A Tale of Two Castles

Hola. The weather has not improved. A Tale of Two Castles is by Gail Carson Levine, a favorite author of mine (and also the author of Ella Enchanted, also reiewed on my blog). Elodie is but a poor farmers daughter with grand ambitions, to be a mansioner (Which I think is an actress). She travels to Two Castles, a town over shadowed by, you guessed it,...two castles. One is run by the greedy king and his strange daughter, the other by a feared and hated ogre. When her dreams are crushed by the mansioning leader, Elodie is taken on as an assistant to the brilliant dragon Meenore. It expects a great deal from Elodie, and she must perform (no pun intended) if she is to discover the secrets of Two Castles, from the cats to the people. This was a good book, nothing exceptional, but good. I think that Meenore added a lot to the story but that Jonty Um could have played a larger role. Renn is just weird and I think that half of the ending was obvious and the other half was highly unlikely. Those didn't detract much from the story, however, and I give it two and a half stars.