It's all about the development between the two characters. Sometimes, a love interest is just there to be a love interest. I really liked that the 'love interest' had a plot of his own. Though I still wish the character had a unique name, Dickerson manages to make her take work and make the story engaging. There are some great beats and fresh takes on the tale of Mulan that make the story more of an inspiration and less of a direct retelling. When Mulan's identity is accidentally shared with the enemy, it becomes known everywhere, but rather than shun her, everyone embraces her and holds her in great esteem - except, of course, the enemy, who only grows more bitter and becomes bent on revenge. They go from being adversaries to friends to having hidden feelings for one another over the course of the book. Mulan's true identity is found out pretty early on by Wolfgang, who will ultimately become the love interest of the story. Now, it's up to Mulan to keep up the ruse so she doesn't bring disgrace to her family and fulfill the prophecy bestowed upon her as a child. Her only other option is to marry the town butcher, who will treat her poorly, and she doesn't want to have the same relationship woes her parents had. Her father gets ill and passes away as war comes, and if Mulan doesn't disguise herself as his son and take his place, her mother will lose her house.

Her father has been on multiple tours and taught her a little, as did his attendant, Andrei. This Mulan is skilled with a bow and arrow, but knows little of swordfighting. Having reasons for the displacement made the fact that the character was named Mulan palatable and much more easy for readers to accept when she was dropped into the universe where all of Dickerson's other fairy tale centered novels take place. He brought her home with him and she was raised as his own - well, actually, she was raised as an orphan so that her mother wouldn't be disgraced by her husband's cheating, and they kept the truth of her birth a secret. Mulan's father went off to war and had an illegitimate daughter. Why wasn't the author using the story as barebones and changing the main character's name? But you know what? The author actually thought about all of that and came up with solid reasons for the displacement. (Ignore the two blank spaces at the beginning I whited out the titles in my screenshotīecause of the in-world aspect, a lot of readers will initially question the story of Mulan, so I'll just address that out of the gate.

Melanie dickerson the warrior maiden