Die Teeprinzessin by Hilke Rosenboom
Journey. Romance. History. Die Teeprinzessin by Hilke Rosenboom. I read it in German where it contained 445 pages. Girls (boys?) nine plus. Originally published 2006.
1856: Betty Henningson, daughter of a silversmith, falls in love. Literally. When she and her best friend Anton eavesdrop on a discussion between Anton's father and a mysterious tea merchant from Darjeeling, she looses her balance, falls down a whole floor and in John Francis Jocelyn's arms and runs away as fast she can. But thinking she'd never see him again would be wrong. When she's made responsible for an accident and is send to Hamburg, her bad luck doesn't let her go: While a mysterious tea merchant turns over every stone for a Betty Hennigson, she looses everything she has… until a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity saves her from starving and brings her to India, to buy tea...
I liked that book pretty much. If you want to know anything about travelling the world in 19th century as well as the opium wars and some aspects of every-day life in that time, this book will give you lots of clues. I like Betty, Fenja and Sikki in particular - and Jocelyn.
Betty herself is nice enough, nothing special but you can definitely relate with her kindness – and suffer with her when bad luck has her in its grips. Gosh, that girl really has a bad time. If there was something like a personification of luck, she had to have accidentally humiliated her in public, and is now getting repaid for that.
Fenja and Sikki aren't anything special either, just good friends of Betty. I'm sorry for Sikki, how she's drawn quite by accident in this real long journey. But Betty can be glad she has her.
I like that Betty's kindness pays her off: The sweets merchant, the little boy and the young mother both save her… That's kinda nice. I wish such a thing happened in real life as well.
The next character would be Betty's childhood friend and his, well, more or less lover. Anton deserved his fate, definitely. What he and his friend did to Betty was really terrible. They hurt her – they used her. You don't do such a thing to people, especially not to people you love.
To Jocelyn: I like him, he's the perfect half of a romantic couple. But unfortunately, he's also flat – and the most unrealistic character of them:
Spoiler:
Why did he put such an effort in finding someone he barely even saw, not to mention talk to? Of course, they are pretty similar in interests, but how would he know? If it was love at first sight and he wanted to get to know her, okay, that is quite realistic. But to spend two years and so much money on it? Seems a little overdone, doesn't it? Especially after she leaves him again! Which was absolutely stupid, by the way. But okay, she was heart broken. And a teenager.
A part from that, the book was tense and full of nice ideas.
In brief:
I give it a star for ideas, content and the extraordinary details on the journeys and aspects of every-day life in 19th century. Minus one for the characters.