Once Upon a Twist on an Old Fairy Tale

  For Christmas I received a lot of books from my family. My sister gave me the book Enspelled by Aya Ling, the author of the Reversed Retellings trilogy I reviewed last year.   I was very excited to read it and but at first, I found it a bit difficult to get into. The reason was not because I wasn’t enjoying it but because I had a lot of unfinished books to complete (still do) and starting a new one would only add to the seeming ly unending list. However, I am glad I stuck with it for it turned out to be a really wonderful story.   The book is about Sana a modern-day girl from Japan who doesn’t have much going for her in life. Her parents are gone, her aunt's new boyfriend turns out to be a pervert forcing her to move out, and she her boss at the Ramen restaurant is close to firing her. H er friend Naomi one day sends her an online manga about a princess named Rosemary who is on her way to meet her betrothal Prince Alistar. During the journey her evi...

Recently my family was again struck with tragedy with the death of my grandfather. He was an amazing, brilliant man who I will miss and always love with all my heart. I felt I should do something in his honor like I did for my grandmother (I read some Swan Lake retellings for a month since it was one of her favorite ballets) and I decided to read as many retellings of my favorite fairy tale as I could in his honor. He was one of my favorite people and the pers on I was most excited to se e on visits. And so, to honor his memory, I will be read ing as many retellings as I can of the Norwegian fairy tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon.   This tale is not very well known to the public . Disney has never made a movie out of it and the tale seems to be not so well known. That said there have been a good number of retellings of it as well as some picture books so it's not like this tale in invisible or anything. The story is one similar to Beauty and the Beast with a prince ch...

When I first started reading the Faraway Castle series by J. M. Stengl I started with   the third book, The Rose and the Briar, since I was very interested in an evil sleeping beauty who should not be woken up. I then read the second book The Siren and the Scholar a nd discovered a mermaid (or siren rather) who traded her memories instead of her voice to have a chance to be with the man she loved even if they couldn’t remember each other at first.   Upon finishing both books, I regretted not reading the first one Ellie and the Prince f rom the start since they revealed a major spoiler . Having enjoyed both books though I figured it was about time I read the book that started it all and so I did and found it to be an amazing unique retelling of the classic fairy tale Cinderella.   The book introduces the reader to Faraway Castle, a resort for royalty and nobility. A place where magic is secretly very present with few guests aware of it.   Where brownies...