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yodamom's review
4.0
Drama, backstabbing, cheating, lust, desire, broken dreams, Los Angeles and Unicorns. This was the Jerry Springer version of Fairyland. The Princesses lives are not the happy ever after the books suggested and the Fairy Godmothers don't seem to really have anything positive to give. It all spills out of their hearts in letters written to Zell aka Repunzel after she leaves Fairyland to find herself on a Unicorn reserve. The Princes are untrustworthy meat heads or codependent unfulfilled stories. Walt would not approve.
So how did I feel about it ? I hated the drama, the emotional turmoil, the heartache, the gossip, the cheating, the lack of self esteem. I avoid all the above items as much as possible and this book had them in excess. So how did I feel about the book ? Hard questions don't have easy answers ! It was all letters, disjointed and sometimes I didn't care who's letter I was reading. I had points in the books where it was just "wah wah wah, I'm so unhappy, wah wah wah, I want____ so badly, wah wah wah" I wanted to stomp on their fingers to get them to stop writing these whine-a-thon letters. It was not an easy book for me to finish. I am an emotional sponge absorbing sad broken feelings and carrying them off into the real world where I gloat and glower for hours afterward. I was a heavy sodden sponge, when I finished and was thrilled to squeeze this book's drama out and take a deep breath.
So Yoda how did you like the book ? Well I didn't like it, but, (isn't there always a but) is was genius. The way the author twisted these sweet fairytales into real life made for TV drama-rama would take over the TV reality with the highest of ratings. I have to recommend it to fans of this type of drama.
rmdavies92's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
cyndiamakes's review
1.0
I got to page 6 and could not for the life of me keep reading. it was a great concept but the execution was done terribly.
mackle13's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I had originally given this 3-stars, but after sitting on it for awhile, I'm feeling 2.5 is really more accurate. At most. While it did pick up towards the end, and the last 1/4 of the book was definitely more worthwhile, the first half, at least, was dreadfully slow and didn't feel like it was really going anywhere.
Anyway -
As the title of the book might suggest, this is written in epistolary form. And while the title should suggest that - I didn't realize it until I actually started reading it. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing - I've read other epistolary books, and I'm not strictly opposed to them or anything, but I do often find that the voices of the different letters aren't often different enough to really be like "this is written by a different person", and, sadly, I felt the same here.
I definitely had to keep track of who was writing what based on the heading at the start of the chapters. And even then I sometimes got the characters mixed up.
The gist of the story is that Rapunzel runs away, and the remaining three princesses are left wondering whether or not they're as happy as they're meant to be - and, of course, none of them actually are, because the whole point is that there's no real fairy tale story.
But I think my biggest issue, aside from it being a bit boring, and hard to tell the characters apart at times, and the fact that, because it's a letter there's a lot of telling over showing... is that we're meant to believe these women have been friends forever, and yet they don't seem to have anything in common, they don't listen to each other, and they don't even really seem to like each other.
They seem to be "friends" more just because they're princesses in a similar social situation, and not because they're actually, well, friends.
And I guess this is almost something they realize at the end. Sort of. Almost.
I guess that's a spoiler. Sort of. Almost...
Anyway -
I enjoy a good fractured fairy tale, but there are definitely better options on the market.
Anyway -
As the title of the book might suggest, this is written in epistolary form. And while the title should suggest that - I didn't realize it until I actually started reading it. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing - I've read other epistolary books, and I'm not strictly opposed to them or anything, but I do often find that the voices of the different letters aren't often different enough to really be like "this is written by a different person", and, sadly, I felt the same here.
I definitely had to keep track of who was writing what based on the heading at the start of the chapters. And even then I sometimes got the characters mixed up.
The gist of the story is that Rapunzel runs away, and the remaining three princesses are left wondering whether or not they're as happy as they're meant to be - and, of course, none of them actually are, because the whole point is that there's no real fairy tale story.
But I think my biggest issue, aside from it being a bit boring, and hard to tell the characters apart at times, and the fact that, because it's a letter there's a lot of telling over showing... is that we're meant to believe these women have been friends forever, and yet they don't seem to have anything in common, they don't listen to each other, and they don't even really seem to like each other.
They seem to be "friends" more just because they're princesses in a similar social situation, and not because they're actually, well, friends.
And I guess this is almost something they realize at the end. Sort of. Almost.
I guess that's a spoiler. Sort of. Almost...
Anyway -
I enjoy a good fractured fairy tale, but there are definitely better options on the market.
svnz's review against another edition
4.0
This would probably be more of a 3.5*.
I loved fairy tales growing up and I'm always interested in retellings. The book summary suggested a contemporary style setting which don't usually appeal to me greatly, but I decided to give it a try as it was on Kindle Unlimited. And I'm glad I did because I enjoyed this surprisingly more than I expected!
This is probably what one would call "chick lit" but I'm not a huge fan of the term so only mentioning it to give people an idea of the type of story telling technique they can expect. The entire narrative is in the form of letters and there are no actual interactions between characters outside of recounting incidents. I'm quite impressed that the story flows fairly well and that the modern contemporary twists on our favourite fairy tale princesses actually work well.
There were some parts I felt let down by, especially
I'd recommend the audio version of the book. The narrator does a fairly good job of differentiating the voices and I think first person style narratives generally work well in audio format.
I loved fairy tales growing up and I'm always interested in retellings. The book summary suggested a contemporary style setting which don't usually appeal to me greatly, but I decided to give it a try as it was on Kindle Unlimited. And I'm glad I did because I enjoyed this surprisingly more than I expected!
This is probably what one would call "chick lit" but I'm not a huge fan of the term so only mentioning it to give people an idea of the type of story telling technique they can expect. The entire narrative is in the form of letters and there are no actual interactions between characters outside of recounting incidents. I'm quite impressed that the story flows fairly well and that the modern contemporary twists on our favourite fairy tale princesses actually work well.
There were some parts I felt let down by, especially
Spoiler
bashing Maro significantly more when both she and Henry were equally at fault. I felt this perpetuates the classic stereotype of women being bitches to other women and this is probably not what the author likely intended.I'd recommend the audio version of the book. The narrator does a fairly good job of differentiating the voices and I think first person style narratives generally work well in audio format.
lunaeclipse's review
2.0
I didn't finish it sadly. I started out about a week ago reading this and found it hard to want to complete.
At first, it was difficult to keep track of who was who. Had to make a Google Keep note on which princess was which. Then as the pages wore on I realized that I didn't care much for the story, or the style. It's all written as letters to Rapunzel. Perhaps had the story been written differently I wouldn't have given up so soon.
As far as the characters go, the only one I liked was Cinderella (CeCi). She was the only one that was normal, not too naive and sweet like Sleeping Beauty (Rory), or an overbearing know-it-all like Snow White (Bianca).
Also, the talk of Pages that needed to be complete made no sense to me. Their story as far as it goes should have already been completed since it was set in our age. But speaking to that, had I been more into fairy tales I might have enjoyed this more. My only knowledge being Disney from when I was kid.
I found too the blending of other fairy tales and other alternative realities to be clumsy. Talk of going to Wonderland, or visiting Oz, getting something from the Hansel and Gretel bakery was too much. I get that this is a world of human imagination, it just felt as if it were all mashed into the story for the sake of being cute. It wasn't, it got old.
I will say that I skipped all of the middle and read the end. The ending wasn't bad and perhaps in the future I will come back and keep progressing through the story, even though the ending did a nice job summing everything up.
This is an honest review for my copy from NetGalley.
At first, it was difficult to keep track of who was who. Had to make a Google Keep note on which princess was which. Then as the pages wore on I realized that I didn't care much for the story, or the style. It's all written as letters to Rapunzel. Perhaps had the story been written differently I wouldn't have given up so soon.
As far as the characters go, the only one I liked was Cinderella (CeCi). She was the only one that was normal, not too naive and sweet like Sleeping Beauty (Rory), or an overbearing know-it-all like Snow White (Bianca).
Also, the talk of Pages that needed to be complete made no sense to me. Their story as far as it goes should have already been completed since it was set in our age. But speaking to that, had I been more into fairy tales I might have enjoyed this more. My only knowledge being Disney from when I was kid.
I found too the blending of other fairy tales and other alternative realities to be clumsy. Talk of going to Wonderland, or visiting Oz, getting something from the Hansel and Gretel bakery was too much. I get that this is a world of human imagination, it just felt as if it were all mashed into the story for the sake of being cute. It wasn't, it got old.
I will say that I skipped all of the middle and read the end. The ending wasn't bad and perhaps in the future I will come back and keep progressing through the story, even though the ending did a nice job summing everything up.
This is an honest review for my copy from NetGalley.
zarco_j's review
1.0
Oh my days,I was so bored by the end I didn't care. The one dimensional characters left me cold.
catmom21's review
4.0
3.5 stars. It was thoroughly entertaining (clearly a theme in all the boom reviews I take time to write), and a clever format. I've got mixed feelings on books written entirely with letters, but I think this one works well. It's not supposed to be the next best fiction book, and it's not. But it's clever, entertaining, and I really did grow attached to the characters. So much so that I almost cried at the end.
I do wish there had been more character development for the recipient of the letters, Zell or Rapunzel. I didn't really understand her character at all until the very end, where you get a glimpse of what she might be feeling. I wouldn't mind a sequel from her perspective! But part of the reason you don't get much from her perspective in this book is that the characters really can be selfish and self absorbed. But that's all part of the lessons learned.
I do wish there had been more character development for the recipient of the letters, Zell or Rapunzel. I didn't really understand her character at all until the very end, where you get a glimpse of what she might be feeling. I wouldn't mind a sequel from her perspective! But part of the reason you don't get much from her perspective in this book is that the characters really can be selfish and self absorbed. But that's all part of the lessons learned.
clairecalderwood's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
jayfr's review
1.0
Oh my days,I was so bored by the end I didn't care. The one dimensional characters left me cold.