Ogre Enchanted (Ella Enchanted, #0.5)
by Gail Carson Levine (Goodreads Author)
3 out of 5 stars

Evie is a teenage healer, always concocting potions for her best friend, Wormy. When he proposes, she says no, and the fairy Lucinda curses her to be an ogre until she accepts a marriage proposal. Any marriage proposal from anyone. Evie travels to the Fens, hoping to learn the art of persuasion from the ogres who live there. Life as an ogre is more difficult than she imagined, but Evie becomes known as the healer ogre. She searches for someone who will awaken her ability to love, and hopes that someone will propose to her. But she isn’t even sure what love is supposed to feel like.

I was disappointed in this book.
The story was oddly disjointed, and there were several things that seemed exceedingly far-fetched, even for a fairytale world. The ending was rushed, and the relationships felt forced. The characters are okay, but I wasn’t amazed with their personalities or the bland character development.

Evie is such a lost soul. She really is a child blundering around, pretending to be in love. After several false starts in dead-end relationships with boys who aren’t even interested in her, she finally ends up with the right person. However, I wasn’t happy with her character development or with the development of the romantic relationship. She doesn’t really grow that much or change or learn.

The plot is all over the place. There are several things in the world-building that are never explained. Many plot points are very Deus Ex Machina and way too convenient. The dragons’ behavior is never explained. There are scenes with violence, murder, and death. A lot of people die gruesomely from a plague. And then the characters just pick up again with their pathetic little romantic intrigues. It’s weird, and it doesn’t fit with the rest of the story. Even with all that plot upheaval, the characters are fairly stagnant.

The writing style is great though. I usually love this author’s books! This story started out well, but the middle was too long, and the ending was too quick.