This review can also be found at: MissKatiEllen & Goodreads.

After I went to Disneyland Paris last year my best bud Alice bought me this book for Christmas. I love Disney!! I can’t wait till I go on Sunday!! I’ve always had a massive appreciation of what goes on there, even before it went, whenever me and my friends would end up talking about it I’d always say how hard it must be to work there, especially if you’re a Princess. And this book really enforces this, for us it’s this amazing and magical world but for them it’s work.

This book doesn’t really have an aim, it’s not a love story it’s just a story of two people trying to find themselves and get on with their lives. As much as I was rooting for Sam and Ella to be with each other all I really wanted was them to find their way, do what made them happy. This book takes place at Disneyland where the actors have gone on strike and they’ve drafted in teens to play the parts till it all gets sorted.

The story switches between Sam and Ella, Sam plays one half of Chip and Dale and Ella plays Cinderella. Sam is very much a wondering soul, his life has been mapped out for him, when he becomes old enough to join his brother and dad in the family company. To everyone around him this seems like the ideal thing, a great job with great money and perks, he doesn’t even have to work for it. Sam just goes with things because he should, he can see his girlfriend is gorgeous, every guy there thinks so and tells him as much, but Sam plays the part hoping it will all fall into place.

Ella. Oh Ella. Somehow Ella has managed to keep going when it’s clear she is barely keeping it together. I don’t want to spoil to much her backstory, but there are moments in this when she is okay and we get a small glimpse of what she’s like. But to a lot of people there she’s odd, she asks odd things and looks at you hopefully for an answer. I don’t want to portray her as the outcast or anything because she does make friends and she is social, but when she’s with Sam she’s really herself. He listens to her, really listens to her, answers her questions.

This book is really like anything I would ever read, and I am glad of it as it was such a nice book, but like I said nothing really happens, but following Sam and Ellas friendship keeps it going, you hope she’ll bare her soul to him and he’ll realise he should do what makes him happy. But like I said, all you want them to do is work it all out.

Happy reading.

xx

This review can also be found at Goodreads.

Finally we have come to the end of the woeful tale that is the Baudelaire orphans. I feel you'll either really like this book or you won't, as to some it might feel like you don't really get an ending you want. To me there only could have been two endings, a middle ground where things are okay enough for them but they've survived it all or things went dramatically south. There could never have been a happily ever after where these children are concerned, they've been through too much and faced some pretty crappy odds, I could never be satisfied with this book ending with everything being perfect just because it's a children's book. It wouldn't fit these stories and it would be a real slap in the face to young readers.

Again Snicket never dumbs things down just because it's aimed at young readers, this series teaches a lot of things to children and most importantly sometimes you have to do something against your morals for the greater good.

In this final book the orphans find themselves on an island far from VFD and villains and with people who aren't willing to put up with Olaf, which is rather amusing. Could the children finally have found a safe haven?? Could they have found somewhere where VFD and the treachery of the world can't reach them??

Although not as fun as the first few and the repetitive style, the 13th book still can't help but get you invested and continue the need answers, and this is where this series is such a winner. It keeps you going book after book. Still the one thing I feel was missing was the time frame this all took place, I know it's all happening very quick but for me I would have liked it. This series goes to show that childrens books aren't just for children.

Happy reading.

xx

This review can also be found at: MissKatiEllen & Goodreads.

Fairy tales are everything, and fairy tale retellings are even better, but only when the author takes that tale and stamps their mark on it. Even if it means really changing up the story. I think what attracted me to Pearce is the fairy tales she picked. You tend to expect Snow White, Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, it’s our fairy tale association. Princesses. So it made a refreshing change that the first in these books was Red Riding Hood.

We open the book with a fairy tale seven years ago setting us up with the original attack on the children and grandma. Sisters Red centres on sisters Ruby and Scarlett who have become hunters protecting their small hometown of Ellison from the predators that walk among them. They are also helped by returning family friend Silas who is part of the huntsman family. After practically being raised together they are no strangers to what’s lurking in the woods and how to stop them. Silas and Scarlett are old hunting partners and there is still a bit of anger residing in Scarlett once he returns.

With hatchets and knifes flying left, right and centre this book really reminded me a lot of Anna dressed in blood, there was lots of hunts and fights taking place, through this we learn who they are, how they’ve learnt to hunt and track down and most importantly lure the wolves in. Speaking of I loved Pearces take on the wolves, or fenris as they’re called, the description of how they change, their greasy fur, burning eyes and rancid smells. Far from the usual wolves you’ll find stalking the night.

The story switches between both sisters which really gives you an insight into who they really are, Scarlett has been left scarred both physically and mentally and growing up as a hunter and protector is her be all and end all. It’s what she lives for, its her purpose that drives her. And this is her greatest downfall, because she’s been left so horribly scarred it’s a daily reminder of what she lost, what’s out there and why she can’t have a normal life. Ruby on the other hand is younger and remembers little of the attack. Scarlett constantly wants to protect her yet on the other hand expects Ruby to feel the same way about hunting as she does, which is hard when your over protective sister doesn’t let you prove yourself and hunt alone.

Things change for the sisters when more wolves start to come to town and they realise that the different wolf packs are searching for the Potential. This is another positive, Pearce has made how people become wolves her own. Their new mission takes the girls out of their comfort zone as they move from their sleepy home town to the big city. This book easily could have stayed where it was, but changing up the location added a new angle of interest. It challenged everything the three of them knew about hunting, they had to adapt and change. Suddenly it’s not so easy to lure a fenris when they have their pick of girls spilling out of bars.

"Never, in my wildest dreams, would I have imagined that finding out I've been wrong would feel like this. That I would want to pull my beautiful face off the wall and hurl the mirror to the foot, stomp on the pieces until my feet bleed, scream until I lose my voice. That I could wish with every fibre of my being to go back to the way life was before, when I believed myself ugly, when the world and my place in it were perfectly clear.

But I do. I wish. But I can't go back. Not ever."