Shorter Musings: YA Fairytale Retellings

Here are few shorter musings on some recent YA fairytale retellings I've read:

Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross

I enjoyed the concept of this story, which is a lot like Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends but with a more solid thought through world building behind it. It is a retelling of "Sleeping Beauty" and "Bluebeard" combined, which in itself is genius. Who would think to combine those two??? And I really wanted to love it, but I had too hard of a time liking the main character, Mira. When EVERYONE you meet is telling you that a guy is dangerous stay away, he runs a shady casino, and is a little too suave, maybe you should pay attention. Her stubbornness regarding this, particularly once she knew what was going on was more than I could buy into. Another thing that bothered me was the Felix plot thread left dangling at the end. Where was he? What was he planning? I did like Blue's character a lot, and the dialogue and interactions between him and Mira. The other supporting characters were also enjoyable and I would be happy to read more of their stories set in the town. Particularly Freddie's story now that his hero act is over and Layla's story because I love "Beauty and the Beast" and I loved her. The next novel in the series comes out in January.

Princess of the Silver Woods by Jessica Day George

This is the conclusion to the story that began in Princess of the Midnight Ball. It is 10 years after the sisters and Galen defeated The King Under Stone, but things are not all happily ever after. The girls are all being visited by the princes in their dreams and forced to dance once more. Princess of the Silver Woods focuses on Petunia, the youngest of the sisters, and Oliver, an earl who lost his lands during the war and has taken to banditry. He joins with the girls, their husbands, and staunches supporters to break the curse once and for all. I liked this volume the most of the thee. Again, the love part happens awfully fast. They have a total of three whole interactions before Oliver is willing to die for her, yet it works because he freely admits he's also willing to die to stop the evil, Petunia threatened or not. Petunia is DELIGHTFUL. Having been so young when the original curse was stopped, she is the most vocal and feisty of the girls when things start back up. As a little red riding hood heroine, she is perfect.

Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay
This isn't a retelling so much as a continuation of Sleeping Beauty. Ror (Aurora) is the daughter of Sleeping Beauty and the prince who rescued her a bit too early from he enchanted sleep. Ror has to saver kingdom, her brother, and worry about the effect her "curse' can have on the men in he life. I was hoping to like this one a lot more than I did. The character development was incredibly well done, but I was so bored for a lot of the story. I also felt the whole thing was a bit anti-climatic. This was particularly disappointing because I enjoyed Of Beast and Beauty so much.

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Serafina and the Black Cloak

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Shorter Musings MG Fantasy

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