ericarobyn's review
4.0
What a fun fairy tale retelling! I'm so thankful that I was given the opportunity to read this book.
Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way.
This book captivated me right from the very first chapter! I also announced to my boyfriend very soon after I began reading that, "I LOVE THIS ALREADY!" which is always a good sign!
On the first page of the book, the main character is dropped right into the middle of the action (literally)! From there, the pacing is quick and the book is very hard to put down.
I really enjoyed that as the story progresses, the readers slowly figure out what exactly is happening at the same time that the main character does. This is a method that can be a bit confusing depending on how it is written. But in this case, the author handled it very well! There wasn't a single time where I felt confused or thought I had missed something. There also wasn't any info dumping; the readers learned everything we needed to in a natural way.
The whole premise of this story was really interesting! I thought it was a really clever twist to typical fairy tale retellings. I especially enjoyed that the true stories of the characters of East Valley differed from the ones that Effy knew about in our modern world. I really looked forward to each new character that Effy met so I could learn how much the fairy tale and the reality of Easy Valley differed.
Beware, the negatives:
The main irk I had was with repetition. But per usual, this is really just a personal irk. I don't think many others would even pick up on what bothered me. The only other things I noticed were a few grammar mistakes and the inconsistency with the spelling of one word (blonde/blond).
My favorite passages:
The more I searched my mind, the more fog I discovered clouding my brain. It intensified my belief that this was indeed, a dream.
Surely not all the fairy tales are real. I mean, I hadn't seen a white rabbit with a giant watch yet. There were no little pigs running from a wolf. Jack was real, giants were real, but talking puppets had to be where it ended... right?
So my personal knight in shining armor wasn't so shiny after all.
For a fairy tale land that was supposed to be full of true love and endless amounts of hope, Easy Valley sure felt like a miniature version of hell.
"Where's Rapunzel?"
Jack smiled, and Hansel matched his grin with a devilish one of his own.
"She's getting her hair curled." Hansel laughed.
"Yeah," Jack agreed. She's a bit tied up at the moment."
There must be something in the water here, because no one had hair this perfect. Especially people who had been running through the forest.
Silence followed. Not even the birds bothered to chirp. Apparently, they were smarter than us, vacating the darkest corners of the forest before it was too late.
Horner shrugged, brown hair flopping to the side. "When I see a good pie, I eat it. Don't see what's wrong with that."
I hadn't wanted to stare into the mirror for long. I needed a bath. And a pint of ice cream. Two pints.
My final thoughts:
This book was very easy to read, the characters were lovely, everything flowed well, and the dialogue was so realistic. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that likes retellings and/or the YA genre! I gave this book four stars!
Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way.
This book captivated me right from the very first chapter! I also announced to my boyfriend very soon after I began reading that, "I LOVE THIS ALREADY!" which is always a good sign!
On the first page of the book, the main character is dropped right into the middle of the action (literally)! From there, the pacing is quick and the book is very hard to put down.
I really enjoyed that as the story progresses, the readers slowly figure out what exactly is happening at the same time that the main character does. This is a method that can be a bit confusing depending on how it is written. But in this case, the author handled it very well! There wasn't a single time where I felt confused or thought I had missed something. There also wasn't any info dumping; the readers learned everything we needed to in a natural way.
The whole premise of this story was really interesting! I thought it was a really clever twist to typical fairy tale retellings. I especially enjoyed that the true stories of the characters of East Valley differed from the ones that Effy knew about in our modern world. I really looked forward to each new character that Effy met so I could learn how much the fairy tale and the reality of Easy Valley differed.
Beware, the negatives:
The main irk I had was with repetition. But per usual, this is really just a personal irk. I don't think many others would even pick up on what bothered me. The only other things I noticed were a few grammar mistakes and the inconsistency with the spelling of one word (blonde/blond).
My favorite passages:
The more I searched my mind, the more fog I discovered clouding my brain. It intensified my belief that this was indeed, a dream.
Surely not all the fairy tales are real. I mean, I hadn't seen a white rabbit with a giant watch yet. There were no little pigs running from a wolf. Jack was real, giants were real, but talking puppets had to be where it ended... right?
So my personal knight in shining armor wasn't so shiny after all.
For a fairy tale land that was supposed to be full of true love and endless amounts of hope, Easy Valley sure felt like a miniature version of hell.
"Where's Rapunzel?"
Jack smiled, and Hansel matched his grin with a devilish one of his own.
"She's getting her hair curled." Hansel laughed.
"Yeah," Jack agreed. She's a bit tied up at the moment."
There must be something in the water here, because no one had hair this perfect. Especially people who had been running through the forest.
Silence followed. Not even the birds bothered to chirp. Apparently, they were smarter than us, vacating the darkest corners of the forest before it was too late.
Horner shrugged, brown hair flopping to the side. "When I see a good pie, I eat it. Don't see what's wrong with that."
I hadn't wanted to stare into the mirror for long. I needed a bath. And a pint of ice cream. Two pints.
My final thoughts:
This book was very easy to read, the characters were lovely, everything flowed well, and the dialogue was so realistic. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that likes retellings and/or the YA genre! I gave this book four stars!
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