Esther's Ever After: Blog Tour: Painted Blind

For my stop on the Painted Blind tour today, you'll find my review on this retelling of one of my FAVOURITE classical myths as well as a giveaway - with 3 signed print books open to US entrants and TEN international prizes too!

And make sure you stop at the rest of the blogs on this tour, as well!

Painted Blind by Michelle Hansen
Release Date ~ May 3, 2012
Self-published
ISBN13: 9781469972855
E-book received from author for blog tour

Goodreads Synopsis:
Seventeen years old and agoraphobic, Psyche Middleton vows her dad will never see the risqué photos she took during a summer modeling stint abroad, but one of them ends up on a billboard in her Montana hometown. Now everyone—especially her dad—can see it. And yet, somehow, those are the mundane things in her life because she is about to fall unexpectedly, head-over-heels in love with Erik, a mysterious young man who rescues her from a crowd of admirers, and who she’s never actually seen because…he can make himself invisible.

As strange as this may seem, it’s about to get even stranger. Erik takes her to his palace in an idyllic kingdom, and she is swept into the beauty and culture of his world, but his affection has one condition: she may not see him. Overtaken, intrigued, and still not wholeheartedly believing he’s real, Psyche is going to have to decide if she can love him blindly; because if she can’t, she may lose him forever.

The story of Eros and Psyche is one of my favourite classical myths, but I have to admit that as much as I adore reading retellings of it, I'm also a bit wary because so much of the story is a love story and I tend to worry that the authors will miss the author fantastic qualities in this epic romance.

Fortunately, Michelle clearly understood and included these other facets to the story in her retelling, a book which just gets better the more it moves along.

Psyche makes for a very interesting heroine in a love story:

Admittedly, she does pine away a little bit. But it IS an old love story, and there is a reason behind it. But more than that, she doesn't just sit around and do nothing. She takes risks and is loyal and caring to those she becomes close to. And I appreciated the fact that falling in love with Eros doesn't isolate her from others; in fact, in actually helps her to make more friends in the long run. I also like that Psyche is willing to accept responsibility for her actions and deal with the consequences. This is what truly makes her a strong character.
A wonderful retelling of this lovely myth:

And Michelle does a great job of retelling the story by incorporating a great character in terms of Psyche. She's brave and strong, unwilling to back done. And that's exactly what I love about the myth of Eros and Psyche! That it's the girl who really ends up having to save the day and work hard. It really stands out in terms of what a woman is able to do and accomplish on her own capabilities (or with a little help). It truly is a fairly good example of an old story being updated and retold in modern times.
The fast-pace of the story when the tasks come around:

The story moves so well as soon as Psyche embarks on her journey to complete Aphrodite's tasks. And ESPECIALLY during the last one we really get a good look at Eros' world, and there's a significant amount of danger and excitement involved. I particularly liked when we got some glimpses of other gods/goddesses and that they weren't necessarily stereotyped to their traditional roles. There's a bit more depth to them, for the brief times we get to see them.

But on the other hand, there were a few things that didn't work so well with the contemporary setting. There was a little too much swooning from Psyche who, for the most part, has her head screwed on pretty straight. But especially at the end, I was happy with how things turned out except that it seemed a little sudden and extreme given the scenario.

And I found the earlier half to be very slow compared to the last half of the book. It took me a littl while to really get in to the story and for me to be speedily reading along. And I found the relationship with her friend, Savannah, didn't impact me nearly as much as it was supposed to. I just felt indifferent (and surprisingly, so did Psyche for the most part). And I felt there were a fair number of other details and information given that in retrospect didn't add that much to the story.