Review: Cloaked

One day my princess will come -- yeah, one can safely say that this a great modern plot twist from the original boy romances girl fairy-tales. Victoriana is beautiful and loaded with royal money. She could have any other boy, but wants shoemaker Johnny to be her savior and search the town for her lost brother who's been turned into a frog. If he succeeds, she will marry him and make him prince of Aloria. Johnny doesn't really want to marry the princess, whom he's never met before, but agrees for the money. And so begins his magical quest. 

I love Alex Flinn for books like Beastly and A Kiss in Time. For her ability to take fantasy fairy-tale elements and give them a modern take. But alas, in this book she took the tales too far. I could barely recognize the human world at all. Even the characters kept changing, developing powers when it suited them, falling in and out of love at will. 

Sadly, kissing a frog would be more entertaining. 

Top Ten Tuesday: This is my confession

 

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

TOP AUTHORS I'VE NEVER READ

Nothing personal. I'm certain that one day this post will be old news as I update my to-read list.

    Jane Austen   Dan Brown      Lewis Caroll    J.R.R.Tolkien

  Jennifer L. Armentrout  

Who made your list?

Review: Grim

I'm not one to name drop, but Hawkins, Smith-Ready, Kagawa and Hopkins, are all authors any YA lover would instantly recognize. Grim contains 17 stories in all, each one by a different writer. Although the fairy-tale theme is always present, you will find paranormal, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, romance and even humorous tales throughout the anthology, maintaining a pleasant diversity.

Some stories were very short and lacked the tension and twisted endings the others shared. But most did stand out, such as Key (psychic intuitions), The Raven Princess (transformation), Better (cyborgs), Sharper than a Serpent's Tongue (curses.)

Retelling also took place in The Twelfth Girl, reminiscent of the Twelve Dancing Princesses except this time around they escape to go clubbing and drinking. Hansel and Gretel become Hansen and Greta in Light it Up as the siblings face a torture cabin in the woods. Thinner than Water retells Peau D'Ane with an ending worth reading twice. But the most intriguing retell goes to Julie Kagawa with The Brothers Piggett or as most know them, the three little pigs.

A fast and amusing read.

Feature and Follow Friday: The End

Parajunkee / Alison Can Read

FEATURE & FOLLOW FRIDAY

Once you answer be sure to leave me your link so I can follow you back

Q: Change the plot. If you could, what book would you change the ending or a plot thread?

Hello, Requiem!

I would tear this book apart. Give Hannah a different role. The surgery would seem fine at first, but then she'd find herself in places without knowing how she got there. She'd have no other choice than to act against her husband's evil plans before her brain would stop functioning completely O_O

And I'd provide an ending to the novel. No series should be left open to speculation, right?

Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Daughter of Smoke and Bone captures its readers interest with an orphan girl named Karou, whose cheating ex-boyfriend tries to win her back by posing nude in her life drawing class. As if this wasn't enough of a jolt, Karou's adoptive family is chimaera -- mythical creatures from various animals parts -- making Karou's background even more of a blurr. Is she ... human?

A lot of information was thrown into the book: portals to different worlds, an instalove relationship, a war between angels and demons, dentistry, magical power to fly, past lives... Every time I figured out where the story was going, Laini Taylor would shake her finger at me, and twist the plot the other way around. 

Perhaps now that the characters are set, Days of Blood and Starlight (book2), will be easier to follow.