Clever John by Elizabeth Hoyt

Clever John (novella)

(A free teaser for the upcoming Scandalous Desires in Maiden Lane Series)

Elizabeth Hoyt

Fairytale

Published in 2011

H/h - King Clever John/Tamara

Setting: Once upon a time, in a fairytale land.

Read in Oct, 2011.

My rating:

                                                            [spoiler alert]

So what’s in this little free story by Elizabeth Hoyt?

First, I'd like to start with a few lines from her author’s note/introductory note:

“After a childhood reading fairy tales and myths, is it any wonder that when I began to write my own stories I included fairy tales? Fairy tales are storytelling at its most basic. They’ve been with mankind for as long as people have told stories to each other. Fairy tales speak to something intrinsic in humans—they touch our most primitive selves. How else to explain that the Cinderella story is told in nearly every society on earth? To think of fairy tales as merely stories for children is to ignore thousands of years when fairy tales were used to teach morality, to warn, and to entertain both children and adults.”

It was a beautiful tribute to her own fairytales and why she loves including them in every book she writes. I totally loved it. My wish would be that someday Ms. Hoyt would write a compilation of her own fairytales, which would include the ones that we’ve already read in her books. That would be SO GOOD!

This one’s about the fairytale “Clever John” which would be (as the teaser chapters say) included in Scandalous Desires, the upcoming book #3 in the Maiden Lane Series. WOW but I’m already too impatient for it. Must be the most anticipated book for me in this half of the year!

Once upon a time, in a kingdom, there lived a king who had three nephews; the youngest was Clever John. The king loved his garden very much but someone was eating his cherries so he asked his nephews to guard it. But everyday, John and his brothers would fall asleep before the dusk settled in. In the morning, they had to tell the king that they fell asleep but John would find very a beautiful multicolored feather each day, tucked behind his ear. On the 3rd day, John plugs his ears with wax and waits. This time his brothers fall asleep, as a bird starts singing but John, with his ears plugged, is awake. He sees this beautiful bird. As he grabs it, the bird turns into a beautiful woman, named Tamara- the daughter of the dawn. Tamara grants John three wishes. As time passed by, John uses those wishes to have all the riches in world, a big kingdom and a huge army. But, as the end of his life approaches, John realizes he has made a huge mistake- the material things he chose are as empty as his life now. So for one last time, he calls Tamara again as he decides to remedy that...

Beautiful story but ended abruptly. I was hoping for a little bit more. *pouts* It certainly did whet my appetite for Scandalous Desires. No, I didn’t read the teaser chapters, already having read the 1st one long time ago. I won’t read anymore for it’s killing me. I’d rather wait for the book to come out.

“Clever John” is a free installment, it can be downloaded from Elizabeth Hoyt’s website.