A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this is not YA. First of all, the heroine is 19. Second, it is lacking the cliches that I've come to dread when picking up a YA book - at least aside from the immature stupidity of the heroine, who insists on doing things she's been counseled / asked / told not to, seemingly oblivious to the danger. Also, the romance is quite adult, so let's at least go with New Adult if we have to label it anything.

This is an engrossing fairy tale retelling that turns into something much more. It's Beauty and the Beast, so the romance is predictable, but it's also about the Fae, whose world is beautiful, magical, wild and violent. The world and its conflicts are revealed at just the right pace to bring it alive. Then the ugly violence of the conflict overtakes the pleasant little romance with a brutality that I found a bit of a shock.

It's a solid start to a series that has me wanting to know more about the world and the Fae, both hopeful and afraid of what will happen to them.

The Silver Pear - Michelle Diener

The Silver Pear by Michelle Diener
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

More like 3.5 stars. For some reason, I liked this a little less than the first one. I think I missed the time spent in the forest (sucker for magical forests here). Also, I was a bit let down by the final confrontations with the sorcerers. I expected them to be more difficult. I do like that the girls are the ones that keep rescuing the guys and have all the power (but that the guys are needed, too).

I did like it, and found it very readable, and still light and fun. I'll be reading more from this author.

The Golden Apple - Michelle Diener

The Golden Apple by Michelle Diener
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Golden Apple is a fairytale retelling, but it's not a fairytale that I'm familiar with so it read more like a light Fantasy to me. This is very light Fantasy - not much world-building, not a huge cast, and the magic system is not a full-blown system. But it's fun and fast-paced.

Sometimes all I need is magic and adventure and a bit of romance without it being in that higher class, and this was just what I needed after some heavier books. It went really quickly, and I had to grab the sequel right away, which I'm also tearing through right now. (This is a duology, and the first novel does not stand alone.)

Is it perfect? Is every character well-developed? Well, no. There's not a lot of depth. But that's ok. I would recommended this for anyone needing a lighter read, not willing to invest in the couple to three hundred pages it often takes to get into a Fantasy world.

Uprooted - Naomi Novik

Uprooted by Naomi Novik
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Uprooted is a standalone Fantasy with Polish fairytale elements. I loved how whimsical Nieshka's magic was, and how she learned to use it. I loved the dark, twisted magic of the Wood. I hated the 'Dragon' wizard at the beginning (what a jerk!), but he grew on me quickly, and I loved him too. I found almost the whole thing compulsively readable and let myself fall under its spell.

I didn't love the part when Nieshka left the valley, and I was surprised at how many people were killed (I wasn't expecting it to be quite that dark). I also felt that the romance could have used a bit more focus, especially at the end. Also, there were not any real dragons in this, so don't expect them.

It might not have been perfect, but I had a really hard time putting the book down and couldn't get it out of my head when I wasn't reading it. The Polish flavor was different and refreshing, and I loved how the magic and the Wood all tied together. Nieshka was a strong and resourceful heroine. What a great story. It was so much fun to read.

Scarlet - Marissa Meyer

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm still liking this series - it still has that unique feel to it, with the cyborgs and sci fi world barely recognizable as our own future. But this was a lot slower to get going than the first book. It was very much one of those build-up to the next book kind of installments.

I do like the addition of the new characters and thought the fairy tale tie-in was well done. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of all the build-up - and to finding out how in the world the next fairy tale fits the story that needs to happen.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making - Catherynne M. Valente

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is such a lovely book! It has that old Victorian fairy tale feeling. It gives off the vibe of Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz or other classic fantasy tales I read when I was a child and can't remember their names. It has a random kind of absurdity along with childlike wonder.

The story is unique, and so imaginative even in the smallest details. I loved the little touches like the soap lady. Valente's writing is beautiful and evocative. I can still see many scenes clearly in my head. She doesn't shy away from the darker fairy tale experience either, which makes it so much more satisfying at the end.

I would have loved this even more as a kid, but I don't think it lost anything reading it as an adult. This is my first book by Valente, but I'll be looking up her adult works now as well as the rest of this series. Highly recommended.

Cinder - Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Wow, Cinder might just be the most original fairytale retelling I’ve ever read. Translated into a dystopic future, with Cinder a cyborg mechanic, I am amazed at how well the tale was weaved into the story of a future world riddled with plague, prejudice against cyborgs, and earth-wide threat from a Lunar power. Getting all that to work with a Cinderella theme that includes all of the important bits - hats off to Meyer’s imagination. I’m impressed.

I do have to temper my ravings due to the bleakness that pervades the book. It’s something that often comes with a Dystopia, and it’s appropriate, but I still can’t ever bring myself to completely ‘enjoy’ something dark and hopeless feeling. So the rating is for my level of enjoyment while experiencing the book - and doesn’t match up to my brain’s appreciation of the cleverness and interest in the story that I still have in spite of the bleakness. That’s saying a lot. So is the fact that I want to move onto the sequel right away… I’m so glad I waited a while to pick this one up because of the cliffhanger ending. I only hope the sequel is as good.

Review: Secondhand Charm

Secondhand Charm by Julie Berry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Secondhand Charm is quite a unique fantasy with a fairytale sort of feel. It’s not a retelling, which I enjoyed because it was fresh and new, but still with the feeling of a fairytale. I read it all in one sitting, and was pleasantly surprised by the turns it took. There’s a bit of romance, very mild, and not the focus of the story. I found it a very enjoyable YA fantasy that stands alone and doesn’t feel teenagery. I’d recommend it to any fairytale fantasy reader. Well, unless you really hate snakes.



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Review: Ella Enchanted

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Ella Enchanted is an entertaining fairy tale retelling of Cinderella, which I'm sure most people know already. I'm not going to say too much about it since it's so well known. The twists on the original tale are well done, and it's not too dark even though Ella goes through some terrible times. I thought the curse was a great way to explain the original magic of the fairy tale.

I had watched the movie version before reading the book, which is always dangerous. It's hard to stay interested if I already know what's going to happen. Thankfully, the book had quite a few differences so I could enjoy it. I do wish I'd been able to read this when I was younger, as it's exactly the kind of tale I would have loved as a kid. As an adult, "I liked it" is as far as I can go.



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Review: Alias Hook

Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



4.5 Stars. I didn't love this quite as much as some of my other 5 star books, but it was so much better than many that I’ve rated 4 stars. Days after finishing, I'm still looking back and thinking, wow that was good, so I'm going to round up to 5 stars.

Alias Hook was a fantastic re-imagining of Peter Pan. I absolutely loved it. It's not just a retelling or a fleshing out of the original tale, but completely turns the whole legend on its head. Jensen turned everything around in such a believable way. I feel like she thought of everything, the picture was so complete. I felt like I was in Neverland, and this was the true story of Peter Pan. It's so well done, so realistic, and the flipped take on the old story makes so much sense when you're looking at everything from an adult's perspective.

Neverland still feels magical, because it's still a fantastic place full of magic and legends like mermaids, fairies, and pirates. But it also feels real, treacherous and sad, with everything subject to the whim of a cruel boy who can never grow up. I can still see many of the scenes in my head, the world is so lushly described.

The story is told from the perspective of Captain Hook. He is a weary, desperate man under a curse that forces him to play his part as the adult villain in Neverland. He has been killed by Peter many times, but can never die, never find release from this endless childhood and endless parade of children who consider killing him and his men the best kind of sport. Now something in Neverland is finally changing, and Hook may finally have a chance to escape the curse if he can only figure out what the chance is before it's too late.

The idea of how Neverland works, with the Lost Boys and Wendies always changing, but Hook and Peter staying the same, was intriguing. I instantly felt sympathy for this man who may have started out a real pirate and a ruthless rogue, but who never deserved the 200 years of torment that he's endured under Peter Pan's tyranny. The story of how Hook got to Neverland, how his hand was lost, and of all of the losses over the years that gradually wearied him of this game of war and death, appealed to me right away. And I hated Peter immediately too, that ruthless, almost insane goblin of a child. I’m happy to say, I got exactly what I wanted for Hook out of this tale, and actually gained a measure of pity for Peter by the end, rather than just hating him. There’s emotional complexity to it, and it’s not all just black and white like fairy tales and retellings often are.

There is some romance in the book, and there are a couple of more explicit scenes so that I would only recommend this to adults. Those scenes and the romance are probably what bring my rating down from the full 5 stars. I felt that matters turned to the physical too suddenly. I prefer emotional and sweet romances where you see how a couple falls in love rather than them deciding to jump in bed all of the sudden. So that aspect didn’t appeal to me so much. At least the two people involved talked to each other and got to know each other first, and the romance doesn’t take over the story. It does fit as part of the whole, even though it brings a more modern view of relationships into it - a minor complaint that is completely based on my preferences in this area. It’s saying a lot that this one aspect didn’t detract from my appreciation of the book much at all.

Highly recommended, especially to those who enjoy classic tales retold. This one’s a gem!

**Received free arc for review through NetGalley.com. Many thanks to the publisher for a book I probably wouldn't have picked up otherwise.



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Review: Princess of Glass

Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I didn't really like Princess of the Midnight Ball all that much but had already bought this one and hoped that the Cinderella tale would lend itself to a more enjoyable retelling. Unfortunately, this focuses on a nasty curse as well. It wasn't as depressing and painful as the previous book, but still not the lighter sort of tale I was hoping for. This series is not in the same tone as the Dragon series that I liked. I will probably skip the next book since I haven't bought it yet.



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Review: A Curse Dark As Gold

A Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I really wanted to love A Curse as Dark as Gold. A historical fantasy set in a mill during the Industrial Revolution - what a perfect setting for a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin.

Unfortunately, it was really hard work to get through this and I skimmed a lot. The writing is tedious, the details of running the mill too thorough and dry. Plus, I was expecting something a bit more industrial out of the setting with a more Dickensian or Gaskellian feel - a mill in a place like Manchester, not in a superstitious village.

The story itself is extremely slow to take off. A hundred pages of mill management could have been chopped out easily. I didn't really like any of the characters either. Most of them remained fairytale remote the whole time. The ending was decent, at least, but a haunted mill with a generational curse should have been much more interesting.



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Review: Princess of the Midnight Ball

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a good retelling of the fairy tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. It is full of the despair and pain of the curse that the princesses suffer. Their silent suffering permeates the kingdom. It is well done as a YA level story, but not exactly a fun tale even with the touch of romance.

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Review: The Amaranth Enchantment

The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The Amaranth Enchantment is a fairytale style fantasy. It has some of the familiar features of a fairytale, but is not simply a rewriting of a traditional tale. The heroine is a formerly wealthy orphan now basically a slave to her uncle's wife. There's also a godmother type figure and a prince, a royal curse - and even a mysterious goat. But these familiar elements are entwined in a new way to make a completely original tale.

I liked it. There was some interesting stuff in there. But unfortunately the romance was a case of insta-love. In a fairytale, how the romance is done is important. If the two characters fall in love at first sight, what is left to tell? It becomes an unexplained, magical event - which might be true of the old tales, but there's a whole novel here to do it more justice.



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Review: The Sleeping Beauty

The Sleeping Beauty by Mercedes Lackey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I really enjoy the ways that Lackey finds to mash up fairytales and come out with a unique tale that works. I love the idea that fairytales are forced on people's lives by the Tradition and the Fairy Godmothers' job is to harness the extra magic and save people from their less desirable fates by forcing the nicer Traditional paths wherever they can. It lets you laugh at the traditional tales and enjoy the magical wonder of them without simply repeating what's been done before. This series is really humorous high fantasy set in a world where fairytales are a danger to people leading their ordinarily magical lives.

I turn to these books when I need something light and entertaining and that doesn't take itself seriously. As with the previous books in the series, Sleeping Beauty was what I needed - humorous, tongue-in-cheek, fluffy, and really quite silly. This might have been one of the sillier ones, in fact. I loved it for that.

It was more of a hodgepodge than the others so far, with an entire magical kingdom full to the brim with Traditional magic. It's not really a Sleeping Beauty tale, although there are bits and pieces of it in there. It's a mish-mash full of Heroes, challenges for the hand of a princess, seven dwarves, a huntsman, dragons, curses, unicorns, talking animals… the list goes on. How the Godmother Lily manages it all is a feat indeed.

There is a sweet romance, but it is not really the focus even though the goal is to win the hand of the princess. I saw another reviewer mention that the story focused more on developing a bromance, and I agree. It was more about the friendship between two of the suitors and the scheming of the Godmother than about the princess herself. It's also a romance without any explicit scenes, which I am thankful for since the first book in the series was a bit more detailed than what I usually like to read.

I do have to mention that in spite of all these magical events, it was still a bit slow in places. And although I found the hodgepodge of fairytales amusing, they made it feel choppy at times. Some of the solutions were a little too coincidental, because you can always throw in another part of a fairytale to fill a need that arises. Not that this prevented me from being entertained, but it's not for everyone.



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Review: A Clockwork Fairytale

A Clockwork Fairytale by Helen Scott Taylor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is an interesting fairytale about a girl brought up as a boy thief, with spies and monks, and a plot to take over the throne. There's a mix of steampunkish gadgets and a sort of magic involving the spark inside of things that can be brought out and manipulated.

There is plenty here to entertain, and the romance is sweet, although it jumps up rather than building slowly. I do feel that it could have used some more polishing in some places, and I have a couple unanswered questions (maybe there will be a sequel?), but all-in-all it was a quick, fascinating read. I wouldn't mind reading a follow-up story.



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Review: Dragon Slippers

Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Creel is a poor farmer's orphan whose aunt decides to give her to the local dragon in hopes that a prince will rescue her. Somehow Creel manages to survive this folly, and makes her way to the capital city in search of work as a seamstress. There she toils and toils, attracting both supporters and enemies, and must battle pettiness and jealousy to make her place. As politics boil over, a simple pair of slippers only complicates matters.

Dragon Slippers is a fun fantasy that feels like a real fairytale without being a retelling of an old tale (at least I don't think it is). I really enjoyed that, because with a retelling you always know where it's generally headed. This one was fresh and vivid. It has darkness alongside beauty, hard work alongside magic, and friendship overcoming the blackest of odds. Highly recommended for Young Adult fairytale lovers.



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Review: Daughter of the Forest

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Daughter of the Forest is an absorbing, heart-breaking story. It's a retelling of the classic fairytale of the Wild Swans, and it doesn't gloss over the darker implications. Wallowing in the misery of them is more like it.

In Ireland in the time of the Druids, Sorcha is a healer and a true child of the forest. Each of her six brothers is distinctly drawn, and the bonds of love and loyalty between them are firmly established - tangible, almost. As everything falls apart, their closeness makes the rest of the tale both vivid and believable.

The writing is beautiful, especially during the time of childhood innocence. But ultimately this is a dark tale full of pain and anguish, and loss. I'm not sure I've ever read a sadder happy ending. It stays true to the horror of what happens to the seven siblings, recognizing that too much is broken by the evil enchantment for a magical, tidy fix-up at the end to be at all realistic. Thankfully there is a bit of happiness to the ending, although it is bittersweet.

I normally don't enjoy books that are so sad and depressing, but it's hard not to appreciate how well done this retelling is, and hard not to be curious about how the dangling threads will continue in the next book.

Content: includes rape, threats of rape, and non-graphic sex.



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Review: The Fairy Godmother

The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This is the start to a really fun series - an imaginative take on fairy tales. The setting is an imaginary world with 500 kingdoms, each with a Fairy Godmother assigned to keep the magic of the Tradition in line so that evil doesn't gain a foothold and people get their happy endings. The Tradition is powerful magic that forces people down the paths of fairy tales when their lives begin to show signs of belonging to one of them. For example, in this tale, Elena is being forced into the role of Cinderella. Unfortunately for her, however, there's no prince in her kingdom to complete the tale properly, and Elena has an abundance of magic that could all go wrong. Instead, she gets adopted by the region's Fairy Godmother and becomes her apprentice.

Each book that I've read in this series (4 so far) is unique. The fairy tales are re-imagined, not just retold, and they benefit from a fresh setting within the larger context of a fully developed world and magic system. They are also perfect for when you need something light to read with a guaranteed happy ending.



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Review: The Last Unicorn

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I read this mainly because I've heard it's a fantasy classic, and felt I should. It was indeed magical, and read like a true fairytale with a unicorn and other mythical creatures, a noble prince with quests, a wizard, and an evil king. I can see why it's a classic.

I'm only giving it 3 stars, though, because the emotional connection and immediateness of more modern fantasy isn't there, and it felt like watching the story from afar. The characters definitely felt emotions. Intellectually, I know they felt danger, love, hope, and despair. But I didn't feel involved or really invested in the characters myself. So based on pure reading experience, it's only a 3, but with recognition that it's still a really great classic fairytale.



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