"A Kiss in Time" - Alex Flinn
Alessandra Canetta
What is the book about?
"A kiss in time" is a romance fiction characterized by a fairytale shade. It can be described as a modern version of the classic fairytale "The sleeping beauty". The narration comes from two different points of view: Talia's and Jack's.
Talia is the the beautiful sixteen-year-old princess of Euphrasia, living in 1700, who was cursed by the witch Malvolia when she was a baby: stinging her finger with a spindle before her sixteenth birthday would make her and the whole kingdom fall asleep, a sleep that can be broken only by her true love's kiss.
Despite of all the precautions ordered by the king, at the eve of her sixteenth birthday Talia touches a spindle and the curse becomes reality.
Three hundreds years later, Jack, an american cheerful boy, runs away with his friend Travis from the tour he's following, looking for fun, and he discovers the forgotten kingdom of Euphrasia.
The fate makes Jack meet the still asleep princess and kiss her. This causes the complete breaking of the curse, but the king gets terribly angry as soon as he discovers what really happened: in fact he's worried for the destiny of the kingdom, which now finds itself in a foreign, unknown, completely different world.
Talia, feeling guilty, decides to run away with Jack, who's going back to Florida, his home.
Here the princess has to face the difficulties of the third millennium life, the envy girls, the overbearing boys. On the other hand, thanks to her innocent "old-fashioned" point of view, Talia is able to help Jack to rediscover a good relationship with his parents and his sister Meryl and to find the courage for pursuing his real dreams.
The two protagonists realize soon that they are really in love with each other, but the witch Malvolia, still unsatisfied, kidnaps Talia.
Jack, leaded by his love for the girl, is able to rescue her once again, overcoming all the challenges the witch proposes to him.
Finally, the happy ending comes for everybody.
Euphrasia, thanks to the newborn collaboration between Talia's and Jack's fathers, becomes a theme park, letting its people to keep living their lives as they were in 1700.
Malvolia, revealing herself not as bad as everyone thought, finds a new job at the castle.
About Jack and Talia, they are both decide to chase their dreams and to study in different countries, but, despite of the distance, their "true love" will survive forever.
My opinion about it...
Describe the author's writing. If the book was well written, what made it that way?
The text is characterized by a cheerful, modern and funny style that make the reading smooth and pleasant. Furthermore, the comprehension is facilitated by the use of the american current language and various dialogues among characters.
The use of the two different points of view of the protagonists permits to the reader to have a better understanding of the various episodes and, mainly to comprehend deeply the thought of both Talia and Jack. Moreover, it's always curious seeing how a situation can appear completely different under the eyes of a boy and a girl.
Which characters play important roles that relate to the overall theme?
The author inserts in the novel different characters who play an active and important role in the course of the narration. The two protagonists surely result the best examples: each of them thinks and reacts to the other's action in an often unexpected way. Talia and Jack, indeed, can be considered as real people, since their mind is so well-described. Their actions make the entire book interesting and exciting.
The minor characters, instead, are just mere archetypes of our century: Amber, Jack's ex-girlfriend, for example, represents perfectly the category of the arrogant, selfish and volgar girls. A stereotype that it is possible to find in our society and in the other Alex Flinn's novel too, such as the character of Sloane in "Beastly".
Was the ending satisfactory? Why or why not?
As it happens in all the fairytales, the book ends with an happy ending. In my opinion, this is always a nice quality for a book; on the other hand, a similar conclusion could appear too sweet and even mawkish. Everything is completely perfect for the two characters: their lives, their love. A similar conclusion is pretty hard to be found in the real world, at least for two sixteen-year-old guys.
However, we must not forget that, after all, this is a fairytale, a novel written for making people dream and enter in a completely different, wonderful world: therefore, what would it be a fairytale with a weak happy ending?
What was the author’s purpose for writing this book? Why would you recommend this book?
Alex Flinn's novels are all modern revisions of the most famous fairytales and the main theme is always a young love, with its difficulties and its joys. This choice permits the presence of funny scenes, emotional episodes and of course a very high ensemble of concentrated different emotions that make the reader appreciate the story.
In the modern society, where love seems to lose significance among teenagers, the whom mainly part just wants to have fun and don't understand the real value of this feeling, books like this one help young guys to rediscover the beauty of the first love and to dream about it.
What interesting or notable facts do you know about the author?
Alex Flinn is an award-winning author of nine young adult novels.
She studied opera at the University of Miami and went on to attend law school. She practiced law for a decade, and her experiences as an intern at the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office and a volunteer for battered women helped inform her novels.
Flinn was born on Long Island, New York, but her family moved to Miami when she was in middle school. She currently lives there with her husband, two daughters, and several pets.
Lots of her books are indeed set in Miami, such as "A kiss in time".