Today, I read the beginning of a book called Fairest. The book was written by Gail Carson Levine, the same author who wrote Ella Enchanted along with other fairy tale spinoffs. Fairest is narrated by Aza, or Lark, during what seems to be medieval times. As a baby, she was abandoned at the Featherbed Inn. Although the identity of her mother isn't revealed, she says that she was left in a velvet blanket edged with gold. I think that the blanket may play a large part in the rest of the book. It shows that she was born to wealth and possibly a title. Since her mother was rich, I don't understand why she abandoned Aza. I think that it is possible that she was an illegitimate child, or maybe part dwarf due to the color of her hair(hutn). Only dwarves can see or have hutn colored hair, which seems charcoal colored to humans. Although she is hideous to human guests, she looks alright to dwarves (large bones, pale blue skin, and black hair like them).

When one of guests, the Duchess of Olixo, decides to bring Aza to the King's wedding (a marriage to commoner Ivi from Kyrria), Aza is forced to oblige. This means facing hundreds of people who will stare at her. In Ayortha, beauty and a nice singing voice are needed to fit in. Aza has a wonderful voice, but is considered ugly. Due to her looks, her adoptive mother hopes that Aza will make a name for herself at the Sings surrounding the wedding (like a dance, but you show off by singing). Hopefully, her talents like mimicry and illusing (throwing her singing voice, a talent only she has), will help her. The thing that I wonder about, is how people who have never witnessed these skills before will view them. They may see her as an ogre using an enchantment (she looks like one), and try to lock her up. Either way, I think that her voice will influence the outcome of the book.