I had to read this book as soon as I heard about it. Toads and Diamonds is one of the lesser-known fairy tales but it is also one of my favorite fairy tales ever. There was something that was utterly brilliant to me as a child of having gems and flowers falling from my lips when I spoke.

Tomlinson took the little-known tale and crafted a truly unique story that takes place in a little-known culture. Diribani and Tana are sisters who were both gifted by a goddess in different ways, and become pawns in a dangerous political game. Both discover that blessings can be curses, and curses can be blessings. ( )

Not my style. I felt like I was thrown into the culture and didn't understand what was going on, so I was confused for a good portion of it. But I did like the last 3 chapters. ( )

I really liked this book. The imagery was fantastic and the world the author build brilliant. However, the ending felt rushed. I needed more conclusion and a drawing together of Tana and Diribani's two different stories. Or an epilogue letting the readers know how things turned out. ( )

The sisters in this story reminded me of the sisters in [b:Warbreaker|1268479|Warbreaker|Brandon Sanderson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1240256182s/1268479.jpg|1257385], which is a very good thing. They're really likable characters, and I also loved that the stepmother wasn't evil at all. For a fairytale retelling, that feels almost revolutionary. I also liked the road trip/adventure feel to the story and the intricate world and nicely fleshed out religious systems. It was just a great read :) ( )

Based on Charles Perrault's story, "The Fairies," Toads and Diamonds turns the original tale on its head by focusing on the strength of two sisters' friendship rather than on their animosity. The original tale was short and simple: Two stepsisters were raised along with their mother. One day the kind younger sister goes to fetch water from the well and meets an old woman who asks for a drink. The younger sister, of course, gives her the water and the disguised fairy gifts her with gems and flowers that drop from her lips with every word she speaks. Her mother immediately sends her stepsister off to receive the same gift; except the stepsister is selfish and refuses to be sufficiently kind and is cursed to have snakes and toads fall from her lips instead. The mother blames the younger sister for the elder's curse, and throws her out of the house. She is found weeping by the side of the road by a Prince, who is entranced by the gems and flowers that appear each time she speaks and marries her. The mother eventually grows tired of the elder sister's toads and snakes and throws her out as well.

In this retelling, rather than condemning one sister as a selfish brat and the other as a selfless paragon, both sisters have their strengths and virtues as well as their weaknesses and vices. Both sisters have to use their unexpected gifts to improve the lives of their families and the people around them. Tana's snakes are just as, or even more, useful to her neighbors as Diribani's gems. It's important as well how different the sisters' wishes that lead to their gifts are. Diribani wished for beauty and received flowers and gems every time she talked. The correlation between her wish and her gift are obvious, but the downsides are less so. Time spent at the court of a prince allows Diribani to see why beauty alone can lead to hardship. Tana, on the other hand, wished to be able to protect her family, which had recently fallen into poverty and had few options for raising funds. Her wish is exemplary, but the use of the gift granted is not immediately apparent; she must search to discover how her gift can keep her family safe.

While Diribani immediately recognizes the benefits to having limitless supply of gems at her disposal, the greed and violence of others causes her to lose control of the results of her gift. Furthermore, the constant presence of the jewels leads Diribani to forget why they were astonishing and helpful in the first place. Tana, on the other hand, immediately assumes that her gift of frogs and snakes is a punishment for not showing proper respect to the goddess and assumes that she must atone for her sins. It is only much later that she realizes how helpful the creation of snakes can be in a province ruled by a man terrified of snakes and unable to recognize their use in catching rats, and thus stopping a plague. Both sisters have to recognize that there is more to their gifts than face value and that both of them were equally blessed and cursed by the goddess.

This is such a striking difference from the original tale where one sister reaped all the rewards and the other all the punishments. Instead, the sisters show that no one person is all good or all bad and that women don't need to pitted against each other to teach a moral tale. Even the secondary female characters who first appear to be antagonistic are shown to be multifaceted and just as willing to help the sisters as the sisters are to help them. Basically, the relationships between women in this book are amazing and so refreshing.

While the overall concept behind Toads and Diamonds is definitely exemplary, the execution did leave a few things to be desired. The pacing throughout was odd. While Tana's story fairly consistently moved along and generally seemed to have a purpose and a recognizable narrative arc, there were times when Diribani's story moved at a glacial pace. While her personal revelations, when they did arrive, were gratifying in their content, the context was sudden and disjointed. The conclusion of the novel seemed to come out of nowhere and the book ended very abruptly. Alwar's kidnapping of Diribani and his eventual death had little foreshadowing or development and was over so quickly that it was clear the kidnapping was a slightly clumsy attempt to bring Tana and Diribani together for their final meeting with the goddess that was sloppily tacked to the end of the novel. It felt as if there was little real resolution in the conclusion; so much still felt like it was up in the air.

The interactions between the sisters are somewhat disappointing in how few there are; the sisters are almost immediately separated after receiving their gifts and only reunite for the last chapter or two. In their separation, the sisters remain devoted to each and comfort themselves in their own trials and tribulations with the thought that their sister at least must be happy, but there's really no development in the relationship between them. Their stories are completely separate until those last, contrived scenes.

Personally, I think adding a few more chapters to the end of the novel to really flesh out how the sisters came back together and to more fully connect the two sisters separate journeys would have been nice. I also feel like some better explanation of how the sisters planned to move on and put the lessons they had learned to use would have been nice as well. The book ends with them still standing at the well where they had lost their gifts and with no indication of where they might go in the future.

All the same, overall it was a very good book that I will most likely reread at some point in the future.
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