“What I mean is, all the terrible things that happen in fairy tales seem real. Or not real, but genuine. Life is unfair, and the bad guys keep winning and good people die. But I like how that's not always the end of it...Evil is real, but so is good. They always say fairy tales are simplistic, black and white, but I don't think so. I think they're complicated. That's what I love about them.”

The Grimm Legacy is about a young girl, Elizabeth, who works in a Repository. A Repository is like a library for items, some of these items are normal and some of these items are magical. Like the items in the Grimm section, these items were collected by the famous brothers and inspired their stories. When Elizabeth proves she's trustworthy enough to work for them she slowly starts to discover the wonders that the Repository holds. However items are going missing and there's a giant bird stalking the workers. Elizabeth must figure out who she can trust and who is dangerous.

This has been on my TBR for a long time, depending on where you look it says YA lit and other places says childrens. Either way I picked this up with not much in the way of expectations, I wanted something easy and simple and that it's exactly what I got. One thing I did like is that Shulman has based this series on authors, she could have easily wrote a seires with each book focusing on magical objects connected to famous fairy tales to attract children. The second books is based H.G Wells and the third, Edgar Allen Poe, not authors you associate with children or childrens lit and I'm intrigued to read the next one as each of these are standalones but set in the same Repository.

A fun YA Contemporary Fantasy that incorporates Fairy Tales without being a straight forward retelling.

BOOK DETAILS:

The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman, read by Julia Whelan, published by Random House Audio (2012) / Length: 9 hrs 40 min

SERIES INFO:

This is Book #1 of 3 in the "Grimm Legacy" series. All 3 are available on audio.

SUMMARY:

I've read a lot of modern fairy tale retellings, this isn't strictly one of those. Although Elizabeth's life has elements of Cinderella (she even ends up with a single shoe on at one point), this isn't a Cinderella story. Instead it is a book that asks, "What if the magical objects from fairy tales were real and you could borrow them?"

Elizabeth is a genuinely kind person who wants to do what's right but isn't always sure what that is.

I am marking this with a Diversity tag, even though Elizabeth is white, since Mark is African American and Anjali's Indian (the South Asian kind).

Note: Audible has this categorized as a middle grade, which is incorrect; it is YA.

THE GRIMM LEGACY

Polly Sulman

The Grimm Legacy is a fun young adult mystery to read. Some fantasy, some fairy tales, a big library, and a few teens who may be seen as nerdy. This book
is story is about Elizabeth and her new job at a materials circulation library. Not a typical library, as Elizabeth finds out, but she finds it a job that she enjoys. She gets the "key" to a special collections, and with her friends, gets pulled into a mystery of who is "stealing" items form the library.
The story did keep my interest. Even some of the adult characters were interesting. I would definitely recommend this to a preteen or teen who likes references to various fairy tales and a little mystery too.
The Grimm Legacy is the first of a series.

I don't have too much to say about A Grimm Legacy. I finished the book a few weeks ago (I know it, I'm horribly behind on my reviewing) and frankly - but unsurprisingly - my eReader did yet another reboot deleting all my notes.

Which brings me immediately to the biggest problem with the book. The story is quite forgettable. I remember some of the details but the story itself is a bit of blur. Not that it was that much better immediately after reading.

What I really liked was the fact it tries to interweave well known and lesser known (at least in my region) fairy tales in to one story. I suppose they are all Grimm tales, though I wouldn't know enough about that to check it. The only problem is that the execution of this idea doesn't really work. It results in some fairy tales being really glanced over while others receive almost half the book. It never really worked for me.

I was also wondering about the world. Almost every fairy tale has his/her own prince/evil queen et cetera. How can they all live in peace together? The characters are all quite interchangeable except for one girl who gets kidnapped all the time.

I didn't really plan on continuing the series, although I normally like fairy tales with a twist I saw that this one wasn't really for me, but I already had an ARC for the next book in this series, so I read that one as well. (Review to come)

A Grimm Legacy is the first book in the Grimm Tales series. The second book is Grimm Memories.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

..something that in truth isn't bad _ I gave this 3.5 stars _ but you can't help wishing you were reading something else! :/

Another year has almost gone by, and most of the books I wanted to read this year, I didn't!

At this moment I really wished I had no more arcs to review, so I could just read whatever I wanted! :/

(note to myself: do not go to Netgalley or Edelweiss)

This has not been a good year for me book related.

Sorry, I am feeling a little grumpy.

“While I might not have the guts to kill you, I don't think I'd lose any sleep tonight if a few of your toes were lost when this gun went off.”
Andi's eyes hardened and she leaned in until her mouth was inches from his elongated ears. "And if that’s not enough to convince you, I will have no problem telling a certain miller's daughter what your real name is, Rumplestiltskin."