Book Review: Cinderella Dressed In Ashes (The Grimm Diaries #2)

Release Date: August 15, 2013
Author: Cameron Jace
Publisher: J A W I G I (I Think)
Length: 253 pages
Source: Purchased eBook

Loki is controlled by the Queen through his Dreamhunter's Fleece, and he's now Snow White's enemy. No one's sure what the Queen of Sorrow wants to do next, and what her plans with Sorrow are.

In another Dreamory, they learn who Cinderella really is, where she came from, her relationship with Snow, and what historical period she'd affected with what she calls the Forbidden Art.

The Second installment of the Grimm Diaries.

This Diary continues the adventure, from Snow White's POV.

  

Review:

Protagonists: One of the things I really enjoyed about this story was that we really got to see from multiple perspectives, unfortunately, none of those were Loki, but honestly, in the end, I didn't care about not exploring his story further in this tale. The first main POV we get to see from is Snow/Shew who takes center stage in this story of her connection to the Cinderella character comes to light. I have to say that I did like Snow's character development better than Loki's. While Loki mostly glided through his story not really doing much and leaving the heavy lifting to everyone else until near the very end, Snow took less time to start to take control of her life. Granted it still took her longer than I wanted but when she did things really began to heat up. The other characters we see are Axle and Fable, stuck in the Waking World trying to help Snow and Loki. There still really isn't all that much character development with these two. I feel like the things they did by the end were things they would have done at the beginning of the series and Axle is a wealth of Deus Ex Machina information and theories that just so happen to be correct, and yet never feeling truly earned.

Writing: Much like with the first installment, my biggest criticism is the writing. This book has so much potential, and really this book feels like a fantastic first draft, but it's seriously unpolished and really needed to go through some critical beta readers and a professional editor. It's not just that there's bad grammar, spelling mistakes, and typing errors. While he's getting better, the author still does a lot of telling instead of showing in this story and sometimes he has way too many extraneous details. There are still characters who just show up and know things or remember every little detail of stories that they really shouldn't have perfect recall on, there are huge Deus Ex Machina moments, some that make sense, but others that just feel unnecessary. The author still feels like he doesn't quite know his target audience, though I think some of that is using more general words for much grander things and having things come off a bit basic and more aligned with a Middle-Grade story than a YA one, though he still uses cheesy terminology which definitely skews more MG.

World Building: Once again, the thing I feel holds the most promise in this story is how the author weaves history with fairy tales and classic stories. However, there were definitely a few times in this book that things got needlessly complicated and convoluted instead of the complexity that I'm sure the author was going for. The Cinderella in this story, Cyrenè, isn't just "Cinderella" I won't tell you all who she is, but there's a fairy tale that she's connected to that just doesn't quite seem to fit with the theme the author was try to ascribe to her. Also, classic stories got more involved in this world with explanations that, while interesting, just made the story feel cluttered. Since we're in Snow's Dreamory, we see things from her past and learn more about her background, but since she has control of her actions in the dream, it's hard to know what's really happened and what Snow changed from her story.

Predictability: Something I feel this author needs to understand is that foreshadowing is a great friend to an author. The thing is, you can make stuff up as you go along, but you need to be able to introduce it in some small way earlier in the story so that readers think you're playing by your own rules, and while you can break your own rules once or twice for special occasions, breaking them for next to no reason isn't a good idea. There were a few new concepts in this story that were introduced with no preamble and everything about them just felt chaotic and tacked on, as opposed to a living and breathing part of this world. There are for sure some fantastic moments in this story when the author gets the foreshadowing just right and brings everything together for an amazing twist or moment, but the times when he didn't, or couldn't in the cases of things that should have been teased in the first book, really didn't help the book.

Ending: So, as far as I can tell this is the second book in a four-book series. I know the prequels exist, but, again, as far as I can tell this plot that was started in the first book will only last two more books and that troubles me. As of the end of this book, I feel there is still so much to explore in this time and plot, and that's just with the story started in the first book, that's not even counting the story started in this one or the other stories that this book promised. Do I think the author can tie up all his loose ends in just two books, sure, but I'm afraid it would have to be extremely rushed and I don't know how effective it could be if he does. The climax to this book brings many new questions and theories and while the book ends with a startling cliffhanger and a puzzle for readers to solve, I feel like we're just at the beginning of a much larger and more expansive tale.

Rating:

Much like the first installment, this story holds so much promise and if things were polished up I bet this story could truly shine. The author's writing is marginally better in this installment, which only makes me hope more that he'll revisit and revise this series at some point because I feel that I can see this world's potential and I want it to reach that potential so badly.

Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen (Villain Tales #1)

Release Date: August 18, 2009
Author: Serena Valentino
Publisher: Disney Press
Length: 250 pages
Source: Purchased Book

The tale of the young princess and her evil stepmother, the Wicked Queen, is widely known. Despite a few variations from telling to telling, the story remains the same—the Queen was jealous of the girl’s beauty, and this jealousy culminated in the Queen’s attempt on the sweet, naive girl’s life.

Another tale far less often spoken of is the one that explains what caused the Queen to become so contemptuously vile. Still, some have attempted to guess at the reason. Perhaps the Queen’s true nature was that of a wicked hag and her beautiful, regal appearance a disguise used to fool the King. Others claim that the Queen might have hated the girl for her resemblance to the King’s first wife. Mostly, the Queen is painted as a morally abhorrent woman who never loved another being during the course of her miserable life.

In fact, the theories about exactly what cause the Queen’s obsessive vanity and jealous rage are too numerous to catalog. This book recounts a version of the story that has remained untold until now. It is a tragic tale of love and loss, and it contains a bit of magic. It is a tale of the Wicked Queen…

    

Review:

Protagonist: With this being a story about how the queen in Snow White becomes the deplorable envious woman she is, it's no surprise that nearly all of this book focuses on that queen. One of my biggest problems with this book is that the Queen is never given a proper name, only being called "the Queen." Now I know she doesn't have a name that's officially canonical, but if the author did, or was allowed to, give her a name it would have added a sense of realness to the story since everyone from her husband, her stepdaughter, to the friend she viewed as a sister, called her anything but a given name and that kind of bothered me quite a bit. As to her characterization, by the end of the book I understand why she's as horrible as she is, I can even see how the catalyst that drove her into her jealousy did so, but considering how sweet and loving she was for most of this book it's really hard to fit that with the character we know from the movie and the person she is by the end of this story.

World-Building: Speaking of not being able to fit two pieces together, the book and the movie were really hard for me to connect with so much of this story. There are only two major characters in this book that are also in the movie, the Queen and Snow White, however for most of the movie the Queen is a kind soul who only seeks love in her life and Snow is a small child holding no real personality traits other than being sweet and innocent. That being said for so much of this book it felt as though this could easily be another story completely if Snow White's name was changed and that story wouldn't bee all that compelling, unfortunately. The story was okay for the most part but other than learning more about the Queen's background and the circumstances that made her who she was, this world was never really fleshed out. The Queen had a husband who was constantly off defending his kingdom, but from who? Barely any of this book takes place somewhere not seen in the movie and I just wish I could feel this world more wholly. That there wasn't this vague sense of a kingdom that was barely held together by nostalgic memories of the movie.

Predictability: Another aspect of the story that I wasn't a huge fan of was how predictable it was. After a certain point, it was easy to see where the story was going and that was long before the aspects of the movie started to bleed into this story. That's not to say that there weren't some interesting surprises, there were connections to other classic Disney stories that I rather enjoyed and certain aspects of the movie were expanded upon to give it a much more realistic feeling, There was even a twist in the end that I did not see coming.

Ending: I'm not sure what to say about this ending that will give this review more substance. The ending of this book is basically the Queen's role in the Snow White movie. There are some embellishments here and there that go with this expanded story and universe, but it's not as if there was some magical twist that changed everything forever. There is an epilogue, and other than one surprising, although idealistic, twist it wasn't necessary. In fact, I almost feel as though the story would hold more power without that. Where that last official chapter ended wrapped up the moral of this story so well and really hit everything home rather well.

Rating:

This book isn't a total waste of time, in fact, if you're someone who's a huge fan of the Disney Snow White movie you may even love this, but for me, it was too hard to connect with the movie and I'm sure that the author was restricted by Disney from expanding this world but I wish that she would have/could have given this world the depth and vitality that it needed.

Book Review: Mirrored

Release Date: September 15, 2015
Author: Alex Flinn
Publisher: HarperTeen
Length: 384 pages
Source: eARC via Edelweiss

Mirror, mirror in my hand…

Beauty is the key to everything. At least, that’s how it seems to Violet—ugly, bullied, and lonely. To be beautiful, in her eyes, is to have power and love. And when Kendra, the witch, teaches Violet how to use magic, she may finally get what she wants.

For Celine, beautiful since birth, her looks have been a hindrance. She discovers that beauty is also a threat—especially to her stepmother, Violet, who doesn’t want anyone sharing the attention she worked so hard to get and who will do anything to be the fairest of them all.

But beauty isn’t only skin deep and love isn’t based on looks alone. And though Violet and Celine may seem to be completely opposite, their lives are almost… mirrored.

    

Review:

Characters: This book starts off with the story of Violet, the "weird" and "ugly" girl who is tormented at school. She feels if she could just be beautiful then that would change everything. Then she meets Kendra who shows her how to use her magical gifts. Then we have Celine's part of the story where Violet is now her stepmother who hates that Celine has naturally what it took Violet a lot of magic to get. What I really enjoyed seeing from these two characters is how their lives were so coincidentally mirrored. I mean I know it's not really a coincidence, but anyway. It was interesting seeing how even though there are vast differences in their lives, they struggled with a lot of the same things. While Violet becomes an evil and wicked stepmother to Celine she wasn't always that way, and I liked getting to see how she got where she did. She sort of reminded me of Levana from the Lunar Chronicles.

Romance: So at first I was totally digging this romance. The stuff in the Violet part can hardly be called romance, but it did a lot to help establish the story once we got to present day. Then there's the romance Celine takes part in. I kind of don't want to tell you who it is, mainly because it becomes so obvious who it is not too long into the book. That romance started off with a good slow burning romance. Nothing becoming too romantic, but then as we enter into a new part, things go from sweet innocent budding romance to full on "true love." I know there were a lot of factors going into how things had to go, but I felt like the author could have taken a bit of creative license adjusted some of the stuff needed from the Snow White Fairy Tale.

World-Building: So I love a good fairy tale retelling, and actually this was a pretty good one. First we get the backstory of the Evil Queen character, or at least who fills her role for this retelling. It provides a lot of much needed background info and in a lot of ways makes me feel and almost care for Violet before she goes full psychopath. Then we get into the actual retelling. I was surprised and delighted to see how much from the original tale got transferred over to this modern day retelling. My only criticism here, and it's really a personal things was how much pop culture was squeezed into this book. Like I don't mind a little pop culture in the books I read, I don't even mind that some of the time the pop culture reference is veiled and distorted so the author doesn't get sued. However it felt like there was way too much pop culture in this book, especially for a fairy-tale retelling, that it began to get on my nerves.

Predictability: WOW, this book was very predictable. I kid you not the foreshadowing was laid on extremely thick. Granted there were a few times when I was genuinely surprised by a twist or two. However, those were very few and far between. Look, I understand the need for foreshadowing, I understand that without it the story wouldn't flow quite the same way, and things would seem to come from out of no where. However the author pretty much spells out the "twist ending" long before it happens, and I was suspecting it long before even that. I just sort of wish there wasn't something pointing to almost each and every twist.

Ending: So the ending, like I said, was super predictable, however there were one or two things that didn't happen quite the way I expected. First of the final climax was way shorter than I had expected, then there was sort of a predictable ending, and at first I thought it was over. However there's a final part to this story that acts a an epilogue of sorts  It's not bad exactly, however things begin to make less and less sense, and then finally the story ends in a nicely tied up and enclosed way.

Rating:

So there's a lot to love about this story. It's a fun modern retelling of the Snow White Tale. However, the romance feels like it skipped a couple steps there were too many pop culture references, the story was extremely predictable, and by the end one character's motivations were so flimsy and weak that it made them a very non-compelling character.

Book Review: Snow White Sorrow (The Grimm Diaries #1)

Release Date: May 30, 2013
Author: Cameron Jace
Publisher: J A W I G I
Length: 286 pages
Source: Purchased Book

What if all you knew about fairy tales was wrong?

Sixteen year old Loki Blackstar is no Prince Charming. His mother is a ghost. His only friend is a red Cadillac that sings to him through the radio. He looks like an Angel but acts like jerk. No wonder he has been banned from Heaven, which is the least of his troubles. Loki needs a job to pay for school and support himself.

Still, Loki has a rare gift: He is a Dreamhunter. One of the few in the world who can hunt and kill immortal demons in their dreams so they never wake up again.

When Loki is sent to kill a sixteen-year-old vampire girl the locals call Snow White Sorrow, he is pulled into a magical but dangerous world. The locals believe the monster to be Snow White.

The real Snow White... living in the ruins of an ancient castle in a small town. She is described as horribly beautiful, terrifyingly enchanting, and wickedly lovely.

What he finds instead is a beautiful monster girl filled with rage and hurt, who has an epic untold story to tell of things such like why the Brothers Grimm altered the fairy tale, who the Evil Queen really is, where the mirror came from, and who possessed it.

Snow White has killed every person who has dared come near the castle where she once lived with the queen. Mysteriously, she lets Loki live, and whispers two words in his ears; two words that will change his life forever.

  

Review:

Protagonist: Loki Blackstar is a kid with no past. The earliest thing he remembers is the past year. He's told he has one year to kill ninety-nine vampires in order to restore his place in Heaven and his status as a Half-Angel Dreamhunter. So at first I wasn't sure what I thought of Loki. I mean he's a fairly likable character, but his insistence on getting back to Heaven, a place he has never seen and only heard of felt a bit off. However as the book progresses his view of the world is changed and he begins to focus on who his future rather than his past.

Romance: So I'm very on the fence about how I feel about the romance. It starts off with a slow burn, I guess, but it's more like Loki's interest is piqued by Snow White, and then in just a few hours they fall in love. Now these few hours are very intense and part of me can really see them believing they've fallen for each other, but no matter how intense the time is I don't truly believe they could actually fall in love in just a few hours. Since this is a fairy-tale story I figured I wouldn't let it bother me and just bask is the quick romance.

World-Building: So like I said this is a fairy-tale book, but for about half the book I wasn't getting the fairy-tale vibe I was hoping for. Maybe the prequel novellas kind of ruined it for me. I mean going into it I knew it wasn't going to take place in a fairy-tale-esque medieval world and that it would take place in a more modern day setting, but still I think I expected a more fantasy or urban fantasy touch to is that wasn't fulfilled with vampires, witches, and werewolves. However once we reach the second half, there's a lot of fairy tale wonder to explore. I won't say much but it sort of makes up for the lack of a magical fairy-tale presence in the beginning. It's about time to hear the real Snow White tale. P.S. Sorry for the awkward transition but I wasn't sure where to put this or how to get there, but there is a plot hole of sort, well actually there are a few things that didn't make sense and not in a "We'll find out later" way, but this specifically didn't make sense. We meet Loki in the second prequel Ashes to Ashes, Cinder to Cinder and well let's just say something don't really add up.

Writing: So, my biggest bone to pick with this book is the writing. This is a Young Adult novel, however it has this Middle Grade cheesy quality to it that really bothered me, I mean it was so cheesy that even if this was a Middle Grade novel I would have gotten annoyed with it. I felt like the author was trying to tone down the book where he should have embraced it. I mean in certain scenes where things are getting dark there's usually some sort of moment of humor or levity that completely undercuts the darkness of this tale. I mean embrace the darkness especially when writing a dark fairy tale. Sometimes the writing felt a bit awkward too, like things just didn't click like they should have. Now the grammatical errors, miscapitalizations, and formatting errors I can get past, but I decided to mention it for those who can't.

Predictability: I wouldn't say this book is overly predictable, mainly because like I said for about the first half of this book not all that much happened. However, after this book takes off there's a lot more that happens and a lot of twists. Some things that surprised me just sort of happened.without explanation and no real build up to it, just sort of Deus Ex Machina style. When things are foreshadowed and make sense though things are really cool. There were a few twists that I was able to catch onto, but the biggest twists, the things that I could never quite predict didn't happen until the very end.

Ending: So when the final climax started I didn't know what to expect. It didn't go down like I thought it would, but the scene was actually rather badass, though there was that weird level of humor to the darkness that annoyed me. When things started to cool down there were quite a few twists, these are game changing, crazy, and revealing twists. Everything culminates in a rather heart shattering cliffhanger.

Rating:

So this book was a bit of a disappointment, or rather a large portion of it was. I was hoping for something more fantastical and fairy-tale-esque, and while the story picked up toward the end and became very compelling, with the weird writing style and the damage already done, there was still a lot that just really disappointed me. The silver lining though is that the next book holds a lot of promise.

Omnibus Review: The Grimm Diaries Prequels 10.5-14.5

Release Date: June 27, 2013
Author: Cameron Jace
Publisher: Independently Published
Length: 146 pages
Source: Borrowed eBook

10.5) Happy Valentine’s Slay by Wee Willy Winkie The real Sandman Grimm sheds a light on what happened in Jawigi, and tells about how some of the teens in Sorrow spend their Valentine’s Day.

11) Children of Hamlin by the Devil The Devil tells the story of the Piper of Hamlin, who he really is, the historical events he witnessed, and his relationship to Ladle Rat. Most of all, why they call him the Black Death.

12) Tooth & Nail & Fairy Tale by Jack Madly Jack Madly stole a sack full of baby teeth from Bluebeard’s enchanted castle, which reminds him of when he first met the Tooth Fairy when he was a child; a memory he wishes to forget.

13) Ember in the Wind by the Little Match Girl All the Little Match Girl wants is to sell her matches so she uses the money to eat and find shelter from the cold. But no one in the cruel city of crowded London helps her. Eventually, she learns something about who she really is, and it changes her life forever.

14) Jar of Hearts by the Queen of Sorrow The Queen of Sorrow, still trapped in the Dreamworld summons Cassandra, the fortuneteller, to ask her about the identities of Lost Seven. The problem with Cassandra is that she’s cursed that her predictions will never be believed. The Queen is still determined to believe her, but it will cost more than she can bargain for.

14.5) Welcome to Sorrow, a bonus prequel

  

Reviews:

Happy Valentine's Slay: So this story was weird. It's told from the POV of Sandman Grimm... the REAL Sandman Grimm. However once we get some backstory on him, along with some really heavy handed foreshadowing he launches into a Valentine's Day story that features a lot of my favorite characters from this series. However, the third person point-of-view changes so much and the story goes on weird tangents so often that the story itself just sort of falls flat. The characters are great, and it's awesome to see them all interacting, it's just that things were kind of boring and with things moving around so often it took a while for the story to sort of meld into something enjoyable. However toward the end things really started to get interesting...

Rating:

So yeah, if this story was told differently or things had sort of come together quicker I may have enjoyed this story more, but in the end it just feels like a hodgepodge of random information that just sort of melts into a story by the end.

The Children of Hamlin: This story, in a sense, takes place right after the last one. It's told from the point of view of the Devil. In it he tells the story of the Piper, much the same as I've heard before, though with a few Grimm Diaries tweaks added here and there. The big thing though is how the Piper fits into the larger story and who he is, or will be, to Ladle. The story itself is richly described. I've come to terms with the voice of the Devil and that he won't be this purely evil being, and that he's more of this devilishly silly character. The way he tells this story adds a levity to the otherwise somber tale. And then at the end there is quite a bit of information that helps expand this world even further and points the origins of certain things.

Rating:

So for the most part I really liked this story it was a lot more entertaining and easier to keep up with than the previous prequel and it sort of combines the two types of prequels usually told, one more plot related and another that's a fun and twisted version of an old classic. My only point of contention is that there were just a few times when the story sort of lulled and the background information to the story felt a bit too heavy handed.

Tooth & Nail & Fairy Tale: So... this tale is probably the weirdest in this set so far. In this tale we find Jack who has just stolen a bag of baby teeth from Bluebeard, and then goes into a tale about how Jack sort of stumbles onto three children in a school about to go to the dentist's. In this tale Jack helps them escape the demonic dentist and in the process runs into the Tooth Fairy. It's, like I said, a rather strange tale but it does a lot to foreshadow and build up to some really cool things  The story and mythology itself is actually pretty entertaining. There are a few twists here and there that I really loved and I like how this world keeps growing and we learn the backstories of certain characters.

Rating:

So this is another one that was a lot of fun, but just sort of lagged in a few areas. Overall I enjoyed it, I just wasn't swept away by it.

Ember in the Wind: So the story of The Little Match Girl is a tragic one, there are endings in which the girl has a happy ending, but it's usually because she dies and goes to heaven. This story however is a bit different. Going into this story I didn't know what to expect, I knew it was a story in which this young match girl discovers her destiny but I did't know much beyond that. It doesn't take long however to figure out who she really is and what her role in everything might be. What I really loved though was that it never felt like the author was trying to hide her destiny or pretend that the heavy handed foreshadowing was just supposed to be a teaser for the big reveal. It just all sort of made sense. This story got me very excited for the main series and this character's role in it.

Rating:

I was utterly entranced by this tale. It's enthralling, entertaining, and has a bit of a somberness to it. You feel sorry for the main character until everything is revealed and then I got a bit jealous of her.

Jar of Hearts: This story takes place a bit after Jawigi and tells the story of how the Queen of Sorrow enlists Cassandra to tell her who the Lost Seven are. The trick with Cassandra though is that while her predictions are always accurate, albeit sometimes vague, anyone who asks the question will never believe the prediction. Now, while this story got off to a bit of a rocky start, I was anxious and excited to learn who the Lost Seven are. However, since this is a series that thrives on the idea of the unreliable narrator, it's impossible to know for sure who the Lost Seven are, regardless though by the end it is fairly clear who five of the Seven are, though two remain very vague and their descriptions could apply to more than one person. I found the infusion of Greek mythology very fun and the character of Cassandra is very entertaining. I love how the Queen continues her deceit and how you never quite know what's up her sleeves.

Rating:

So if it wasn't for the bumpy start I would have really loved this tale. It answers a few burning questions and leaves some things left to be pondered.

Welcome to Sorrow: So this isn't so much a story as it is an expositional vehicle to begin to finally introduce the main series. In this tale we are greeted bu Igor who shows us around Sorrow as it is now, no longer a medieval kingdom full of fairy-tales now it's more of a modern day small town full of fairy-tale characters who will soon wake up from their one hundred year sleep. In it we learn more about the town and the dark mystery it keeps hidden. As a bonus prequel it did well, but honestly I didn't really need a tour around Sorrow, it was a fun little side thing, but for the most part it was pretty boring. Toward the end things started to speed up but that was more so Igor could tease a little for the first main series story Snow White Sorrow.

Rating:

So yeah, there's nothing particularly special about this book, but it's not awful either, and since it was a bonus shorter prequel I'm not going to do too much complaining.

Book Review: Charmed (Fairy Tale Reform School #2)

Release Date: March 1, 2016
Author: Jen Calonita
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Length: 288 pages
Source: eGalley via NetGalley

Charmed is the exciting sequel to the wildly popular Flunked -- second in the brand new Fairy Tale Reform School series where the teachers are (former) villains. "Charming fairy-tale fun." -Sarah Mlynowski, author of the New York Times bestselling Whatever After series.

It takes a (mostly) reformed thief to catch a spy. Which is why Gilly Cobbler, Enchantasia’s most notorious pickpocket, volunteers to stay locked up at Fairy Tale Reform School…indefinitely. Gilly and her friends may have defeated the Evil Queen and become reluctant heroes, but the battle for Enchantasia has just begun.

Alva, aka The Wicked One who cursed Sleeping Beauty, has declared war on the Princesses, and she wants the students of Fairy Tale Reform School to join her. As her criminal classmates give in to temptation, Gilly goes undercover as a Royal Lady in Waiting (don’t laugh) to unmask a spy…before the mole can hand Alva the keys to the kingdom.

Her parents think Gilly the Hero is completely reformed, but sometimes you have to get your hands dirty. Sometimes it’s good to be bad…

    

Review: 

Protagonist: Gillian Cobbler is back and is being heralded as a hero around Enchantasia. Although she remains at the Fairy Tale Reform School, for the most part Gilly is already reformed. She has no real desire to go back to thieving and with her father's business booming she doesn't really need to. Her character development in this book stems more from the fact that she doesn't know quite how to handle the praise she's been showered with and because of that it causes some tension with her and her friends. When this all comes to a head I have to admit I felt like things were resolved just a bit too quickly and easily but other than that I really enjoyed Gilly's character development in this book.

World-Building: So I will say that I was really impressed with the world-building in this installment. We get to see more about how the kingdom of Enchantasia is run, how things are decided and how the three princesses that rule it work together. While I am still a bit confused as to where their princes fit into all of this, mainly as they are never mentioned, but considering that I feel much less left in the dark as to the politics and government of this world I'll let it slide for now. In this book we do meet a new teacher to the reform school, I won't give anything away but I thought he was a great addition to the cast of former villains, though he wasn't the one I initially thought he would be. As for any possible romance in this book, well there's not enough to warrant a separate section, and it's not that I need a romance in this book or anything, but I do feel as though there were so many hints at a romance the previous installment that I had expected to see a bit more. Again, not a criticism, more of an observation.

Predictability: Much the previous installment in this series things were pretty predictable. While the foreshadowing may go over the heads of the younger audience that this series is intended for, it was really easy for me to pick up on where things in the story were going. However I was never annoyed or bored by that, probably because I knew it wasn't intended for a 22 year old, but I still found immense enjoyment out of both the story and the twists within.

Ending: So going into the final climax I began to wonder if this "series" was going to end up being a duology. Things were wrapping up rather well and I couldn't see enough content for more installments unless the author invented some after the dust had settled. However after the fabulous final climax, which unlike the previous book wasn't over to quickly or easily, I began to see the threads of where things might go from here, but it wasn't until after the final chapter, yes, I said "after," that I knew there was at least one more adventure in this series. The end is a cliffhanger and a doozy of one at that.

Rating:

So I knew in my gut once I finished this book that it deserved four stars. It's such an enjoyable adventure and if I was as young as the target audience (8-12) I think I would have loved this book all the more. I can't wait for another adventure in Entantasia!

Book Review: The Shadow Queen (Ravenspire #1)

Release Date: February 16, 2016
Author: C. J. Redwine
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Length: 400 pages
Source: eGalley via Edelweiss

Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.

In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart.

But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.

    

Review:

Protagonists: This book is told from at least three different third person points of view. but for the most part it's told from the point of view of Lorelai and Kol. Lorelai is the princess of Ravenspire forced to flee after a failed attempt to show her kingdom the cruelty of her step-mother, Irina. At the beginning of the book Lorelai is training to try and grow her magic enough to face Irina, she starts off very serious and a bit timid, but as the story continues she starts to come out of her shell and become more and more confident. Kol on the other hand has always been the ne'er-do-well second prince, but after a tragedy forces to crown of his kingdom on his head he has find a way to save his people, even if that means making a deal with the devil. Both these characters are very fleshed out, and have great character arcs over the course of this book.

Romance: I was really surprised at how well the romance was written. Not necessarily because I doubted the skill of the author, but more because this is in many senses a standalone, and normally standalones tend to speed up the romance so that when the characters say "I love you" it doesn't seem forced or rushed (ironically it rarely works) in this book though, had the characters said "I love you" to each other, regardless of the fairly light amount of romance, or maybe because of it, I would have felt that they earned it, but these characters keep their heads and take a more realistic view of their romance. Which, of course, I really enjoyed.

World-Building: So going into this I expected a full on fairy-tale retelling, however while this is undeniably a Snow White retelling, other than a few moments that mirrored the original tale, and a few things that eluded to the story, this wasn't a paint by numbers retelling which I found very refreshing. I think the only bad thing I have to say about the world-building in this book was that not long after the book started we were treated to some intense info-dumping that was kind of hard to grasp at first but as the book went on things made more and more sense.

Predictability: So I have to say that since I was expecting a closer retelling to the Snow White tale there wasn't all that much that I was able to predict about this book. Because of that I was able to experience some crazy twists, thing that made me yell, cry, jump for joy, etc. just, not usually all at the same time. There were quite a lot of the usual things that I was able to predict. The bigger picture, YA formula type of stuff, but the more in depth detailed points were what really made this adventure great.

Ending: You know how in a lot of book to movie adaptations they sometimes add in a battle scene to appeal to a larger audience, well, if this were to ever be made into a movie they wouldn't have to do that. There's a fantastic battle full of action and everything Hollywood movie producers would want from a final confrontation. That's just the first half, the second more intense half of the battle was just perfect, it made me genuinely worried for some of the more important characters in this book. Then there's the epilogue, and while the epilogue didn't focus on what I thought it would, I was happy about that, it felt more real and while there are a few things not completely tied up by the end of this book, there's more than enough to make for a satisfying conclusion to this story.

Rating:

So this was a very hard book to rate, there was a large part of me saying that this should get five stars, but unfortunately there was a larger part that couldn't get over the info-dumping near the beginning of this book. Regardless this is a fantastic fantasy adventure and I cannot wait to see what fairy-tale this author decides to tackle in this world next!

Book Review: Alice Takes Back Wonderland

Release Date: September 28, 2015
Author: David D. Hammons
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Length: 283 pages
Source: Review Copy via NetGalley

After ten years of being told she can't tell the difference between real life and a fairy tale, Alice finally stops believing in Wonderland. So when the White Rabbit shows up at her house, Alice thinks she's going crazy.

Only when the White Rabbit kicks her down the rabbit hole does Alice realize that the magical land she visited as a child is real.

But all is not well in Wonderland.

The Ace of Spades has taken over Wonderland and is systematically dismantling all that makes it wonderful. Plain is replacing wondrous, logical is replacing magical, and reason is destroying madness. Alice decides she must help the Mad Hatter and all those fighting to keep Wonderland wonderful.

But how can she face such danger when she is just a girl?

Alice must journey across the stars to unite an army. She discovers that fairy tales are real in the magical world beyond the rabbit hole. But they are not the fairy tales she knows.

Fairy tales have dangers and adventures of their own, and Alice must overcome the trials of these old stories if she wants to unite the lands against Ace.

With the help of Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Snow White and heroes old and new, Alice may have the strength to take back Wonderland.

    

Review:

Protagonist: When our story begins Alice is just leaving Wonderland and reentering the real world. After that she's put on medication and goes to counseling to quell these delusions she has. Over time, even she begins to doubt Wonderland's existence, then, 10 years after she left Wonderland, the White Rabbit appears. She's thrown back into a Wonderland she doesn't know, on that has changed and shifted to become more logical and orderly, and has lost most of it's wonder. Alice now has to assemble an army of fairy tales and take back Wonderland. Alice is a fantastic character, at first she comes off witty, but not someone to always take charge, she does sometimes, but you can't really rely on her to lead. However over the course of the book she becomes more sure in herself, her motivations, and her decisions. She grows into a character born to lead her army into war for Wonderland.

Romance: So there's actually very little romance in this book. In fact it's so subtle that I didn't fully realize it was romance until Alice and her love interest kissed. I was sort of vaguely aware but I had figured that it was more that I wanted them together than actually thinking their interactions were intentionally romantic. The romance is good, the characters fit and have some great chemistry, but I just wish it'd been more obvious that they were flirting or that the romantic tension was more palpable.

World-Building: Surprisingly this adventure takes place mostly outside of Wonderland. Since most of the wonder has been sucked out of Wonderland, Alice needs to find and army to join her in her fight to overthrow the Ace of Spades. Along the way she teams up with familiar fairy tale characters such as Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Snow White, and Robin Hood all of whom are twisted versions of the classic characters we know and love. Even though we didn't get to see that much of Wonderland I did really enjoy getting to see this vast world and learn how it works. As I said before, these aren't the fairy tales you're used to. Some have become more modern while some keep the same feel of the classic story they come from, and some are a bit of both.

Predictability: So, in terms of the identities or sometimes dual identities of certain characters, those surprises were pretty easy to figure out. There was a lot of foreshadowing for them and by the time the big reveal happened I either had it figured out or the author over killed on the foreshadowing so much that any surprise I could have had was gone a long time ago. That's not to say that I was never surprised during this book. On the contrary, there were many times throughout this book that I wasn't all that sure what was going to happen and definitely during the grand finale I was so unsure of how everything, if anything, would turn out well to give our characters their Happily Ever After.

Ending: So I was relieved that this book ends with a spectacular battle. With as much build up as we had I would have been very annoyed if the ending just sort of sorted itself out without much fighting and casualties. While the final battle isn't as epic as I would have wanted it to be, it was pretty darn epic, and the fallout of it was stressful enough. This doesn't have a perfect or idealistic ending, I was surprised with how surely the author stuck to the whole "not everyone gets happy endings" shtick. The book does however tie up most if not all loose ends which was fantastic, and while it was a bit sad to say goodbye to this world even after only one book, it was a bittersweet one.

Rating:

While I really enjoyed this story, I felt the romance could have either been more pronounced or taken out, the foreshadowing could have been less heavy handed at times, and we could have seen a bit more of Wonderland. Other than that however, this book is chock full of magic, fairy tale twists, and all the action and adventure you could want, oh and flying, there's lots of flying!