Water Song: A Retelling of "The Frog Prince" (Once upon a Time)

I've read nearly all the books in the Once Upon A Time series, and I was looking forward to this one. However, it was quite a disappointing read. I didn't mind the beginning of the story; it started out okay, although it did seems to skip over a lot of things that might have made it easier to connect with the heroine. For example, her mother is killed by German bombs (this is set in WWI) while she is sitting next to her. We only hear about this, but don't actually experience it with Emma, the heroine. Not that I have a need to experience gruesome deaths, but I felt like the author just didn't feel like spending a lot of time developing Emma's character or her backstory. Suzanne Weyn doesn't spend a lot of time on the hero, Jack, either. She does take the time to explain that he knows some Native American/Creole healing potions that he learned from his mother. He apparently also learned how to "talk" to his mother's spirit, and maybe to even transport his spirit to other places...? What?? I think this is Weyn's way of introducing the "frog prince" connection; Jack is from the bayou and is a terrific swimmer, and his mother repeatedly "speaks" to him in dreams and tells him how he is a prince, and how he knows the water, etc. Emma and a minor character are both rescued from water by Jack while both are unconscious; this adds to the mystery -- "Who was that frog-man that rescued me?" Emma even asks Jack if he has magic to turn himself into a frog. This question, while German bombs explode outside, is just a bit of a silly paradox between fantasy and reality. I really think that Weyn makes the frog connection within the first part of the book. There are enough water references. She doesn't need to go so far as to have Jack's frogginess brought up nearly every page. Okay!! We get it!! Jack is the frog prince!! It just becomes silly, and almost seems like she is trying too hard. She didn't try too hard to create the relationship between the hero and heroine, though. They don't really have a relationship. I was surprised and bored when they decided they were in love with each other. They don't really have much connection at all, and therefore I didn't feel like I had any connection to them either. Weyn tries to make this a psychological fairy tale as many of the others in the series are. Themes of finding yourself, loving who you are, discovering truth, etc. are part of many of these books, but Weyn's efforts fall flat. She does try near the end of the story to have Jack realize that he is a great man, because Emma loves him, but that he was great all along, and it took her love to make him realize what was already true. Weyn's rendition of this self-discovery is even more awkward than the sentence I just wrote. What a shame. I was hoping it would be as good as some of the others in the series, but it wasn't. The best one so far in the series: The Storyteller's Daughter, by a LANDSLIDE. Read it and be satisfied.

When I first started to read this novel, I wasn't sure how much I'd actually enjoy it. The premise was rather different, and seemed a little strange. But it quickly got better. And better. The characters are wonderfully well-developed (especially for so short a story), and Weyn does a lovely job at progressing the story in a natural and realistic pace. I was skeptical about this novel at first, but I can confidently say that it is the most entertaining, most unique, and overall best retelling of The Princess and the Frog I've read. Five stars, not because it's the best book I've read in my entire life (which I do not think should be how ratings work anyway), but for making me very pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up enjoying it. If you enjoy unique and creative plots, historical fiction, fairytale retellings, anti run-of-the-mill characters, unexpected but well-written plot twists, and/or amazing endings, this novel is for you.

So I wasn't expecting much because frankly I wasn't into Weyn's retelling of The Night Dance, but Water Song was SO GOOD! I loved it. I read up til page 15 the first day and the next night I finished the whole thing. Even after I finished it at 4AM I couldn't go to sleep. The historical bits were pretty accurate (from what I can remember from U.S. History class) and I was cheering the characters on every step of the way. High recommended to... well if you're reading this then you're already sucked in.

One of my favorite short stories, even though The Little Mermaid isn't my favorite Disney movie. It's sweet, not as predictable as I would have thought, and I love how it's written.

It’s a lovely story. Really recommend it.

I loved this story. It had magic, history, romance, and espionage. I would have liked for it to be longer with more details though.

I love fairy tale retellings and I love the Once Upon A Time series.Water Song is a retelling of The Frog Prince. The story is set in Belgium during World War I. Emma is a British girl who arrived in Belgium with her mother for a holiday. The war gets to Belgium and Emma’s mother is killed in a bomb attack. Emma has no way to get back to England and her father.Jack is an American who enlisted in the British army. Caught in a gas attack by the Germans, Jack wanders into Emma’s well to escape the gas. Emma comes across him and helps him out of the well.Then the Germans arrive. The Germans have taken Emma’s estate to use as their base. Emma thinks up the quick cover story that Jack is her husband. This keeps them both safe.Things then start to get interesting. There is espionage, injury, and escape. I won’t give away the ending by telling you too much.This review first appeared at Orandi et Legendi (catholicamanda.com).

Frustratingly close to being good. The initial premise and setting were truly excellent ideas. Also, the hero being a poor orphan of mixed black, white and native American descent is a refreshing change from a rich anglo alpha type and the adventure elements are developed well, but ultimately the story is diminished by poor development of the romance. The heroine jumps from finding the hero annoying to being in love with him, with no interim stages explaining the change. The hero makes a similar leap from slightly begrudging attraction to adoration.Frankly, its a shortish tale that focuses too much of the page space on emphasising the hero's frog like characteristics and too little on relationship and character development, it thus fails to convince the reader that the h&H are truly in love.With some tweaking of the narrative emphasis and direction this book could have been something really special, but sadly it falls far short of the mark.It's a clean romance, although I hesitate to call it a romance since the hero and heroine appear only to fancy each other.I note, there are a few glaring inaccuracies. For example the heroine reads Wuthering Heights and when the author mentions this she states it is set on the 'Scottish moors', as a Yorkshire lass whose Aunt and Uncle used to actually walk their dog on Wuthering Heights I was astonished at such ignorance! Wuthering Heights is situated in the West Riding of Yorkshire, between Bradford and Halifax, 'wuther' is a Yorkshire dialect word referring to the haunting reverberating sound the wind sometimes makes, the wind up there on that high exposed ground 'wuthers', it is therefore 'Wuthering Heights'.Yorkshire is a Northern county in England and Wuthering Heights is at least 150 miles from the Scottish border.Added to this the author confuses the order in which some of the events in the book occur and the author's insistence that the German speaking heroine cannot understand her Flemish speaking servants at all is nonsense. The two languages have strong similarities and although certainly distinct languages it is possible for someone who speaks German to make a good stab at what someone is saying to them in Flemish.

Love this book! I read it when I was in high school and couldn't find it for years after!! Such a wonderful retelling of the frog prince!!