gerd_d's review
3.0
I didn't enjoy "Once Upon A Quest" as much as I did "[b:Once Upon A Kiss: 17 Romantic Faerie Tales|34083822|Once Upon A Kiss 17 Romantic Faerie Tales|Yasmine Galenorn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1485834727s/34083822.jpg|55094473]" for mostly personal reasons.
So, the good about it is, there was not one story in this collection that I wanted to skip.
The reason I didn't like it as much is that some of those stories are sort of depressing.
There's not always a good wins over evil in them (just the opposite to one of them and playing in a very uncomfortable gray zone in the other), or a conceivable happy ever after for our heroines.
The best out of this collection is doubtless "The Goblin and the Treasure" by Alethea Kontis.
Building on a Andersen fairy tale I haven't heard of before the author spins a story that has all the marks of great quest fantasy.
Followed "The Merrow’s Golden Ring" by Sara C. Roethle, I'd say, and "The Ruins of Oz" by Alexia Purdy.
"Take my Monsters" by C. Gockel is among the darker ones.
Slavery and sexual abuse are topics touched upon in this one. It's also the only one of the more gritty stories that really worked for me. It's based on "Tam Lin", a Scotish tale I'm not familiar with.
"A Bell in the Night" by Evelyn Snow feels like an unfinished piece, it's a sort of opening chapter for a series and makes read on its own not a lot of sense.
"Blow your House Down" by Nikki Jefford is one of the above mentioned where there's no "good wins over evil", as is "Fear of Falling" by Shawntelle Madison.
One dealing with abuse of power, the other with slavery, both in ways that I found difficult to like because they end up rewarding the abuse in one way or other.
It's essentially these last three stories that bring down my overall rating of the collection.
So, the good about it is, there was not one story in this collection that I wanted to skip.
The reason I didn't like it as much is that some of those stories are sort of depressing.
There's not always a good wins over evil in them (just the opposite to one of them and playing in a very uncomfortable gray zone in the other), or a conceivable happy ever after for our heroines.
The best out of this collection is doubtless "The Goblin and the Treasure" by Alethea Kontis.
Building on a Andersen fairy tale I haven't heard of before the author spins a story that has all the marks of great quest fantasy.
Followed "The Merrow’s Golden Ring" by Sara C. Roethle, I'd say, and "The Ruins of Oz" by Alexia Purdy.
"Take my Monsters" by C. Gockel is among the darker ones.
Slavery and sexual abuse are topics touched upon in this one. It's also the only one of the more gritty stories that really worked for me. It's based on "Tam Lin", a Scotish tale I'm not familiar with.
"A Bell in the Night" by Evelyn Snow feels like an unfinished piece, it's a sort of opening chapter for a series and makes read on its own not a lot of sense.
"Blow your House Down" by Nikki Jefford is one of the above mentioned where there's no "good wins over evil", as is "Fear of Falling" by Shawntelle Madison.
One dealing with abuse of power, the other with slavery, both in ways that I found difficult to like because they end up rewarding the abuse in one way or other.
It's essentially these last three stories that bring down my overall rating of the collection.
saccalai's review
4.0
I wanted to read this collection for the Creepy Hollow story by Rachel Morgan. I love anything she writes for the series! It did not disappoint apart from being so short, I would love to read more about Tilly. Another of my favourites was A Bell in the Night by Evelyn Snow. I'll be looking out for more by this author.
More...