The Girl With Borrowed Wings

I finished this book last night, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.  I'm still thinking and puzzling it out in my mind which is a good thing, I guess.  It's beautiful and lyrical with just the right mix of fantasy and realism.  I really loved most of it!  I think my problem is that I don't want it to be a romance.  I think I would have liked it better if Frenenqer, the protagonist, had been a little more independent in the end.  I would love to know your thoughts, so read it and get back to me!

Frenenqer's father created her from his thoughts on a pilgrimage in Spain.  She would be the perfect daughter.  Even her name, Frenenqer, means "restraint."  This is how her father has raised her, closing off each little part of her creativity, freedom, and heart, until she obeys out of habit, until she is too shut off to fell anything but doubt, shame, and fear.

Because of her father's job, Frenenqer has lived all over the world.  She doesn't really have a home, and she always feels like an outsider.  For several years her family has lived on the oasis, a small habitable cage in the middle of the deadly ocean of middle eastern desert.  Even in the oasis, the air is deadly hot, and the social customs and rules of behavior feed into her father's desire to control and shape his daughter.

One day in the animal souk, she sees a mostly dead cat locked in a cage.  This will be the first time she defies her father.  Life is more important than anything, right?  But once she's saved this cat, she discovers he is not what he seems, and though he quickly becomes enamored of Frenenqer,  she can only be the creature her father created. 

Fans of Nancy Werlin will enjoy Rinsai Rossetti's debut novel.  Cool fact, the author was eighteen when she finished this book!