First I need to explain I've never read any of her other works in this universe. Indeed, this is the first of her books I'd ever heard of. While there are allusions to previously mentioned events I clearly was missing, the author did a good job of explaining the missing info so new readers wouldn't be lost.

Bryn has long dreamed of becoming a tracker for the Kanin kingdom and she's close to graduation. After serving as a guard during a palace celebration, her life is torn apart when Konstantin Black - trusted member of the elite Högdragen guards - attacks the Chancellor, her father and wounds her before fleeing.

Okay. I'm going to do this quick so I an write my other reviews.

I...liked it okay. My favorite ones were actually the nursery rhymes and song ones. Row Row Row Your Boat was good but On Top of Spaghetti and Hey Diddle Diddle far outranked it. The latter might be the best selection in the whole collection as the rhyme is told completely in pictures. It was so well done I was a bit disappointment to see a key explaining it. You really didn't need it.

As for the rest...they were very hit or miss. Some of the artwork I liked and others I didn't. Some versions of fairy-tales I liked and others didn't work for me. Usually, if I liked the one, I wouldn't like the other. some of the ones that I didn't like were the Cinderella one, Rumpelstiltskin, Pinocchio, and Jack and the Beanstalk.

For all that though, many did at least cause me to look at the well-known stories in a new way. Of the stories, I probably liked the Dancing Princesses one the best. In the end, I'm glad I read this but I doubt it's one I'll return to anytime soon.

Thank you Murder by Death for adding this to your shelves, as it sent me to my library's ebook collection; fortunately they did have it.

What is up with books and me recently? It seems like most of the ones I pick lately are "the best of times...the worst of times." Let me first say I did enjoy this book; I laughed out loud several times while reading it even though we were in public. Elements like How You See Your Cat and How Your Cat Sees You and How to Tell If Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You cracked me up. One of my favorites was Imperial Walker.

Hands down though it was the Inside/Outside screen-door scenes of If We Treated Our Cats Like They Treated Us that had me laughing the hardest. 

And yet...some of it just wasn't that funny. The "Bobcats" segment was e n d l e s s and rarely funny at all. Other parts were hit or miss.

Overall though, it was rather enjoyable and gave me about an hour of humor. I doubt I'll find it really re-readable, though. Some of this may be that while I love cats and have been around cats...I don't own one.

I've read at least two of Reynolds books (though I think I've read at least one other) and she's hit or miss with me. I didn't expect both to be true of one of her books!

I've wanted to read this book forever as the idea really intrigued me. the Bennett's situation was bad enough, but what if it got worse? The Collins are at Longbourne, the Bennett girls split up among relatives, and Jane is married to a shop keeper! Elizabeth is living with the Gardiners, helping her aunt with the children. A chance encounter with Bingley brings the cast of characters together again.

Awesome premise and the obvious research into the time period added a great deal of social, historical, and even economical aspects that were wonderful to read. The characters were recognizable and mostly themselves (see below for exceptions), though obvious changed slightly by the circumstances of the 'What If' scenario. There were touching moments, hilarious ones, and painful ones.

I really wanted to like this book.

But man, it thwarted me at every turn!

This is about as close to "Hell no!" as I'm likely to get for quite some time. Epistolary style novels do not work for me; I find them annoying, boring, and rarely finish them. In the book's defense, I didn't realize what this was when I bought it or I'd simply have never tried it.