Fairest

Author: Marissa Meyer
Pages: 222
Rating: PG-13 (Levana is not a nice person and some of the stuff she does is rather awful)

Summary:
Pure evil has a name, hides behind a mask of deceit, and uses her "glamour" to gain power. But who is Queen Levana? Long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress in The Lunar Chronicles, Levana lived a very different story--a story that has never been told . . . until now.

My Thoughts: This book is a prequel to the Lunar Chronicles books, which I have also reviewed on here. It was a quick read, and definitely interesting. I thought it was nice to get some back story on Levana. Some people think this book is trying to garner sympathy for her, which I think it does to an extent, but still, by the end, she has done so many bad things, justifying them away as being "necessary" that you don't really feel that bad for her. She's the definition of a crazy person because every awful thing she does she feels as if she has a perfectly good reason for it and it needed to be done, even if it causes her pain and sorrow as well. I feel a little bit sorry for her, but it's also pretty clear that there's nothing that can be done to change the person that she is at this point. She's come too far. 

As far as order goes, if you haven't read any of the Lunar Chronicles books, I suppose you could start here, but I feel it kind of fits in anywhere. Having read the other books, there were things I already understood about Levana, but if you haven't read them it doesn't really matter. By the end of the book you're basically at the point where Cinder begins, so it starts of the series nicely.

Scarlet Moon

Author: Debbie Viguie
Pages: 157

Rating: PG - the wolf kills some people and they are found with throats ripped out, etc. Not horribly graphic, but definitely not G-rated

Summary:
Ruth's grandmother lives in the forest, banished there for the "evil" that the townsfolk believed she practiced. But if studying the stars, learning about nature, and dreaming of flying is evil, then Ruth is guilty of it too. Whenever Ruth took food and supplies to her grandmother, she would sit with the old woman for hours, listening and learning.
When she wasn't in the woods, Ruth was learning the trade of her father, a blacksmith, now that her brother would never return from the Crusades.
Amidst those dark days, a new man enters Ruth's life. William is a noble with a hot temper and a bad name, and he makes her shiver. But the young man is prey to his heritage, a curse placed on his family ages ago, and each male of the family has strange blood running in his veins. Now Ruth must come face-to-face with his destiny at Grandma's house.

My Thoughts: Other than the fact that, as in most fairy-tales, our hero and heroine are madly in love with each other and decide to get married after knowing each other for only a few days, I really enjoyed this retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. It has a darkness to it that makes for a really fun twist. I wasn't sure about the ending, the whole thing seemed a little too simple. But, this is a quick, fun, and easy little read, and I enjoyed it more than some of the other retold fairy tales I've read.

3 in 1 Retold Fairy Tales: Golden, Beauty Sleep, and Belle

Author: Cameron Dokey
Rating: G - all 3 books are appropriate for even elementary girls

Pages: Golden - 181, Beauty Sleep - 186, Belle - 208

Golden Summary: 
Before Rapunzel's birth, her mother made a dangerous deal with the sorceress Melisande: If she could not love newborn Rapunzel just as she appeared, she would surrender the child to Melisande. When Rapunzel was born completely bald and without hope of ever growing hair, her horrified mother sent her away with the sorceress to an uncertain future.

After sixteen years of raising Rapunzel as her own child, Melisande reveals that she has another daughter, Rue, who was cursed by a wizard years ago and needs Rapunzel's help. Rue and Rapunzel have precisely "two nights and the day that falls between" to break the enchantment. But bitterness and envy come between the girls, and if they fail to work together, Rue will remain cursed...forever.

My Thoughts: I put this book first because it was my favorite of the three and had the most imaginative retelling. I mean, come on...Rapunzel isn't supposed to be BALD! I feel like the summary above did a really good job of telling about this book so I don't have much to add, but I really loved the message this book contained about true beauty being on the inside and that true love is something you have to work at every single day. There was one quote from the book I particularly liked. "That is what love is. A possibility that becomes a choice. A choice you keep making, over and over. Day after day. Year after year. Time after time." Honestly, this is the best Once Upon a Time book I've read so far. I just loved it. Such a sweet little story and so good! Definitely worth the read.

Beauty Sleep Summary:

"LITTLE PRINCESS, LOVELY AS THE DAWN, WELL-NAMED AURORE..."
With these seemingly innocent words, the fate of a newborn princess is sealed. For years the king and queen despaired of ever having a child. When Aurore arrives, though the entire kingdom celebrates, not all are overjoyed. They use her christening as an occasion for revenge, and her young life is overshadowed by a curse of death almost as soon as it has begun. Those who can, intervene, but evil has a way of holding fast. A sleep of a hundred years following the pricking of a finger is the best that can be done.
And so Aurore grows up. Forbidden princesslike tasks of embroidery and sewing, she explores the great outdoors, reveling in the flora and fauna that surround her castle home. Then one day she meets a handsome stranger in an enchanted wood and begins an adventure the likes of which she never dreamed of.
This is the story of the Sleeping Beauty, here quite awake and given new voice. Taunted by fate, Aurore soon learns that although she cannot sidestep her own destiny, love itself is actually the most powerful magic of all.

My Thoughts: I wasn't quite as thrilled with this one, although the story was different than what I expected. When Aurore turns 16, bad things start happening in the kingdom, and Aurore soon realizes that it's her fault. Until she fulfills the curse, by pricking her finger, the kingdom will continue to suffer. So she runs away to meet her destiny, and it's kind of odd what happens next. I'm not sure I was super thrilled with the way this story was put together, or with the ending, but it was definitely a different version of this story.

Belle Summary:
Belle is convinced she has the wrong name, as she lacks her sisters' awe-inspiring beauty. So she withdraws from society, devoting her time to wood carving. Secretly, Belle longs to find the fabled Heartwood Tree. If carved by the right hands, the Heartwood will reveal the face of one's true love.

During a fierce storm, Belle's father stumbles upon the mysterious Heartwood -- and encounters a terrifying and lonely Beast. Now Belle must carve the Heartwood to save her father, and learn to see not with the eyes of her mind, but with the eyes of her heart.

My Thoughts: This was my least favorite of the 3 only because the fairy tale stays almost exactly true to the version we all know so well. There's not much variation. The addition of the Heartwood Tree is about the only thing that makes this story different from the Disney version, honestly. So...I didn't feel like it was worth the read so much.

The Snow Child

Author: Eowyn Ivey
Pages: 386
Rating: PG - There is vague talk of sex

Summary:
Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart--he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone--but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

My Thoughts: I honestly was not too impressed with this book. It kept my interest, it was very well written, and I was hooked on it for sure, but I kept expecting something really amazingly moving or interesting to happen and it just never did. The ending was disappointing to me. Maybe it was because I was more interested in Faina's story than in Jack and Mabel's, and the book is really about the relationship between Jack and Mabel and how it changes and grows.

Series: The Lunar Chronicles

Author: Marissa Meyer
 
Book One: Cinder


Pages: 387
Rating: PG
Summary:
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

My Thoughts: I was totally hooked on this book. I was a little wary at first, just because there have been SO MANY retellings of the various fairy tales that I wasn't sure how this would compare. However, the author manages to connect the stories only vaguely. What Cinder has in common with Cinderella is the fact that she is an orphan being raised by someone who is not her mother and who treats her like a servant, she has no father figure, and two stepsisters, she falls in love with a prince, and she goes to a ball, where she dances with said prince. Everything else in the story is completely different. First of all, the story is set WAY in the future. Not exactly sure when since they have a new year counting system. It's after World War 4. People have colonized the moon and gained mystical powers from living there that are quite dangerous to those living on earth. Unfortunately, Queen Levana, from the moon, wants to take over Earth. Emperor Kai is trying his best not to let that happen, but in order to do that, he must find Princess Selene, the rightful ruler of the moon people, who most believe burned in a fire as a baby. 

When Cinder is volunteered for vaccine testing for the plague that kills her sister, she discovers that she has a rare immunity. This fact reveals other secrets about her past, which Cinder doesn't know. She remembers nothing before the surgery that made her a cyborg at age 11. Cinder's story doesn't end with happily ever after. At least, not yet. At the end of this book, Cinder is in a life-threatening situation, and nowhere near romantic happiness. Her story continues in the next book in the series, Scarlet. I am very excited to see where all this goes.  

Book 2: Scarlet
Pages: 452
Rating: PG-13
Summary:

Cinder is back and trying to break out of prison—even though she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive if she does—in this second installment from Marissa Meyer.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother, or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana.

My Thoughts: Scarlet was definitely more violent and intense than Cinder, and also more complicated because you are switching back and forth between Scarlet's story and Cinder's story. I really liked how the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood was worked into the story in an interesting way. Scarlet lives with her grandmother, who is kidnapped by what seems to be a pack of wolf. One member of the pack offers to help Scarlet find her grandmother. What remains to be seen is whether this wolf is trustworthy or not. (The answer IS in the book, but I'm not going to tell you.) 

I was definitely intrigued by this story as well. I thought the writing was very good and it was incredibly imaginative. I liked that Scarlet gets to sort of have a happily ever after by the end of this book, even though we are still waiting for Cinder to find her happy ending. I assume that won't happen for a while. Also, my one annoyance with this was how Twilight-esque Scarlet and Wolf's relationship was.   

 

Book 3: Cress
Pages: 550
Rating: PG-13

Summary:

In this third book in Marissa Meyer's bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and prevent her army from invading Earth.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl trapped on a satellite since childhood who’s only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s being forced to work for Queen Levana, and she’s just received orders to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is splintered. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price than she’d ever expected. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai, especially the cyborg mechanic. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

My Thoughts: This series still has me hooked. I absolutely love how the author works in the essential elements from the original fairy tales. However, it's never something you expect. I was completely surprised at every turn, but then when I thought about it, I realized each surprise was not really a surprise at all. Nearly every major plot twist connects back to the original stories. I love how Meyers still manages to surprise me even when she's telling an extremely well-known story. 

I feel like I can't say too much more without giving plot points away and I don't want to do that. This book was so far the longest, but I really enjoyed it. I will say that the books are getting more violent every time, and there is some torture in this book. I like that the romance is kept to a minimum, and about the only thing anyone ever does is kiss, so it's very clean. And there's no language to speak of. That's always a plus. 

Book Four: Winter

Pages: 823
Rating: PG-13

Summary:
Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.
Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won't approve of her feelings for her childhood friend--the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn't as weak as Levana believes her to be and she's been undermining her stepmother's wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long.
 
 My Thoughts:
Loved the conclusion to this series! I read it so quickly! I'm still not the bigest fan of the relationship between Scarlet and Wolf (it's a little Twilight-esque) but everything else was great. The ending was good and not totally predictable and I really enjoyed how everything worked out. This was such a good series and I can see them turning it into movies soon! (That would be cool). This  book was violent because it's when the revolution finally happens, but I didn't feel like it was as graphic in the descriptions as some of the other books. That's all I can say. I can't ruin it!  

Leaping Beauty and Other Animal Fairy Tales

Author: Gregory Maguire
Pages: 197
Rating: G

Summary:

Once upon a time . . . nothing was as it seemed!
What if Sleeping Beauty were actually a frog princess, doomed to be Weeping Beauty forever? What if the Three Chickens had to outwit Goldifox? What if Cinder-Elephant lost her glass plate slipper? Then you'd have this hilarious collection of twisted fairy tales from the master of the absurd, Gregory Maguire!

My Thoughts: I would aim this book right at 8-11 year olds. The sarcasm, goofy inserts, and just plain wackiness of these stories is just what would set a pre-teen laughing and laughing. For adults, I felt more like I was just laughing at a really clever but not really that funny joke. But there's modern stuff thrown in there, and it's all just so goofy. Like I said, definitely a funny read for pre-teens. I think my favorite was "Little Red Robin Hood" because it was a mashup of two stories, and the results were pretty hilarious.

The World Above

Author: Cameron Dokey
Pages: 175
Rating: G

Summary: Gen and her twin brother, Jack, were raised with their mother's tales of life in the World Above. Gen is skeptical, but adventurous Jack believes the stories--and trades the family cow for magical beans. Their mother rejoices, knowing they can finally return to their royal home.
When Jack plants the beans and climbs the enchanted stalk, he is captured by the tyrant who now rules the land. Gen sets off to rescue her brother, but danger awaits her in the World Above. For finding Jack may mean losing her heart....

.
My Thoughts: This would probably be one of my favorite of the Once Upon a Time books. It's kind of a mixture between "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Robin Hood," which makes for an interesting story. Like all fairy tales, the love part is super cheesy and overdone, but it's still cute. Basically, the idea is that Jack and Gen were originally from the World Above, but their mother came down to the "World Below" to run away from a man who was trying to kill her. She raises her children Below, with the promise from her old nursing maid that when the time is right, she will send a messenger with the magic beans to take them back to the World Above. And the giant is actually a nice guy who helps them. He's not a bad guy. Definitely worth the read. If you've read my other posts about these books, they typically have too much build up and not enough climax, but this one I felt had the right amounts of everything. I didn't feel gypped at the end.

Before Midnight: A retelling of Cinderella

Author: Cameron Dokey
Pages: 193
Rating: G

Summary:
Etienne de Brabant is brokenhearted. His wife has died in childbirth, leaving him alone with an infant daughter he cannot bear to name. But before he abandons her for king and court, he brings a second child to be raised alongside her, a boy whose identity he does not reveal.
The girl, La Cendrillon, and the boy, Raoul, pass sixteen years in the servants' care until one day a very fine lady arrives with her two daughters. The lady has married La Cendrillon's father, and her arrival changes their lives.
When an invitation to a great ball reaches the family, La Cendrillon's new stepmother will make a decision with far-reaching effects. Her choice will lead La Cendrillon and Raoul toward their destiny -- a choice that will challenge their understanding of family, test their loyalty and courage, and, ultimately, teach them who they are.

My Thoughts: A quick and cute read, definitely a nicer twist on Cinderella than you've heard before. The stepmother and sisters are actually nice, although they are not aware at first that Cendrillon is anything more than a servant. Her father, Etienne, has never mentioned her existence to anyone, and her homely appearance at the arrival of her new family leads them to believe she is a serving girl. However, they are not overly cruel to her, and when she does eventually reveal who she is, the family is very accepting and loving.

Again, Dokey has a problem of spending the entire book on buildup and not enough on climax and ending stuff, but I still enjoyed it, even though I figured out who Raoul really is very early on in the story. There's a lot in this book about wishes that are powerful and really come true, and love at first sight. I think it's probably one of the better ones I've read in the Once Upon a Time series.

Winter's Child: A Retelling of "The Snow Queen"

Author: Cameron Dokey
Pages:173
Rating: G

Summary:
Free-spirited Grace and serious Kai are the best of friends. They grew up together listening to magical tales spun by Kai's grandmother and sharing in each other's secrets. But when they turn sixteen and Kai declares his love for Grace, everything changes. Grace yearns for freedom and slowly begins to push Kai -- and their friendship -- away.
Dejected Kai dreams of a dazzling Snow Queen, who entices him to leave home and wander to faraway lands. When Grace discovers Kai is gone, she learns how much she has lost and sets out on a mystical journey to find Kai...and discover herself.

My Thoughts: This book is based off of the Hans Christian Anderson story called "The Snow Queen" which is actually A LOT different. I found a summary of the original story here and I have to say I definitely like the premise of the book better than the original story. In the book, the Snow Queen is actually a good character. Because of something that happened to her when she was a baby, she is burdened with the quest to go throughout the world and heal hearts of fear and sorrow, until she finds someone who can heal her own heart. I really liked how all the elements fit together, and for once, it didn't feel like a story full of set-up and very little climax. It was really good, and the ending was really unexpected. Recommended for anyone.

The Storyteller's Daughter: A Retelling of "The Arabian Nights"

Author: Cameron Dokey
Pages: 281
Rating: G

Summary: In a faraway kingdom, a king has been betrayed. Deeply hurt and bitterly angry, he vows never to be deceived again. Unfortunately, the king's plan to protect himself will endanger all of the realm's young women, unless one of them will volunteer to marry the king -- and surrender her life.
To everyone's relief and horror, one young woman steps forward. The daughter of a legendary storyteller, Shahrazad believes it is her destiny to accept this risk and sacrifice herself.
On the night of her wedding to the king, Shahrazad begins to weave a tale. Fascinated, the king lets her live night after night. Just when Shahrazad dares to believe that she has found a way to keep her life -- and an unexpected love -- a treacherous plot will disrupt her plan. Now she can only hope that love is strong enough to save her.

My Thoughts: This is so far one of my favorites in this series of retold fairy tales. I love the fact that it's several stories within a story, since all the stories Shahrazad tells are also in the book. For once the climax is in exactly the right place, because it's building all along through the stories Shahrazad tells Shahrayar (the king) every night. And every night as the stories are told, love is forming between the two. It's such a good story, full of all the good fairy-tale elements, like seeing the good where no one else can see it, being kind to those who don't seem like they deserve it, and earning favor from genies and others who grant wishes. I highly recommend this one. I loved it. =)

Sunlight and Shadow: A Retelling of "The Magic Flute"

Author: Cameron Dokey
Pages: 184
Rating: G

Summary: In a time when the world was young and many things were quite commonplace that are now entirely forgotten, Sarastro, Mage of the Day, wed Pamina, the Queen of the Night. And in this way was the world complete, for light was joined to dark. For all time would they be joined together. Only the ending of the world could tear them apart. In other words, in the days in which my parents married, there was no such thing as divorce....
Thus begins the tale of Mina, a girl-child born on the longest night of the darkest month of the year. When her father looked at her, all he saw was what he feared: By birth, by name, by nature, she belonged to the Dark. So when Mina turned sixteen, her father took her away from shadow and brought her into sunlight.
In retaliation, her mother lured a handsome prince into a deadly agreement: If he frees Mina, he can claim her as his bride.
Now Mina and her prince must endure deadly trials -- of love and fate and family -- before they can truly live happily ever after....

My Thoughts: I loved this story. I have never actually seen "The Magic Flute" originally an opera written by Mozart in German, but it's one I've always wanted to see, and after reading this book, I've now reserved it from the library. If you are interested in reading the synopsis of the opera, I found it here. I think the book has probably a nicer story, in that Pamina and Sarastro were originally married and that Mina was their child. There are two other characters in the book that the summary does not mention. Gayna is the daughter of Sarastro's forrester. Sarastro has raised her in his house since she was small and her parents died. Lapin is a boy who has known Mina her entire life; he lives in the household of the Queen of the Night. In his family's possession are a set of bells said to summon your heart's true love if you play the true music of your heart on it. Mostly, Lapin has just managed to summon birds of every shape and form. Tern is the handsome prince that Lapin summons, and he is the one in possession of the Magic Flute. He carved it out of an old majestic tree in his home country.

 Most of the book is set-up, and the actual climax doesn't happen till close to the end but because it almost reads like an old "Beginning of the World" story, it doesn't seem as cheesy. Like all the other books in the Once Upon A Time series, it's a quick, easy read. However, since it's a story that's probably unfamiliar to most of us, it keeps you intrigued the entire time. I was never quite sure who was going to end up with who, or what is eventually going to happen. I also like the fact that various chapters or even sections within chapters are voiced by different characters. Sarastro and Pamina never get to tell any part of the story, but Lapin, Mina, Tern, Gayna, and Statos do. It can sometimes be a bit confusing who is telling the story though because the chapter headings don't tell you. Usually it can be figured out in the first few sentences. I recommend this one. It definitely has an old legend feel to it. Loved it. =)

The Crimson Thread: A Retelling of "Rumpelstiltskin" by Suzanne Weyn

Pages: 207

Rating: G

Summary:
The year is 1880, and Bertie, having just arrived in New York with her family, is grateful to be given work as a seamstress in the home of textile tycoon J. P. Wellington. When the Wellington family fortune is threatened, Bertie's father boasts that Bertie will save the business, that she is so skillful she can "practically spin straw into gold."
Amazingly, in the course of one night, Bertie creates exquisite evening gowns -- with the help of Ray Stalls, a man from her tenement who uses an old spinning wheel to create dresses that are woven with crimson thread and look as though they are spun with real gold. Indebted to Ray, Bertie asks how she can repay him. When Ray asks for her firstborn child, Bertie agrees, never dreaming that he is serious....

My Thoughts: Ok, so the story is, this family is Irish immigrants, and they're struggling to survive in a new world that isn't quite as full of opportunity than they thought. I was a little confused at first because Bertie is originally Bridget, but the entire family changes their names in an effort to seem less Irish and more American. Bertie is a good seamstress, and she becomes even more skilled after she is hired on at the Wellingtons. Under the tutelage of the head seamstress there, Bertie learns everything she needs to be successful as a seamstress, but is not prepared for her father's overwhelming boast that she can create dresses so amazing. Bertie has no choice but to let Ray continue to help her, because if she does not continue to produce the dresses, both she and her father will lose their jobs.

I liked this book actually quite a lot. I got really into the story, it's a quick read, and it was a nice version of Rumpelstiltskin. There are definitely unexpected twists and turns, and the way the author works the name "Rumpelstiltskin" into the story is very clever. Of course, the story has a cheesy, fairy tale, happy, lovey dovey ending, but that's to be expected from a fairy tale. Some parts of it seemed a little too easy, simple, as if that would never happen in real life, but again, it's a fairy tale. Overall, I'd recommend this little book to anyone. The only real romance is in the end, they kiss one time, so it's very very clean.

Water Song: A Retelling of "The Frog Prince", by Suzanne Weyn

Pages:194
Rating: PG (there's nothing bad in it, but it does take place during WWI, so it's kind of intense in spots)

Summary:Young, beautiful, and wealthy, Emma Pennington is accustomed to a very comfortable life. Although war rages abroad, she hardly feels its effect. She and her mother travel from their home in Britain to the family estate in Belgium, never imagining that the war could reach them there. But it does.
Soon Emma finds herself stranded in a war-torn country, utterly alone. Enemy troops fight to take over her estate, leaving her with no way to reach her family, and no way out.
With all of her attention focused on survival and escape, Emma hardly expects to find love. But the war will teach her that life is unpredictable, people aren't always what they seem, and magic is lurking everywhere.

My Thoughts: I really liked the way this book was set up. Instead of him being a literal frog, the guy (Jack) is an American soldier from Louisiana who is a really good swimmer and awesome at holding his breath. He only looks like a frog when the two first meet because he has been hit with chlorine gas and his face is covered in boils and stuff. Emma finds him because in his haste to get away from the gas, he falls into a well on her property. It was a creative way to retell the story of the frog prince, and I'm always entertained by World War stories.  The whole love part of it all was decidedly cheesy, but what can you expect from a fairy tale?

I think the author tried a little to hard to tie in the whole prince and frog part. If she had just left it alone, I think it would have worked better. Like I said, the ending is really cheesy. But it is intense, seeing as they're basically living as German prisoners since the Germans take over Emma's house. And the book keeps you guessing because Emma has a locket with something inside the second half that is only for an emergency, but she's never been able to get the locket open. So you keep wondering what's in it. I honestly was a bit disappointed by the contents, but....see for yourself.

Wild Orchid: A Retelling of "The Ballad of Mulan" by Cameron Dokey

Pages: 199
Rating: G 
Summary: Wielding a sword as deftly as an embroidery needle, Mulan is unlike any other girl in China. When the emperor summons a great army, each family must send a male to fight. Tomboyish Mulan is determined to spare her aging father and bring her family honor, so she disguises herself and answers the call.
But Mulan never expects to find a friend, let alone a soul mate, in the commander of her division, Prince Jian. For all of Mulan's courage with a bow and arrow, is she brave enough to share her true identity and feelings with Prince Jian?

My Thoughts: I thought this was a good little read, if not really predictable. I mean, really....we all know the story of Mulan. It doesn't stray terribly far from the Disney movie, but it does have some nice twists. For instance, there's a good bit of history about her father and her life and stuff. I thought the lead-up to the big battle with the Huns took too long, and then the battle part was like 3 pages and then it's all over and not very exciting. However, it is a cute little love story, even if it's kind of cheesy at the end. If you like reading retold princess stories, go for it. It's good for an afternoon of entertainment. =)