I Admit That In The past I've Been A Nasty...

Part Of Your World: Liz Braswell


As much as I despise the little mermaid, this retelling wasn't too bad. Liz Braswell's Twisted Tales series takes a much darker look at our favorite Disney movies and tales told from the perspective as if the villains won.  In Part Of Your World, we see how the story would have ended if Ursula had won the big fight at the end and married Eric under the guise of Vanessa, and Ariel returned voiceless to rule Atlantica. While on land, Ursula/Vanessa had the country under a foggy spell to make them think that her wedding to Eric went off without a hitch. That is until Scuttle the seagull sees what he thinks is King Triton kept in a bottle on Ursula/Vanessa's vanity and immediately alerts Ariel.  This starts a series of ongoing events including Ariel getting her voice back, everyone remembering the real events of the wedding and everyone trying to find the now hidden king.

Alright, I'm going to say this once and only once, ( but you will more than likely hear me complain about later) I  hate The Little Mermaid. I hate the movie, the original story, the character, all of it. Ariel is such a bad example for young girls that I really just can't stand it. Who leaves her family for a guy she just met and literally has said zero words to, plus gives up her voice. Who does that?!? Liz Braswell's retelling of this made the story a bit better by making Ariel realize her mistakes and act more grown up in her decision making. I would recommend this book and all the other books in this series to anyone who loves Disney and Disney villains. 

Pros:
A darker take on a popular story

Cons:
I hate The Little Mermaid


 

1696 × 2560

All You Need Is Inside

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms: Meridith Rusu

I don't want to spoil a movie that's not out yet, but the novelization of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms was so good! I can't tell you haw excited I am for this movie to comeout. Diseny has been on a great live action adaption kick so I had some high hopes going into this. Clara and her family are still greiving the loss of her mother, Marie, at Christmas. At Uncle Drosselmyer's Christmas party, Clara is lead into the entrance of the Realms, a land that was discovered by Drosselmeyer and Marie when she was young. There, Clara meets Phillip, a soldier who helps her fight off the Mouse King. When Phillip brings Clara to the palace, he introduces her to the regents of the Realms; Hawthorn of the Land of Flowers, Shiver of the Land of Snow and Sugar Plum of the Land of Sweets. They tell her of Mother Ginger, a former regent of the Land of Amusments who tried to take of the Realms for herself when Marie became too ill. Clara must defeat Mother Ginger and retrive the key left to her by her mother to bring the Realms back to what they once were.

Like most Disney adaptions, there is a semi-preidictable plot twist that I saw coming from a mile away but some of you might not. There were also a lot of call backs to the original Nutcracker story, like Clara throwing her shoe at the Mouse King so the Nutcracker can defeat him.  I also enjoyed the multiple perspectives in this novelization to give more backstory that the film may not, like how Marie found and created the Realms and everything in it and Sugar Plum's backword thoughts about the proceedings. Put of all the recent film novelizations from Disney, this is the best and will give you more to the film.

Pros:
fantasic twist on classic holiday tale

Cons:
Plot twist was pretty predictable

Her Letters Were Kept In A Teal Hatbox....

To All The Boys I've Ever Loved Before: Jenny Han

Well, I have not read such a good contemporary novel in a while. I did opt to watch the Netflix version of this before reading because I'm stubborn and wanted to find a copy without the movie poster cover but apparently they don't make them anymore. Lara Jean Song Covey is an introverted girl who tries to live in the shadow of her sister Margot, always playing it safe. Whenever Lara Jean has a crush on a boy she writes out a love letter for them but keeps it in the hatbox given to her by her late mother. When her Letters are mysteriously mailed out, Lara Jean's world is turned upside down, especially when one of the letters was to her sister's ex-boyfriend. One of her love letter recipients, Pete Kavinsky,  approaches her with a deal to fake a relationship to make his ex-girlfriend jealous and to save face in front of Josh, Lara Jean accepts not knowing that the two of them would indeed fall for each other.

This was a good, quick read; it went by so fast. Even though I have watched the movie a handful of times, there weren't that many differences. I would've really liked to see Lara Jean and Peter at the Estate sale and more of the character's backstories in the movie it was a pretty spot on adaption.  I would really like to get my hands on the two following novels and I can tell you that they are in my Barnes & Noble cart waiting for me to hit that button. 

Pros:
Nice, easy love story

Cons:
Gets a tad boring in the beginning. Letters aren't introduced until a quarter way in.

What's The Point Of Having A Voice If You're Gonna Be Silent In Those Moments You Shouldn't Be?

The Hate U Give: Angie Thomas

Oh boy, I have not flown through a book so fast. I would've finished sooner if I hadn't forgotten it at work going into my day off. I adored this book and the strong message behind it. The amazing story that Angie Thomas is able to tell is so real and heartfelt that anyone who reads this will come out thinking like a whole new person, I know I did. Starr Carter grew up in Garden Heights, what most of her friends now would call the ghetto. After her childhood friend is killed in a drive-by shooting, her parents send her and her brothers to a private school where they are one of the only black children there. When Starr and her friend Khalil leave a party and are pulled over by the police, her world gets turned upside down when the officer shoots and kills Khalil. Learning that she can no longer keep her home life and school life separate, Starr slowly becomes an activist against police brutality and testifies before the grand jury. Bringing both her worlds together is hard but something Starr must do to bring Justice to Khalil.

I am so mad at myself that I chose to read this at work for the number of times I had to put it down versus reading at home where I could read non-stop. I just loved how this story flowed and was so real. The fact that she uses Tumblr and Twitter to show how actual young people actually communicate was awesome and her characters are so relatable, I felt like I was there with them the whole time. Please if anyone reads this, GO READ THE HATE U GIVE BY ANGIE THOMAS NOW!

Pros:
Story with a message

Cons:
I. Want. More.

A Tale As Old As Time Told Again...

Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge: Lisa Jensen

As it will become obvious on this page, Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale, even to the point where I have a Belle collection in my room that bothers the heck out of my husband. Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge is a brand new retelling of the tale from the perspective of one of the enchanted servants. Lucie, a lowly maid begins to work for her master and is later assaulted by him. When she attempts to kill herself, she is saved by a witch who helps her get revenge on her master by turning him into a beast but when Lucie says she wants to watch him suffer, she is also transformed into a candlestick. She is able to watch him suffer then change as if he is a completely different person.  When a lost merchant stumbles upon the manor and plucks one of the Beast's roses,  Beast demands he stay prisoner but his daughter comes in his place. While they grow fond of each other, Lucie becomes concerned that should Rose break the spell, she will suffer the same fate Lucie did. Lucie sends Rose a vision of her father dying to send her away and Beast attempts to kill himself to restore Lucie to her human form but as he takes his last breath, Rose returns and he transforms back into the Master with his original memories and personality.  With a pretty big twist that I won't spoil at the end, Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge, has turned into one of my favorite Beauty and the Beast retellings. 

I very much enjoyed this retelling from a servant's point of view is a breath of fresh air when it comes to this genre. Too often we see these retellings from the Beauty or the Beast's pov but never from the servant, especially a servant that doesn't want the curse broken, to begin with. One thing that does bother me about this genre is the majority of these that constantly name the beauty Belle or Rose. there are other names that you can use and these are way too overdone. I absolutely enjoyed this book and can't wait to get my hands on more of Lisa Jensen's books.

Pros:
Can't go wrong with beauty and the beast retelling
Creative POV

Cons:
Drags in the middle
Uses most overused beauty name

There's Rich, Filthy Rich and then there's Crazy Rich...

Crazy Rich Asian: Kevin Kwan

Ok, I'm not going to lie, I hated this book. There was too much going on between the story line with Rachel and Nick, then Astrid and her marriage and then everything with Eleanor and her family, this family tree is too big and trying to force everything into one book and it was sort of hard to follow. You have Rachel and Nick, living in New York and go to Singapore for Nick's best friend's wedding where she meets his extended family who is one of the richest families in Asia. From there we meet Nick's cousins: Astrid, who finds out her husband is cheating on her in the weeks leading up to the wedding, Eddie, a bigwig banker in Hong Kong who treats his wife and children like show props, Alistair, who deviated from the family expectations and works as a film director and recently engaged to a soap opera star plus many more. Nick's mother, aunts and friends do not like nor accept Rachel into the family no matter that everyone else likes her, thinking she is a gold-digging American-Born Chinese. With a lot of ups and downs, Rachel and Nick make it through the wedding, break-up and get back together.

Good Lord, I have never read a book that had so many confusing points of view and complicated story lines. There really was too much going on between Eleanor sabotaging Nick and Rachel, Nick and Rachel doing their own thing and Astrid finding out her husband is cheating on her and flipping back and forth seems to lose focus on the story. It was very true to Asian culture which I did enjoy being introduced to, a tool the author used was putting footnotes at the bottom of the pages that explained or defined certain phrases used that many people wouldn't know. Overall, I really do think this book was over-hyped due to the movie coming out. I personally won't go see it in theaters but I'll get it from the Redbox when it comes out on Blu-ray but until then, this really wasn't my cup of herbal tea.

Pros:
Very true to Asian Culture

Cons:
Too many complicated story lines

It's a different place through the rabbit hole...

Splintered: A.G. Howard

Sometimes what you know isn't always what's true. For Alyssa Gardner,  her family history was something she hid from. Being a descendant of Alice Liddell isn't she's proud of nor is the fact that her mother is in a sanitarium with delusions that she is Alice. Alyssa channels the voices she hears from bug and plants into her art to hide the fact that she is turning into her mother. When she discovers that the women on her family are actually cursed to go back to wonderland and fix Alice's mistakes, Alyssa goes and accidentally brings her neighbor and best friend, Jeb, on an adventure through Wonderland and meets the characters we thought we knew, especially Morpheus, the Caterpillar who taught Alyssa everything she would need to know to break the curse as a child in her dreams. With a truly unexpected plot twist, this book keeps you on the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens next.

I absolutely loved this series and how A.G. Howard takes you down a path you thought you knew then takes a sharp turn into what is the most bewitching retelling of Alice in Wonderland I have ever come across. We do have the typical love triangle between Alyssa, Jeb, and Morpheus so you never fully concentrate on the story because it always come back to the three of them. If you can get past the terrible love triangle trope and love Alice, this is the series for you.

Pros:
Fantastic imagery

Cons:
Love triangle trope