Sorry if you haven’t been a huge fan of all the TV and movie content lately. Currently, it’s what’s working but I promise that I have something different coming next week. The Betrothed is actually a book title, not a TV show title, so that’s a little different I guess. But this week, I wanted to share one of my new favorite Disney movies, Ice Princess, and a new book, The Betrothed by my favorite author, Kiera Cass.
Ice Princess, in opinion, is a Disney hidden gem. I think it was made around the time I was a young girl, so it would’ve been a movie I really enjoyed growing up, but since I grew up with satellite TV and very little exposure to Disney Channel, I didn’t know it existed until now! And oh my goodness and I absolutely LOVE this movie. It’s about a teenage girl, Casey that’s a physics whiz and it’s basically all set for her to attend Harvard and live out her mom’s dreams. Casey has the opportunity to complete a summer physics project and win a huge scholarship for the physics program at Harvard, and so she decides to analyze the physics of figure skating. Through her project, Casey becomes so involved in figure skating it turns out, she has incredible natural talent within the sport. She eventually begins competing as a figure skater and gives up attending Harvard to pursue figure skating.
Not only did I adore this movie for the beautiful costumes that Casey wore on the ice, but I really enjoyed the character of the girls in the movie. Instead of being jealous as Casey made leaps and bounds in figure skating, the other competitive skaters supported her and truly helped her out. They made her feel at home which was totally shocking for a movie like this. In most movies, you would except the main character to face some evil, horribly-mean posse of girls, but that wasn’t the case. It was so wonderful to see girls supporting girls in the right way in a movie like this. I loved it. 🙂
I also never realized how much I loved Hayden Panettiere until this movie! Yes, she was much younger in Ice Princess, but she was so pretty and still a very talented actress then. After seeing this movie, I’m much more interested in shows and movies with her.
Overall, I totally recommend Ice Princess. It’s such a good movie that motivates you and just makes you feel so good.
Now we’re gonna flip gears and talk about one of my favorite authors and her newest release, The Betrothed. I would first just like to say that my sister and I ordered a signed copy of the book. THAT’S how much we enjoy her work. Secondly, this book was not exactly what I expected and I’m not totally sure how I feel about it. If you are interested in reading, maybe skip this last part, as it will contain spoilers. 🙂
The Betrothed follows the story of Hollis, a beautiful, strong, young lady coming from a noble family who eventually finds herself betrothed to the king, Jameson. In my opinion, Hollis and the king are a PERFECT match. Anyway, a strange family comes to seek refuge from a neighboring kingdom, and asks the king to take them in and make them members of Coroan society. Hollis is tasked with the decision since the king puts her to little tests, seeing how she may do as queen one day. Hollis allows the family to stay in Coroa and they live in the castle for some time, sort of on a “probation” to see if they truly have good intent in Coroa. During this “probation” period, Hollis has several small interactions with one of the sons of this family, who is extremely talented in sword making. Somehow, she begins to doubt her relationship with the king and falls madly in love with Silas.
The king gives Hollis the queen’s apartments, beautiful tiaras and dresses, and all of his love and support, but Hollis eventually turns all of that down, just before Jameson plans to propose to her and runs away to be with Silas. I wasn’t too happy with this part, especially because the love Hollis claimed to feel for Silas, just didn’t seem fully supported if you know what I mean. Hollis and Silas had maybe interacted like three or four times and had kissed once, and suddenly Hollis wanted to give up BECOMING QUEEN OF A NATION, to run away with some suspicious, mysterious, and beautiful boy from a neighboring nation.
Hollis and Silas end up married and Jameson is devastated but moves on to be with Hollis’s best friend and former lady-in-waiting (which was REALLY weird and uncalled for, in my opinion). You might think, the book ends here, right? Wrong!
Shortly after the wedding, Silas and a majority of the people at the wedding, including Hollis’s parents are brutally murdered, leaving Hollis devastated. Silas’s mother and younger sister survive the attack but then decide to return to their former country, in hopes that their king may be merciful that they will not be found and killed there. Hollis initially plans to go back to Jameson for comfort, just to live as a member of the palace, but then decides to chase after Silas’s mother, and follow them back to their former kingdom, to meet with a friend she had made in the palace during a royal visit, and to possibly uncover if the king (not Jameson) had been behind the attack on her family.
Ultimately, I enjoyed the book because I always enjoy the work of Kiera Cass, but I was a little disappointed. I live for the glamour that comes with every Kiera Cass novel. The dresses she describes and the lifestyle of a palace is just so appealing and her imagery is just so vivid, that I imagine myself with America from The Selection, or Eadlyn from The Heir, and even Hollis from The Betrothed. With that said, so much happened in this book, but at the same time, it feels like nothing happened. I personally would have really enjoyed if Kiera Cass gave us the life of Hollis Brite, becoming the queen of Coroa and one of the women that she had seen immortalized by Coroa for their excellent leadership and character but she didn’t take that route. That’s perfectly fine but I would have enjoyed a slightly different story. Hopefully the next one will be better. I guess we’ll just have to see when it comes out! Maybe read along with me and we can see what happens next together! 🙂
Have a good week everyone and stay healthy and safe!
