Consuela: The Second Sherban Story

The Valley Stories #2

by Sarah Scheele

In an invented land based on Victorian Italy, a local peasant girl lands a job as translator for a wealthy foreigner intending to do mission work in South Blensia. South Blensia, a neighboring country, is in the throes of a revolution and their elderly monarch is in hiding. Consuela has little in common with her well-meaning but naive employer, an older woman from a religious community, or with her trio of silly young lady friends. But when a greedy plot and a bumbling new friend descend on the missionaries, Consuela must come to the rescue.

Genres: Fantasy

111 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 28, 2014

About the author

Sarah Scheele began writing before she could hold a pen and was telling stories before she could talk. An avid reader, she's always enjoyed classics as well as fantasy and movies. She lives surrounded by cultivated fields that rapidly give way to wild flowers, wild plants, and wild life and can always be found scribbling away at a new project. Or exercising her beloved, blind Pomeranian, although Pom prefers to vegetate indoors.

Check out her books in paperback and ebook on Amazon. Reviews always welcome. https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003E4YMKS

Reviews

[Kelsey Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having just read and laughed through The Pickwick Papers, which inspired this light-fantasy novella, I was eager to see how a “retelling” of it was handled. It certainly delivered! The author mixes her own brand of humor with Dickens’s, her own ingenious plotting with his original idea, and her own adaptations of his entertaining characters, and puts them into a fascinating, European-like fictional continent to create a unique, humorous, and intriguing story that’s hard to put down. Like all retellings, it’s a lot of fun to pick out which characters correspond with the originals, but at the same time, it’s completely its own story (being about one-tenth the length of Pickwick) and ends with some unexpected twists. It also has connections to the first story set in The Valley series, Alyce, which are neat to identify.
I think every reader will get a kick out of Consuela, the feisty and clever protagonist. Her relationship with good-hearted Mistress Plummer mirrors Sam Weller and Mr. Pickwick’s. These characters will probably stand out the most, but the secondary characters are equally well-drawn and amusing. (Ms. Scheele is very good at that—you’ll notice it, too, in her other works!) At first Consuela comes across as fairly light reading, but the insights the two main characters gain, into life and themselves, make it well-rounded.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will review this later. I don't want to put in any spoilers for those who haven't read it yet. So you'll have to wait and see what I thought. :)

[Ejayen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a quick read, but fun. Consuela's quotes are hilarious.

[deborah o'carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved "Alyce", the first book in the Valley Stories by Sarah Scheele, so I was delighted when I learned there was to be a sequel!

"Consuela" is a quick, fairly light read, though with its fair share of realism, and a lot of witty humor. I have, shamefully, not yet read The Pickwick Papers by Dickens, which is what "Consuela" is a retelling of, so I missed out on whatever fun can be gotten out of the story by knowing what it was based on.

But on the other hand, I can this way assure you that if you have not read The Pickwick Papers either, "Consuela" is still an enjoyable book that I did not enjoy any the less for not knowing its origins. It is a good story in its own right and I had a great time reading it!

The title character herself I found a very intriguing person. I was very interested to watch Consuela's reactions throughout and see if/how she would change along the way. Mistress Plummer was enjoyable, the sweet old lady with a backbone... The relationship between her and Consuela was touching. The other characters (who I admit I occasionally lost track of because of the amount of them) were a rollick. I particularly enjoyed Umberto because I absolutely could not figure him out at first and it was a ton of fun watching him and Consuela react around each other; those had to be my favorite moments!

I loved the mysterious elements and stuff about revolutionaries and people lurking in cloaks, which lent the whole thing a vague feeling of Zorro or the Scarlet Pimpernel (that may just be me, but I thought it was awesome). Also the ending. I loved the ending so much!

My only complaints would be that the many characters were a little much for a novella, and I had a hard time keeping them all straight all of the time. (This may be due to the fact that it's a retelling, I'm not sure.) The other thing was how there was a lot of talking a foreign language which seems vaguely related to Spanish or Italian, and lent an air of authenticity to the book, but at the same time was a bit annoying because I sometimes had not the slightest idea what the characters meant when they were talking. This is fine in a movie (especially if there are subtitles), but it was distracting for me in a book. Again, that might just be me.

"Consuela" stands alone, but for those who are coming to it after reading "Alyce", you will be glad (or at least, I was ecstatic) to find that King Harry makes a cameo appearance! :) I was so excited. Harry's my favorite. <3

All in all, mystery and peril mixed in with everyday moments, interesting characters, and a lot of humor, made for a very enjoyable read in "Consuela". Sarah Scheele is fabulous at writing witty stories bordering on hilarious, full of unique, quirky characters. I'm highly looking forward to reading more in this series!

[Wolfgang · Rating 5 out of 5]

review is yet to come...