First up is NAUGHTY CINDERELLA.  Cinderella works as a prostitute to bring money into her family so her stepsisters and her stepmother can live the life they feel they deserve.  When the prince comes to the town square to announce a ball, they laugh when Cinderella says she wants to attend.  Though she found a beautiful gown, they destroy it and go to the ball without her.  She sits in a tub knowing her life will end.  Her fairy godmother appears and gives Cinderella all she needs to go to the ball including crystal slippers with the admonition to return home by midnight.  Will she?  Will she amaze the prince?  Will he marry her?

I enjoyed this tale.  It follows a lot of the CINDERELLA fairy tale with a few differences.  Her stepsisters may be beautiful on the outside, but they are ugly on the inside.  She is the most beautiful woman at the ball and the prince knows it.  As he says, “it’s in the eyes.”  When midnight comes Cinderella runs out.  She manages to make it home but just barely.  I liked the differences.  I liked how the prince could identify her.  I also liked the secret he shared on their wedding night.  I hope nothing but good comes to them.

Next is RIDING RED HOOD.  Red is running through the woods trying to outrun cannibals.  Suddenly the cannibals are attacked and killed by a beast-like creature.  The next morning Red is in her own bed.  But how did she get there?  She has no memory when her fiancée asks her as the Chief Protector.  He sends her to his detectives for questioning.  They question her story.  She gets angry especially when she learns attacks had been happening for some time.  Her fiancée and his men set out to find and kill the beast.  Red decides to find him first.  Who will find the creature?  What is the creature?  Why is Red so interested in him?

I liked this story.  It’s a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood but a lot more grown up and without the woodsman to kill the big bad wolf.  I liked Red and Kull, the creature.  There was more passion between them then between Red and her fiancée.  He was a jerk!  I was not crazy about the ending, but I liked it rather than how it could have ended with Red and her fiancée.  An interesting story.

Last is BEAUTH AND THE BEAST WITH TWO BACKS.  Belle’s father goes off with his mistress to the Beast’s castle.  There he picks a black rose for his mistress.  The Beast catches him and in exchange, Belle’s father offers her up.  Belle comes and stays while her father and his mistress leave along with their retinue.  Belle tries to keep her distance from the Beast but gradually spends more time with him and develops a friendship with him.  Her father sends word that he wants to see her before he dies.  Will the Beast let her leave?  If he does, will she come back?  If she comes back, what will she find?

I enjoyed this story.  It follows THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST more than the other stories followed their fairy tales.  I liked Belle and Beast.  They had to learn to trust each other.  I liked the trust Beast placed in Belle.  Belle learned a lot from Beast.  She finally learned not to not accept bad behavior and to stand up for herself.  It is an interesting end.  Not one I was expecting.  I wonder what does happen when the tale is finished.

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I was really excited when I got the approval for this one. One of the rare books I knew right away was going to be an epic once I started reading. Seeing “Six of Crows” comparisons tend to make me roll my eyes as it usually involves a break in to some impossible place of some sort. It was really the “Les Mis” comparison that drew me in for this one.

Though it took a while for me to spot anything resembling Les Miserable. I thought the world building was absolutely fascinating. I didn’t really get much of a sense of 1800s Paris though, it was more about the Courts and the characters, but the sense of place, the gloom and grittiness came through as the story progressed.

There was a dark sense of foreboding and dread throughout the whole thing, and something morbidly fascinating about it as well. Beautifully written and evocative, the novel was impossible to put down. I’m really looking forward to more from this series.

Thank you to HarperCollins UK, Harper Fiction for approving my request to view the title.

by Mark W. McGinnis

This is a book of retold Chinese fables, based on the writings of the ancient philosopher Chang Tzu but written in modern language that any child could follow.

The tales are very short and each has a morale at the end to teach the reader something about the foibles of human nature.

The pictures are beautifully done and in full color in what looks like an oriental style. Overall the books is beautifully presented and would make a nice gift to a child, though adults would enjoy it too!

I waffled on 2 or 3 stars, but honestly I was bored out of my mind for the most part while reading this, so 2 stars it is. I liked the idea of a story focusing on King Midas's daughter, but everything with the pirates, the power of her touch, etc. just dragged. I think the world building could have been better (we hear about Dionysus, but what about the other gods) and also Kora's supposed power. The romances felt pretty weak too. 

"A Touch of Gold" tells the story of what happened to King Midas after he got the power to turn things to gold. Hugging his daughter he turns her to gold. When he begs Dionysus for help, he is told to wash everything into the ocean/sea (I can't remember) and do it for everything that he turned to gold. King Midas does, and he restores his daughter Kora back to living flesh. However, he forgets a few items and is cursed forever, she is too, she is a golden maiden brought to life. Ten years later we follow Kora as she has another potential groom paraded in front of her. When she finally thinks she has met someone who can stand to be around her, her father's gold is stolen which leaves him incapacitated. Kora and her cousin Hettie go on a wild adventure to save Kora's father and the kingdom.

I did like Kora, I just wish we had spent more time with her before we find her as a young adult and then dealing with her mooning a bit over the first of the two romantic potentials in this book. She did get more interesting as a character towards the end though. Her cousin Hettie was a delight and I think this would have been a 5 star book if it focused on her. 

The two romantic heroes were blah. Sorry, I didn't like either of them though the twist with one of them I did not see coming. 

The writing was a bit off for me since the dialogue was dry. I just needed something more going on there. I just needed more thing to be happening besides Kora reading a diary, feeling romantic, and eavesdropping. 

The setting of the book really didn't feel like it took place in one of the Greek myths I read as a kid. It's weird that at times the book read as modern or in another part of the world other than where King Midas's story was drawn from which I think is considered modern day Asia Turkey. 

The ending leaves a potential wrinkle in Kora's future which is why I assume there is a second book in this series. 

***Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley and Harper Voyager!***

The first thing that drew me to this book was the cover. I mean, look at it. It is probably one of the most gorgeous book covers that I have ever seen. Then the title. The Sisters Grimm. Immediately my mind is drawn to fairy tales. I love fairy tales. And I love fairy tell re-tellings. But this book is a perfect example of a good idea that got beaten to death with poor writing and poor execution.

***SPOILER ALERT: Be aware, this is a spoilery review. The ranty ones typically are.

The basic idea of this book is that a demon (Wilhelm I think his name was) has fathered thousands of sisters Grimm on earth. I am not sure if this is metaphysical thing or a biological thing, but some of the daughters have mothers who are also Grimm sisters. So, ew, I imagine at some point in the history of this world we had some incest. As children, the Grimm sisters can come and go from “Everywhere”, a magical forest, as they please. But as they age they forget this place until about a month before their 18th birthday, which is when they start to remember and get their powers back. Wilhelm also has soldiers, who are transformed into babies from stars (WTF?), and their life’s mission is to kill Grimm sisters on their 18th birthdays. Then something about the Grimm sisters who survive have to choose good or evil and then their father kills them if they choose good and then….well, the author didn’t both to tell me what happens then.

That was my first big problem with this book. Despite being 400 pages long, the author didn’t bother to explain anything to me. I have no idea how the world works, how the magic works, why things are this way, or what the rules are. I am not even clear on what the sisters’ powers are. Scarlet can start fires, Liyana can telepathically listen in on other people’s minds, Bea can transform things with her mind. And I have no idea what Goldie can do except mentally tell people what to do and they sometimes listen. And all of them have other powers that randomly appear and don’t seem to relate to anything else they can do, at all.

Since we’re talking about the girls, let’s talk about how utterly devoid of personality all of them are. I honestly could not tell the difference between any of them until someone used their name or until Bea or Liyana would occasionally throw in a non-English word into an otherwise entirely English conversation….seemingly in order to remind me that they were the book’s representation of other ethnicities and cultures.

Now let’s talk about the technicals of the writing. It was bad. It was the single most confusing book that I have ever read. There are SO MANY narrators. Everywhere (yes the forest is a narrator), Goldie, Scarlet, Bea, Liyana, Leo, Wilhelm, Liyana’s aunt….and I am pretty sure there were a few others in there that I’m forgetting too. Between these narrators, some of them are told in first person, some in second person, and some in third person. And the narrator changes approximately every page and a half. With me so far? Now let’s throw in some chapters in the past for some extra fun so that we have past tense, present tense, and future tense. It was so difficult to read. It gave me a headache when I actually tried to concentrate on who was speaking and what time period we were in.

I also don’t appreciate what the author did to poor Vali. He was a nice guy. And despite the book’s message of empowerment, all Bea did was belittle the poor guy. She called him fat, called him all sorts of other names, made fun of him for being a virgin and then ultimately killed him! Then she has the nerve to get upset about him dying because she didn’t mean to. Way to go Bea, you bullied him to death. The author did him dirty and I am still mad about it.

I finally gave up on this book after 245 pages. My brain couldn’t handle it anymore and I found that I really didn’t care how it ends. Leo is not going to kill Goldie, Goldie will probably choose good. Liyana and Scarlet will probably die because they were entirely expendable in the rest of the book so why not? And Bea will probably live and choose evil. Or maybe all four of them survive and choose good in order to challenge their father. But really, who cares? The author hasn’t made me care about their upcoming battle or told me why the outcome matters, so why should I spend any more of my time finding out?