The heroine, Annabel, is a merchant's daughter whose father's ships were destroyed. After his passing, she lives with her very slothful brothers and her rather vain mother. I liked that Ms. Dickerson included this family element. Many versions of the tale over the years have included various numbers of "Beauty's" siblings. Did you know there were 12 in the original? Nothing like the Disney version, huh?


**Readers are given a valid reason for Annabel to wind up at the beastly Lord Ranulf's estate. She's indentured to pay the fine for her family's failed responsibility to do their share of work during the village harvest. She goes willingly, knowing that her family ought to have worked.

**Anabel is pursued by an underhanded bailiff who is thought of highly by the villagers, but who is a threat to Anabel's future and personal safety.

**Lord Ranulf is scarred both physically and emotionally by his past. His countenance is dour and his mannerisms brusque, giving him a terrifying reputation.

**Ms. Dickerson slips in the rose from the original story providing a symbolic correlation to Ranulf's death becoming imminent if Anabelle won't save him.

**Ranulf's utter transformation at the end from "beastly" to "princely" was beautifully written, and I loved the way the author managed to keep this element in the story without the magic of the fairytale.

The only criticism from a writer's perspective, and one which I doubt will matter much to most readers, was an occasional slippage from the deep point of view usually desired, with an occasional indulgence in telling and be-verbs. But such occurences were slight and easily overlooked by the rest of the story's dynamic plotting and dialogue.

I thought the major theme of discrimination was handled adroitly in The Merchant's Daughter, but my favorite story premise emerged in the line, "...love is greater than justice." Even though justice was served in the end, I found it a resonating truth that it's better to show mercy than to be right.

Ms. Dickerson's novel provides readers the pleasant escape we all need now and then. I enjoyed being carried away into it. That, at least, was magical.

Write on!