junghoseok's review against another edition
4.0
Well, this book was unexpected.
WHAT.
IS.
HAPPENING.
Peeps, I am SHOOK.
(Before I go on, this review is of the third book in a series, and if you haven’t read my other two rants, you’re probably going to be more lost than you are anyway, so if you’re bored and have nothing else to do and it behooves you to go find my other two reviews of UnEnchanted and Fairest by Chanda Hahn, please do. Otherwise, here I go).
Rewind to August me, when I was looking for a shortish but entertaining series I could listen to on audiobook while shelf reading (a fancy librarian term) or completing projects at work. August me finds this series, notices it’s got pretty good reviews on Goodreads, thinks “hey, it’s a fairytale retelling so why not”, and checks it out. August through September me continues to listen, despite thinking the series is a bit high-school centric in that there are mean girls, hot boys, plucky heroines, things that add up to it being an entertaining series but no life-changing work of art.
End-of-September-me finds herself convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the main love interest (though at this point there are many, don’t even get me started) is evil and is way, way too invested in this series. END OF OCTOBER ME IS OPEN-MOUTHED IN THE VIDEO GAME SECTION OF THE LIBRARY TRYING TO WEED OLD WII GAMES BUT CAN’T BECAUSE SHE’S TOO DISTRACTED BEING SHOCKED BY WHAT JUST WENT DOWN IN HER AUDIOBOOK FARIYTALE WORLD.
(yes I realize it is January, I’m slow on writing/posting reviews okay).
Allow me to take a deep breath and compose myself. As always with this series, I’ll write a spoilery, somewhat play-by-play of my thoughts while listening to it. HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD
First of all, Nan and Brody. If you recall from last time, they’re dating now because of the snow white thing that went down in the previous book. They are now “awkwardly inseparable” according to Mina, and I just had to make a note of that because I’m sure that’s going to be me and my future spouse—awkwardly inseparable. So we start off well, Mina is avoiding the tales to spite Teague (good on ‘er), and I quote is “taking control of her life by doing absolutely nothing,” which I can respect and totally also do. But then Teague fights dirty and burns down her house (a great time for Spiderman to show up, but alas he is concerned only with New York and not middle-of-the-heck-nowhere wherever this takes place) with her brother, allegedly, still inside. And I have to say, dang, the narration of the mom and Mina as they were worried over Charlie (the brother) and crying over Charlie almost made me tear up, a rare feat indeed.
Of course, I instantly think Brody is the one who kidnapped Charlie and faked his death—but another great part of this book is that Brody is barely in it! Still suspicious, but barely in it. He does show up long enough to bring this guy named Reed on this nightmarish triple date he, Nan, Mina, Jared, and his “girlfriend” are going on. I was actually starting to like Reed, which of course is a spoiler in and of itself because naturally he’s a bad Fae. Still, I ship Mina with him—I ship Mina with TEAGUE (hold onto that because we’ll come back to that, and I promise I would still ship her with Teague before all of the ending happened)—before I ship her with the monstrosity that is Brody.
So fast forward to Mina entering the Fae plane to rescue her brother and steal the magic book for Rumplestiltskin or whoever stiltskin it is, they’re all in the same family (and yes, I’m skipping the part where Jared turns into a mannequin). She talks with this nyxie named Nix for, like, hours after he rescues her from the evil sea witch, and I have to remind her, you do remember you have a brother to rescue, right? There are some interesting description gems thrown in here: “The smile didn’t reach his lips”—of course I instantly tried to smile without my lips and I’m glad no one was around for the result. Also, Teague’s “face filled with joy, but not the happy kind”…..? There’s another kind? Isn’t Teague just full of surprises.
A great battle ensues, in which I come to the conclusion that Nix is the real MVP here, Jared and Mina have a “kiss to end all kisses”, and thank God “all thoughts of Brody disappeared” ABOUT TIME, and Charlie is just sitting in his cage watching the drama go down.
And then
AND THEN
I’M GOING TO SPOIL IT BECAUSE IF YOU’VE READ THIS LONG AND ALL THESE REVIEWS, YOU EITHER A) HAVE ALREADY READ THE BOOKS OR B)DON’T CARE IF YOU EVER DO AND HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN WATCH ME LOSE MY MIND
Teague and Jared are not twin brothers, they are in fact the same person! Jekyll and Hyde like! His parents split his bad from his good and that’s why Teague stole the book, so he could be reunited with his good side!
And now he’s mostly all bad.
But there’s still a Jared-part of him that loves Mina.
This
Is
Interesting
Indeed
And now Mina has to decide if she has the guts to kill the person (sort of person?) she loves in order to end the Grimm curse.
Bring on the drama!!
Also, Nix is now a high school boy living in Mina’s world, and I swear to bob if he’s another love interest for Mina…
WHAT.
IS.
HAPPENING.
Peeps, I am SHOOK.
(Before I go on, this review is of the third book in a series, and if you haven’t read my other two rants, you’re probably going to be more lost than you are anyway, so if you’re bored and have nothing else to do and it behooves you to go find my other two reviews of UnEnchanted and Fairest by Chanda Hahn, please do. Otherwise, here I go).
Rewind to August me, when I was looking for a shortish but entertaining series I could listen to on audiobook while shelf reading (a fancy librarian term) or completing projects at work. August me finds this series, notices it’s got pretty good reviews on Goodreads, thinks “hey, it’s a fairytale retelling so why not”, and checks it out. August through September me continues to listen, despite thinking the series is a bit high-school centric in that there are mean girls, hot boys, plucky heroines, things that add up to it being an entertaining series but no life-changing work of art.
End-of-September-me finds herself convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the main love interest (though at this point there are many, don’t even get me started) is evil and is way, way too invested in this series. END OF OCTOBER ME IS OPEN-MOUTHED IN THE VIDEO GAME SECTION OF THE LIBRARY TRYING TO WEED OLD WII GAMES BUT CAN’T BECAUSE SHE’S TOO DISTRACTED BEING SHOCKED BY WHAT JUST WENT DOWN IN HER AUDIOBOOK FARIYTALE WORLD.
(yes I realize it is January, I’m slow on writing/posting reviews okay).
Allow me to take a deep breath and compose myself. As always with this series, I’ll write a spoilery, somewhat play-by-play of my thoughts while listening to it. HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD
First of all, Nan and Brody. If you recall from last time, they’re dating now because of the snow white thing that went down in the previous book. They are now “awkwardly inseparable” according to Mina, and I just had to make a note of that because I’m sure that’s going to be me and my future spouse—awkwardly inseparable. So we start off well, Mina is avoiding the tales to spite Teague (good on ‘er), and I quote is “taking control of her life by doing absolutely nothing,” which I can respect and totally also do. But then Teague fights dirty and burns down her house (a great time for Spiderman to show up, but alas he is concerned only with New York and not middle-of-the-heck-nowhere wherever this takes place) with her brother, allegedly, still inside. And I have to say, dang, the narration of the mom and Mina as they were worried over Charlie (the brother) and crying over Charlie almost made me tear up, a rare feat indeed.
Of course, I instantly think Brody is the one who kidnapped Charlie and faked his death—but another great part of this book is that Brody is barely in it! Still suspicious, but barely in it. He does show up long enough to bring this guy named Reed on this nightmarish triple date he, Nan, Mina, Jared, and his “girlfriend” are going on. I was actually starting to like Reed, which of course is a spoiler in and of itself because naturally he’s a bad Fae. Still, I ship Mina with him—I ship Mina with TEAGUE (hold onto that because we’ll come back to that, and I promise I would still ship her with Teague before all of the ending happened)—before I ship her with the monstrosity that is Brody.
So fast forward to Mina entering the Fae plane to rescue her brother and steal the magic book for Rumplestiltskin or whoever stiltskin it is, they’re all in the same family (and yes, I’m skipping the part where Jared turns into a mannequin). She talks with this nyxie named Nix for, like, hours after he rescues her from the evil sea witch, and I have to remind her, you do remember you have a brother to rescue, right? There are some interesting description gems thrown in here: “The smile didn’t reach his lips”—of course I instantly tried to smile without my lips and I’m glad no one was around for the result. Also, Teague’s “face filled with joy, but not the happy kind”…..? There’s another kind? Isn’t Teague just full of surprises.
A great battle ensues, in which I come to the conclusion that Nix is the real MVP here, Jared and Mina have a “kiss to end all kisses”, and thank God “all thoughts of Brody disappeared” ABOUT TIME, and Charlie is just sitting in his cage watching the drama go down.
And then
AND THEN
I’M GOING TO SPOIL IT BECAUSE IF YOU’VE READ THIS LONG AND ALL THESE REVIEWS, YOU EITHER A) HAVE ALREADY READ THE BOOKS OR B)DON’T CARE IF YOU EVER DO AND HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN WATCH ME LOSE MY MIND
Teague and Jared are not twin brothers, they are in fact the same person! Jekyll and Hyde like! His parents split his bad from his good and that’s why Teague stole the book, so he could be reunited with his good side!
And now he’s mostly all bad.
But there’s still a Jared-part of him that loves Mina.
This
Is
Interesting
Indeed
And now Mina has to decide if she has the guts to kill the person (sort of person?) she loves in order to end the Grimm curse.
Bring on the drama!!
Also, Nix is now a high school boy living in Mina’s world, and I swear to bob if he’s another love interest for Mina…
lina_led's review
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
crissfm's review against another edition
4.0
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG I NEED TO READ REIGN RIGHT NOW OMG OMG OMG
MY POOR JARED I LOVE YOU SO MUCH EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY DON'T YOU WORRY ♥
MY POOR JARED I LOVE YOU SO MUCH EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY DON'T YOU WORRY ♥
morganthelibrarian's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
3.25
valeriew's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting. Ok so the end when Jared was distracted. That bugged me! They knew they were still in danger!!! Not the time or place to start expressing your love for her.
s3cretreader's review against another edition
When I say I have read this. I'm lying. The first two books were OK, but I just didn't get this book. I never really stop reading a book, but this one was just not grabbing me.
alondriya's review against another edition
5.0
The fact that I read this book in under a week even with having a busy ass schedule, it’s literally 3 in the morning but i don’t mind, this book, this series, has emotionally recked me yet at the same time has made me so utterly happy. I love it, i love it so much. The characters, the story line, amazing and heart breaking. Mina is an incredible fictional character I very much look up too, thank you author for creating this master piece. I’m scared to read the last two books of the series, I don’t wanna cry no more and I just want Mina to finally be happy with Jared😭😭 She and him truly deserve the best 😭😭
vera_michele's review against another edition
4.0
4/5 Stars
I really do enjoy this series. It makes me feel so nostalgic because the last time I read these I was in 6th grade, and I'm a year out from being graduated. I'm reminded how much I love these characters. The writing is not as amazing as I remember, but that's ok. These are really good audio books to listen to if you're looking for an easy one to fly through.
I really do enjoy this series. It makes me feel so nostalgic because the last time I read these I was in 6th grade, and I'm a year out from being graduated. I'm reminded how much I love these characters. The writing is not as amazing as I remember, but that's ok. These are really good audio books to listen to if you're looking for an easy one to fly through.
swordofsummer's review against another edition
3.0
lost the plot after the pixie used her vape to travel between worlds