“A family curse, three impossible tasks … only true love can save her.”
This is the short and sweet synopsis found on the back of this book that convinced me to read it. Not so much the true love part, but the family curse and impossible tasks sounded pretty cool. That and I really like the cover. But, as they say, you should never judge a book by its cover. Sometimes it’s a pleasant surprise and other times it’s not as good as it looks.
This book was inspired by the ballad “Scarborough Fair,”recorded by Simon and Garfunkel. The song tells of a man issuing three impossible tasks to a woman “Else she’ll be a true love of mine.” Sounds more like a threat than a promise. Unless she completes these tasks she will have to be a true love of his... hmmm … so what happens if she doesn’t complete them … huh.
Lucy Scarborough is your typical teenager, except for the fact that she has been raised by her foster parents because her mom is the local crazy bag-lady. Her mother, Miranda, was only eighteen when Lucy was born and left her soon after. She has shown up occasionally throughout Lucy’s life, always singing the same song. A song that she claims is Lucy’s legacy. Lucy never thinks much of it, and almost dreads Miranda’s visits, until she finds herself in a very unexpected and scary position when she is seventeen.
That’s my teaser for the book and from here on there will be spoilers.
Lucy has her first ‘real’ date for prom and, if all goes well, she thinks Gray Spencer might even become her first boyfriend. However, on the day of the dance, three people come into her life and change everything. First, Zach, her childhood best friend, moves home from college and in with her family, second, Miranda makes an unexpected appearance, and third, her mother’s new associate at work, Padrig Seeley, a mysterious man with an intoxicating Scottish accent and the ability to always get his way, shows up for dinner. It starts with Padrig’s creepy advice on what she should wear to the dance and is quickly followed up by an attack of flying glass bottles and tin cans from Miranda, resulting in Lucy’s date escaping in his new Mini and her dress being ruined by blood and grass stains. But Gray comes back, Lucy finds another ensemble, and they make it to prom.
Things seem to be going well until the dance ends and Gray attacks and rapes Lucy. Lucy should hate him, but she can’t because during the entire attack she felt like it wasn’t Gray, it was as if someone had taken over his body. That, and Gray died in a car wreck hours after the incident. A few weeks later Lucy confirms her fears that she is pregnant, right at the same time Zach finds Miranda’s old diary, which she kept while she was pregnant with Lucy. It’s in that diary that Lucy finds out about the ancient curse which was placed on her family generations ago by an elf. But not the happy little elves of fairy tales, a real elf, the human-sized, mischievous kind that look down on humans and like to mess with them. This particular elf wanted Lucy’s ancestor, and when she turned down his offer of immortality to marry her true love and start a family instead, he decided to punish her. He cursed her that she would have a daughter at 18, and if she didn’t complete three impossible tasks before the baby was born she would go crazy and belong to him, and not just her, but her daughter’s daughters forever, until one of them breaks the curse.
That’s the set up, now Lucy has to solve three riddles and complete three tasks or she will go crazy after her daughter is born and her daughter will be the next in line for the curse. Number one – make a magical shirt without any seam or needlework, number two – find an acre of land between the salt water and the sea strand, and number three – plow the acre with just a goat’s horn and sow it all over with one grain of corn.
I really had hope for this plot, unfortunately it never went anywhere. The whole plot of the curse and solving it really falls flat and practically disappears, overshadowed by the story of Zach and Lucy “falling in love”. It just gets weird and wonders around their relationship where Zach decides he’s in love with Lucy after she gets pregnant and Lucy thinks she’s in love with him, but isn’t really sure. It ends with Zach dropping out of college to marry Lucy before she graduates high school so they can raise her baby together. The curse plot really becomes a side-plot to the forced romance with random mentions of someone stumbling upon a way to solve one. I was almost mad that it got dumped for a love story that seemed forced and completely headed for disaster. That is actually when I checked out of the story, when she puts the main characters in this position that seems completely unnecessary and unrealistic. What parents are going to let that marriage take place? And why was it necessary?
That was actually a problem throughout. I had a hard time really connecting and then staying invested in the characters. A lot of it was related to my disappointment in the curse being kind of dropped and so easily solved. Instead of following Lucy on her journey of solving the riddles and completing the tasks, you’re drug along her weird relationship with a guy who was basically her brother growing up, then moves into her house and suddenly they’re in love and getting married. It’s almost a little creepy.
Padrig Seeley was also underdeveloped as a character. He, obviously, is the ancient elf who has nothing better to do than spend centuries tormenting this family of women. He was supposed to be this mystery man that is woven into the plot to be revealed at the end as the one who caused it all! (Sarcasm intended).
In the end, everything just felt force; the plot, the characters, and the resolution. I really wanted to like this book, like I said the cover is beautiful, but I just couldn’t. It definitely wasn’t the worst book I have ever read, but it fell short. I will definitely think twice about picking a book by it's pretty cover again.
Impossible gets: Two Stars – It was okay.
