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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The only thing that saved this book from a 2-star rating was the second story, Beauty Sleep. I found it to be an interesting and imaginative take on the Sleeping Beauty Fairy-tale. I wish it had been the longer of the two stories. Snow was a creative enough premise, but the writing lacked any real depth, and it just fell flat with me.
This book is two stories that you may know well. The story of a girl called Snow and another story of a girl named Aurore. The first story is the classic story of Snow White re-told. Honestly, I thought it was really boring. I didn't like the modification to this story. The second is Sleeping Beauty. I think that I really liked the story when it was modified. It was done well and the idea that went along with it was really unique. I was always trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together before events were revealed. This story really salvaged the book from being a complete waste of time in my opinion.
I thought these stories had a lot of potential. The writing was good and the new premise for old ideas was intriguing. Ultimately though, the ending were a huge let down.
Okay, look, I really like a well done fairytale retelling, and the blurb made these sound promising. However, they both suffer from the same two fatal flaws:
1. Incredibly poor pacing. There is too much time wasted in set-up that you get very, very little conflict and conflict resolution. You get the conflict and then everything is really rushed. The ending for Snow, in particular, was super anti-climatic and disappointing.
2.
Spoiler
INCEST. Really???? In Snow, you are basically told that the Lonely Ones are the half-animal, half-human children of Snow's stepmother. So, unless the evil stepmother has been kidnapping children or desecrating baby graves (aside from that one), this means they are her biological children and their father is Snow's father. Meaning they are Snow's half-siblings. So WHY OH WHY would you make Raven, a Lonely One, her love interest???In Beauty Sleep (which is an incredibly misleading title - in fact, this was a loose, loose retelling all around), her love interest is her cousin - her FIRST cousin by blood. It was bad enough when I thought the love interest was going to be a descendant of her family, but to pull some creepy magic and have the love interest be her actual cousin? No, thank you.
And really, they ruined everything about these stories for me.
I loved both of the stories in this book they both were unique in their own ways I would read more books like this for sure. I liked the characters of both stories especially Snow and Raven from Snow and Aurore and Oswald from Beauty Sleep. I found Snow or Jessica which is her actual name to be a very interesting character in the beginning she was your typical child and then the evil Step Mother came and then she was treated horribly and blamed for something that happened to her she was very well written. I liked the plot of Snow it was well written and really flowed well it had a more scientific rather than magical take on the things the evil step mother did I found that unique and it made the story so much better, I liked the bit of romance between Raven and Snow it was well done and was not out of place at all. I really liked Aurore she was a wonderful character that really cared about her people she would even go into a forest to prevent misfortune from happening to them. I liked the bit at the end with Oswald and her and his feelings for each other it really had the perfect fairy tale ending. I really liked the plot of Beauty Sleep it really read like an old fairy tale and I really liked how the plot moved from one place to another. So overall these stories were really good I would read more of them in the future.
Spoiler
She meets some unusual people that she come to care for she is then tricked by the step mother and falls into a deep sleep.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
As a disclaimer, I only read the first story of two in this book, which was "Snow" - a retelling of Snow White. I quite enjoy retellings, but I didn't like this one at all, which is why I didn't even bother to read the other. I didn't find myself rooting for the characters. I honestly didn't care very much about any of them. There was a jump in time when 'Snow' or 'Jessica' was locked up by her stepmother, but I found it very abrupt, and we learned little about the circumstances of her life while she was away.
Additionally, the romance seemed randomly thrown in to me. There were some instances where the characters seemed to connect somewhat, but it felt hollow and forced. I also did not enjoy the seven dwarves becoming The Lonely Ones, which we part-human/part-animal. I found it odd, and though the author explained in the end, I just don't think it made sense at all. Overall, I did not enjoy this book at all, and I would not recommend it.
Additionally, the romance seemed randomly thrown in to me. There were some instances where the characters seemed to connect somewhat, but it felt hollow and forced. I also did not enjoy the seven dwarves becoming The Lonely Ones, which we part-human/part-animal. I found it odd, and though the author explained in the end, I just don't think it made sense at all. Overall, I did not enjoy this book at all, and I would not recommend it.
This book had both good and bad things about it. Its hard to jumble both of the stories together so I'm going to review each story separately.
Snow
3/5 Stars
In total I really enjoyed this book. I liked the direction the author took it. One of my biggest issues though was the length of the story. Because it was so short the story at parts felt rushed. Some parts took forever to get through while other we flew through and at times needed better explaining. I feel that if this book was about twice the size it could have had a much better impact. Also the stepmother issues was resolved way way to quickly. It really should take more then 3 pages for stuff to wrapped up, especially considering there almost nothing leading up to it. All in all this story had great potential it just need more pages to really make the story come alive.
Beauty Sleep
2.5/5 Stars
Out of the two stories this one was by far my least favorite. I feel like the author was trying to hard, the writing style felt forced and really strange. I wish it hadn't been told in the manner of the event happening in the past like it was. I wanted to be there while it was happening. Also what happened to our villain! If someone came and cursed my child to an endless sleep I'd be doing everything in my power to find her and bring justice. But nope everyone seemed to act like she was really no big deal, almost like they once again forgot about her. Also the romance really got on my nerves. To me it was uncomfortable and awkward. As a person he was fine, but the age difference really got to me, I knew it was coming and that's how it was gonna play out but I despised every minute of the so called romance. I got so excited when there seemed to be a potential new romance, especially to a guy I actually quite enjoyed, and then everything just fell apart when she chose who she did. All in all I don't think much could have changed for me to enjoy this story. Sadly it would most likely have to be a completely different retelling. The only aspect I really enjoyed was 1) Ironheart and 2) that this was a retelling of Sleeping Beauty.
All in all these two stories were interesting, but both had many issues. That being said I'm looking forward to reading other stories by these authors.
Snow
3/5 Stars
In total I really enjoyed this book. I liked the direction the author took it. One of my biggest issues though was the length of the story. Because it was so short the story at parts felt rushed. Some parts took forever to get through while other we flew through and at times needed better explaining. I feel that if this book was about twice the size it could have had a much better impact. Also the stepmother issues was resolved way way to quickly. It really should take more then 3 pages for stuff to wrapped up, especially considering there almost nothing leading up to it. All in all this story had great potential it just need more pages to really make the story come alive.
Beauty Sleep
2.5/5 Stars
Out of the two stories this one was by far my least favorite. I feel like the author was trying to hard, the writing style felt forced and really strange. I wish it hadn't been told in the manner of the event happening in the past like it was. I wanted to be there while it was happening. Also what happened to our villain! If someone came and cursed my child to an endless sleep I'd be doing everything in my power to find her and bring justice. But nope everyone seemed to act like she was really no big deal, almost like they once again forgot about her. Also the romance really got on my nerves. To me it was uncomfortable and awkward. As a person he was fine, but the age difference really got to me, I knew it was coming and that's how it was gonna play out but I despised every minute of the so called romance. I got so excited when there seemed to be a potential new romance, especially to a guy I actually quite enjoyed, and then everything just fell apart when she chose who she did. All in all I don't think much could have changed for me to enjoy this story. Sadly it would most likely have to be a completely different retelling. The only aspect I really enjoyed was 1) Ironheart and 2) that this was a retelling of Sleeping Beauty.
All in all these two stories were interesting, but both had many issues. That being said I'm looking forward to reading other stories by these authors.