The Storybook of Legend (Ever After High Book #1) by Shannon Hale

At Ever After High, an enchanting boarding school, the children of fairytale legends prepare themselves to fulfill their destinies as the next generation of Snow Whites, Prince Charmings and Evil Queens...whether they want to or not. Each year on Legacy Day, students sign the Storybook of Legends to seal their scripted fates. For generations, the Village of Book End has whispered that refusing to sign means The End-both for a story and for a life.
As the daughter of the Evil Queen, Raven Queen's destiny is to follow in her mother's wicked footsteps, but evil is so not Raven's style. She's starting to wonder, what if she rewrote her own story? The royal Apple White, daughter of the Fairest of Them All, has a happy ever after planned for herself, but it depends upon Raven feeding her a poison apple in their future.What if Raven doesn't sign the Storybook of Legends? It could mean a happily never after for them both.


I love the Ever After High series on YouTube so when I saw this on the shelf in the shop I was like : "Oooooo there's books!" *grabby hands*

Thumbs Up!
I love Raven the daughter of the Evil Queen from Snow White and I really enjoyed getting to know a bit more about her home life and her home life. I was a bit confused about just how the reliving their parents stories actually works but maybe that'll be explained later on.
Maddie the daughter of the Mad Hatter was also a highlight of the book and her little discussions with the Narrator who she can hear where something to look forward to. She's great!
Basically Raven doesn't want to fill her mother's roll in the Snow White story and spends the whole of this book proving that she won't vanish/die if she doesn't vow to be the next Evil Queen. This made it a fun little mystery.

Thumbs Down!
I HATE Snow White's daughter, Apple White. I dislike her in the series and there was nothing in this book that made me change my mind, in fact I think it only cemented it more. As soon as she showed up I just wanted her to go away again.

All in All
Really interesting because of the background information.

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Belle (Book #3 Fairy Tale Flirts!) by Lisa Scott

Belle’s father is sidelined by a stroke, and she’s determined to save his job as a master carpenter for the mysterious Prince Maxim. Despite her training, completing work on the Prince’s library is harder than she imagined, with the elusive prince watching her every move from the shadows. Belle’s intrigued by the intelligent, kind man who won’t let himself be seen. Is Belle the one to help him move beyond his painful past?
(Image and Description from Goodreads)

Needless to say this instalment of Fairy Tale Flirts! is bases on Beauty and the Beast (my all time favourite fairytale EVER!) 

For Belle we are joining or heroine Belle Foster at Grimm Towers as she completes her father's commission in Prince Maxim's (hello Beast) apartment. 

I loved reading about a Belle who worked with her hands and didn't just sit around reading or mindlessly exploring all day long. She is there to do a job and she is determined to get it done. 

Our Beast character does an acceptable amount of wallowing but when needed he puts his on issues aside and steps up - which gave him plenty of Brownie points in my books. 

And then we have the supporting characters who are predominantly made up of the servants in Maxim's apartment. I loved how happy they were just to have Belle there with them. And having the line 'Please, be out guest' show up gave me a bit of a kick - I won't deny it. 

This is another short story so it is a quick read but full of cuteness. 

I enjoyed this story so much more than Snow (Book #4 in the series) , but this could be because I am biased :)  

Snow (Book #4 Fairy Tale Flirts!) by Lisa Scott

Shawna White wants nothing more than to land a role in a musical, but she’s running out of cash while she chases her dream. Her stepmother, Veronica Midas, suggests she take a nanny job for the rich man she’s trying to land, and Shawna finds herself in charge of seven kids. But Veronica didn't realize Shawna would be living there, enchanting Jeremy and his children. Now Veronica will do whatever it takes to win her man.
(Image and Description from Goodreads)

Snow - Shawna White - is a 23 year old unemployed actress who is loving with her step-mother. The story kicks off with Veronica (S.M) getting Shawna a nanny-ing position looking after the (wait for it) SEVEN  children of out Prince Charming character - Jeremy James - who lives at Grimm Towers a really high end apartment block. 

Veronica - who was hoping to get her claws into James - quickly realizes that her plan of having more time with James now that the children have a carer wasn't going to work when it is revealed that Shawna will be a live in nanny So not only does she have to re-think her plan but she is also going to be short on Shawna's rent. And so it begin...

This was a fun and quick read. It is a short story so there isn't an awful lot of time to get to know the characters. Knowing from the get go what the story as based on and who the characters were supposed to be was I think a little bit of a disadvantage as I already knew who I was supposed to like and not like. There was a moment though when I really felt sorry for Veronica when she realizes that she has basically turned into her mother - which is something that she had fought not to do. 

I really hope we see a story dedicated to Veronica in the future. 

Fun and short read!

This is the 4th book in the Fairy Tale Flirts! Short Story Series. 

Fairy Tale Bletherings (5) Sequels

This first book isn't exactly a sequel it is more a 'story of' than a 'continuation too' but who's being picky. It is a very good read so I think it can get popped into the post (and there will be references to this book in some future posts I have planned too).

First off just look at THAT cover.

It is gorgeous! I won't say anything else about it as I am determined to have this as a Cover Crazy one week but DANG. It is just so beautiful to look at.

This is a really good story of Neverland and of the hopeless romantics among us you may well not mind that the growing relationship between Hook and Wendy is going against everything we know of the characters.

I will point out that Wendy is NOT a child in this! We are not told how old she is only that she had been getting older during her time in Neverland. But she is not a little ten year old in this book.

And as you can tell from the cover, you can see that she is older too.

This one is more of a sequel and kicks off with the children once again back home. I have not read this one yet so I can't really say what it is like. Bit it is sitting quite happily on my kindle and I will be doing a review on t in the near future so keep an eye out if you are interested.

Here is the blurb
It has been five years since Wendy Darling and her brothers returned home after a harrowing ordeal in which they'd "gone missing" for several days and nights. To Wendy, they returned by fairy magic, fresh from the fight with Captain Hook, a little mussed up but none the worse for wear.
But to the rest of the world, Wendy and her brothers were abducted and put through such a traumatic experience, Wendy has subconsciously taken to hiding the truth from her brothers and herself by making up stories. Fairy stories – about a boy named Peter Pan and a world called Neverland.
Life is anything but a fairy story for them now. Wendy is being subjected to unwanted psychiatric therapy, her brothers are bullied at school, and the family is falling apart.
Then, one mist-filled night, a billowing black flag parts the clouds in the sky like the fin of a shark. It bears the stark white symbol of a skull and crossbones upon it.
Wendy has been forced to leave Neverland behind. But it is far from finished with her. In the blink of an eye, her world is once more turned upside down by a pixie in human form, a one-handed captain far more handsome and intriguing than she remembered him to be – and by a little boy… who grew up after all.


Sounds good doesn't it?

And last but not least we have Half Upon a Time which is a kind of sequel to Jack and the Beanstalk. I haven't yet been able to read this but it sounds like a really fun read and a post will be up about this at some point too.

Blurb
Life’s no fairy tale for Jack. After all, his father's been missing ever since that incident with the beanstalk and the giant, and his grandfather keeps pushing him to get out and find a princess to rescue. Who'd want to rescue a snobby, entitled princess anyway? Especially one that falls out of the sky wearing a shirt that says "Punk Princess," and still denies she's royalty. In fact, May doesn't even believe in magic. Yeah, what's that about? May does need help though--a huntsman is chasing her, her grandmother has been kidnapped, and Jack thinks it’s all because of the Wicked Queen . . . mostly because May’s grandmother might just be the long-lost Snow White. Jack and May's thrillingly hilarious adventure combines all the classic stories—fractured as a broken magic mirror—into one epic novel for the ages.

Does anyone else know of any novels that are direct or direct-ish pick ups from fairy-tales?

Fairy Tale Bletherings (4) Retellings

Back again guys.

I am sorry if this is me harping on quite a bit but I am really stuck on the reading side of things...still. 

So, there are a whole bunch of Fairy tale re-tellings out there. Some of them are stand alone novels and some of them are in a series. So I thought I would mention a few. Some I have read and some I haven't. 

Robin McKinley has written two re-tellings of  Beauty and the Beast and one of Sleeping Beauty. 

This one is my favourite of her two re-tellings. It is easy to read and follow. 

Now, this one is good also but it is a little more complicated to follow and the language is a bit more...oldie. But there is an interesting twist at the end. 

And this is the re-telling of Sleeping Beauty and I LOVED this one. And it has a great (and I mean GREAT) twist at the end (or I thought so anyway) I would recommend this to anyone. It does seem a little slow and tedious at points but it is well worth the read. 

There is also a series of books published my Simon Pulse called Once Upon a Time... and the list can be found here

The series has everything including Anastasia and Mulan. They are good and aimed towards teens and younger readers I would say. And they have some lovely covers. They aren't overly complicated which makes them gorgeous to look at. 

And then there is the books by Gail Carson Levine. I have only read two of her novels and I found them throughly enjoyable when I was in my early teens. 

 This is a story based on Cinderella. With the interesting twist on the tale that Ella has had a curse of obedience placed on her. But after all...hoe bad could that be? You'll have to read it and find out. 

And Fairest is strongly influenced by Snow White. With mirrors, poisons, apples and near death/death experiences. But of course there is a twist :)

Both of Gail Carson Levine's books are good but the names tend to be a little off putting - for me they were anyway. The human names tend to be normal enough and easy enough to read but the names for the gnomes and other magical creatures are a little strange and I found myself just putting in other names like 'Bill', 'Fred' and 'Jim Bob' because I was too lazy to try and figure out how to get my brain round the actual names. Someone smarter than me could probably manage fine. 

There are also some fairy tale re-tellings by Mercedes Lackey but I haven't read them yet so I can't really recommend them...

Fairy Tale Bletherings (3) Beauty and the Beast

And now for my personal favourite - Beauty and the Beast. I am a sucker for this story. I just love it so much. How love can make a beast into a man… *sigh*

I probably won’t be telling anyone anything they don’t already know but I’ll go ahead anyway

Once again this is a story that has various adaptations and versions. In some Beauty has sisters, in other she is an only child. It is also a pretty boring story when it is not given a spin. All it is about is the beast asking Beauty to marry him every night at dinner and every night she says no. That is the basic gist of the story. And, I am glad to say that it doesn’t really have a major icky factor like the previous tales mentioned. The beasts ‘beastliness’ changes in illustrated copies. Sometimes he is a lion (an actual lion) sometimes he has the body of a man and a beasts head – you get the idea.  But there are no bleeding feet, eating children or cutting off of other bodily parts.

One point from what I assume is the original story that sometimes makes it into cartoons and some films are the magical gifts that the beast gives Beauty when she returns to her father for a visit. She is given a mirror that she can use to see what is happening at the Beasts castle and ring than when she twists it on her finger it returns her to the castle.

These versions also have the Beast dying of a broken heart when Beauty is late returning to him. But when she does she cries over him, her tears land on him and he turns into a handsome prince.

But still no blood, gut or gore. Yipee.

What I love the most about this story is how it is in so many other stories and tales. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of the Opera, Hades and Persephone…

Fairy Tale Bletherings (2) Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood

I find Little Red Riding hood to be one of the more fascinating fairy tales out there so I couldn’t resist giving it a post all its own. I also find the story really interesting to by the time I have finished my blethering it will more than likely be as long as the previous post.

Did you guys know that there were actually werewolf-trials ‘back in the day’? You know? Like witch trials but only looking for were-wolves instead. I sure didn’t and it kind of blew my mind when I was doing some quick research for this post and double checking some stuff. Please tell me I am not the only one who didn’t know this.

Anyway, that little titbit of information isn’t there just for the sake of it. It is there because in some versions of the story the wolf is sometimes referred to as a werewolf.  Cool huh! Well, not for the poor people who were tried and executed but there is a wee bit of trivia for you anyway…

So there are quite a few versions of the story of Little Red Riding Hood - some that are a little more gruesome than others.

Early versions of the story have the wolf leaving the meat of the grandmother out and Little Red Riding Hood eating her grandmother without knowing it. Um YUCK! And not all the versions have Little Red Riding Hood getting away. In some she does actually stay eaten.

Some have the wolf eating both grandmother and granddaughter and then having him take a nap (after all everyone feels like a wee sleep after eating a big meal don’t they?) The woodcutter then comes along, cuts them out of the sleeping wolf’s belly, fills it with rocks and sew him back up. The wolf then drowns after waking up and feeling thirsty after his big meal he goes for a drink and falls into the water.  Pretty icky really isn’t it?

But in the earlier versions of the story a red cloak/hood isn’t even mentioned.

And then there are of course the oodles of meanings that are given to the story. But I won’t go into them other than to say that they are indeed wide and VERY varied and not always about a little girl going to visit her grandmother for the day.

Fairy Tale Bletherings (1)

Snow White

Sleeping Beauty

The Little Mermaid

Cinderella

Since I am finding it ridiculously hard to get into any books lately I thought I would do something a little different and post on fairy-tales, I didn’t really pluck the idea out of mid-air though. One of the books I have been trying to read is a fairy tale type book.

I don’t think that I have enough followers to actually start any arguments but this is not meant to offend anyone’s views of their favourite cartoon or anything else. This is just me being…well…me. This is not meant to be a be-all-and-end-all, professional post on fairy tales, it is just me having some fun. 

So let’s get going.

So despite the fluffy and happy version of these fairy tales, the original versions tend to be a little icky…

‘Snow White’ for example. The Wicked Queen didn’t just try to kill Snow White with the apple. Oh no, there were suffocating laces, poisoned combs and then the apple. And there is no denying that Snow White is VERY dim to fall for the queens tricks every time. And how is the wicked queen punished at the end? She is put into a pair of red hot iron shoes (of course) and made to dance until she drops dead. Oh, goody, that makes a nice bedtime story for little kiddlie-winks everywhere. NOT!

And how about ‘The Little Mermaid’’? Well kids, she DIES at the end! That’s right. The stupid prince doesn’t marry her and the Little Mermaid jumps into the sea and turns into sea foam because she loved the idiot prince too much to pop him off and save her own life. And then we have her constantly bleeding feet. Yip, can anyone imagine THAT in a Disney film.

Now let’s have a look at Sleeping Beauty. The first half of the tale is pretty much as most versions depict it. But not everything is rosy after the marriage. The prince loved his wife and children so much that he left them to go and play at soldiers in another kingdom while leaving his family in the clutches of his crazy mother. Charming. Who was more than happy to have them boiled, roasted or stuffed and have a good nosh up – of THEM! I would personally want a divorce at that point but that’s just me…

Cinderella. Now mostly Cinderella isn’t too…icky but it is a wee bit. The version by Charles Perrault is the one that is stuck to predominately through childrens entertainment, with the fairy godmother, pumpkin etc, etc, etc. But then there is the good old Brother’s Grimm, we can always count on them to get a grim (get that…lol – ok moving on) spin on things. In that version we have the step sisters cutting off bits of their feet so that they could try and fool the prince and fit into the shoe and then they have their eyes pecked out by birds – and the prince is painted to be a bit of a tool too.

More coming soon…

Any specific fairy tale you would like me to mention. Pop a comment below!