Brief Thoughts: Story's End

Story's End

by Marissa Burt
Book 2 (final) of Storybound duology

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.0 Stars

Enter the magical land of Story in this sequel to Storybound, perfect for fans of Inkheart, The School for Good and Evil, and classic fantasy tales like Ella Enchanted and The Neverending Story. Kids who love fairy tales, dragons, magic, and more will be enchanted by Una Fairchild's unforgettable adventure in Story's End.

Story is a land of dashing Heroes, dastardly Villains, and epic quests—and once upon a time, a noble King. But the King vanished so long ago that even the memory of him is lost. Now a cruel Enemy plots to rewrite Story's future, and an ordinary girl named Una Fairchild may be the only one who can stop him. As Una and her friends Peter and Indy race to defeat the Enemy, their quest will take them deep into the secrets of Story's past . . . and Una's own mysterious ties to this fairy-tale kingdom and its long-forgotten King.

Discover the richly imagined world, spirited cast of storybook characters, and timeless appeal of Story's End, which closes the book on Una's adventure "with an all-out bang."

I really don't do this book any justice by not remembering much about the first book, Storybound (I read it sometime back in 2012). I DO recall, however, mentioning it to a friend once and saying something like: "It wasn't a bad book, but it felt really flat and unexciting."

In a way, Story's End also felt the same way. There were no Feels. And while there was a really decent progression and great writing and narration, the entire thing just felt detached. And even kind of rushed. The build-up to the climactic ending battle didn't draw me in. None of it really drew me in.

But the characters were great, even if only on paper because they didn't feel alive either. I had trouble relating with the characters, and while I've never been one to love too much angst, the main character, Una Fairchild's secret back history and subsequent discovery of her secret birth would have merited at least a little bit of angst. But that didn't happen and we merrily breeze our way through the book as we roll closer to the ending.

Also, I don't remember who the character Snow is, but she ended up getting quite tiresome and annoying. Otherwise, the other characters were okay, I guess.

Nonetheless, Story's End makes a fairly good conclusion to a well-thought-out duology, and if I knew how to appreciate it better, then maybe I could have liked it a bit more.


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This book is a pre-chosen participant in the following Reading Challenge(s):

• 2015 Reading Assignment Challenge hosted by Because Reading and Fantasy is More Fun

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in October 2015.

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Brief Review: Storybound

Storybound

by Marissa Burt
Book 1 of Storybound

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.0 Stars

In the land of Story, children go to school to learn to be characters: a perfect Hero, a trusty Sidekick, even the most dastardly Villain. They take classes on Outdoor Experiential Questing and Backstory, while adults search for full-time character work in stories written just for them.

In our world, twelve-year-old Una Fairchild has always felt invisible. But all that changes when she stumbles upon a mysterious book buried deep in the basement of her school library, opens the cover, and suddenly finds herself transported to the magical land of Story.

But Story is not a perfect fairy tale. Una’s new friend Peter warns her about the grave danger she could face if anyone discovers her true identity. The devious Tale Keeper watches her every move. And there are whispers of a deadly secret that seems to revolve around Una herself....

It was the premise of the story plot that got me interested in the first place, and I have to admit that the build up was doing a pretty good job setting up the world and the conflict. However, halfway into the story, it just felt like a chore to read when the conflict continued to be "discussed" rather than progressed on.

I admire that there is a strong female heroine in this story, but I feel like Una Fairchild fit into the world too easily after being transported from the world of Readers. She almost instantly began to behave the same way that all the "characters" of Story behaved and you couldn't even really tell that she hadn't been a part of Story in the beginning. Nothing seemed entirely strange to her and she readily accepted each and every new strange occurrence. Maybe it was the fact that she was still young and open-minded, or maybe it had to do with the ultimate reason why she had been "Written In" to Story in the first place, but never had this issue been brought up about how easily she fit into Story.

The characters ran a bit flat and I found that aside from that mysterious conflict going on from Story's history, I didn't really care what happened to the main characters at all. Peter Merriweather was an admirable main male lead as well, except that for a young kid who is afraid of failing his practical exams, and who came from a good and wholesome, traditional Hero family, he seemed to have no problems bending rules, skipping classes, and getting into trouble.

It seemed as if each character was just "playing a role" rather than coming to life as their own character.


Final Thoughts:
I plan on reading the next book, but I'm not really anticipating it too much. It's one of those, "I'll read it when I see it next, or whenever I have time" types of things.

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This review was originally posted at Goodreads in May 2012.

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Brief Thoughts: The Thirteenth Princess

The Thirteenth Princess

by Diane Zahler

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  2.0 Stars

**A retelling based on The Twelve Dancing Princess.

Zita is not an ordinary servant girl—she's the thirteenth daughter of a king who wanted only sons. When she was born, Zita's father banished her to the servants' quarters to work in the kitchens, where she can only communicate with her royal sisters in secret.

Then, after Zita's twelfth birthday, the princesses all fall mysteriously ill. The only clue is their strangely worn and tattered shoes. With the help of her friends—Breckin the stable boy, Babette the witch, and Milek the soldier—Zita follows her bewitched sisters into a magical world of endless dancing and dreams. But something more sinister is afoot—and unless Zita and her friends can break the curse, the twelve princesses will surely dance to their deaths.

A classic fairy tale with a bold twist, The Thirteenth Princess tells the unforgettable story of a magical castle, true love, spellbound princesses—and the young girl determined to save them all.

I love fairy tale retellings and had been looking forward to reading this book despite the fact that I knew it was targeted more towards Middle Grade or Childrens. I've always had fairly bad luck with Middle Grade and Childrens books, with few exceptions and am always a bit wary when it comes to reading books targeted to those age groups. But being a fairy tale retelling, I had hoped I'd at least enjoy it for that much.

I had a hard time getting into The Thirteenth Princess, however, and while the telling was smooth enough and the progression was standard, the story itself had many elements and a lot of underlying messages and ideals that gave me pause. But mainly, it was the simplistic predictability of the entire story that made this a rather boring, monotonous read.

There were also a lot of moments wherein I didn't quite understand the logic of the characters or even the story's direction:

How is it possible for it to be okay that Zita is known as a princess, but continue living the life of a palace servant? If the king were worried about reputation and dignity, wouldn't it look bad for him to have one of his daughters living the life of the hired help? And what of Zita? I get that she's young and she yearns for her father's love and all, but how is she content to be treated like dirt by her own father, whether or not he's a king? And how is it that she still yearns for his love and makes excuses for the way he treats her?

But all of that doesn't really matter as the book was quite short and easy to read. Even some of my frustrations brought about by king's continued irrational behavior towards all of his daughters and Zita doesn't mean anything.

As far as the rating suggests, it's not like this book was terrible or anything. It was really just Okay and while it isn't something I'd recommend for anyone who likes retellings and it isn't the best retelling I've ever read, it also wasn't a bad book either. Just frustratingly tame, juvenile, and fairly boring.

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in September 2015.

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Brief Thoughts: The Wide-Awake Princess

The Wide-Awake Princess

by E.D. Baker
Book 1 of The Wide-Awake Princess
**This book is based on Sleeping Beauty. 

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.0 Stars


Hmm…

This was really a simple, cute little princess story with a cornucopia of fairy tale tangents strung together as part of our Princess Annabelle’s adventure. It wasn’t exactly the most exciting adventure, and I’d even say that it was just a little scattered, but there was a story, a good progression, a nice little fairy tale history, some inspirational ideals, a unique twist for the conclusion, and a strong princess who saves the day.


The Story:
Annie is the younger sister to Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn is the resident “Sleeping Beauty” of this fairy tale story, and despite everyone’s resilience in keeping spinning wheels out of Gwennie’s reach, the elder princess still manages to prick her finger and cast the hundred year sleep upon the entire castle.

But Annie had been given the gift of being unaffected by magic--no magic can ever harm nor hurt her--and so she is the only one still standing. Knowing that she cannot leave her family in this vulnerable sleep for the next hundred years, she sets off on a journey to find a prince to kiss her sister awake and break the sleeping curse.

Along the way, she is partnered with a young guard named Liam who appoints himself her protector and travels with her to find Gwendolyn’s true love.... But just to be certain, Annie decides to collect several princes from different areas and even hunts down the fairies who had been responsible for Gwennie’s curse so she can get some insight on Curse Loopholes 101, a la, “Does Gwennie really have to sleep for a hundred years before the curse can be broken, or can we get around that and just satisfy the Prince as True Love detail?”

With a determination worthy of a great princess, Annie swears to find a way to wake her sister and her family and keep them awake.


Some Thoughts:
I’d say that The Wide-Awake Princess is a good read for young girls, in a way. Despite the looming need for girls to find their true loves and get married, I guess, at least our heroine was strong and resourceful and smart and able to take care of herself and save the day, time and time again. Her little gift of not being affected by magic in anyway has its perks, especially when it also comes with sapping away the magic from other people when they are around her: beautiful princesses lose their enchanted beauty and handsome princes start to show their physical flaws; curses on princes turned into bears are temporarily lifted; and even fairies lose their powers when she touches them for too long.

It’s an interesting way to turn the “Sleeping Beauty” story around.

As a middle grade novel, however, it did blur by in a way that had me blinking twice and missing the whole book altogether. I mean, sure, it was a short book, but it really DID just kind of end as abruptly as it started. I figure it’s because I’ve never really been able to get into middle grade books very well, so it’s not the book’s fault.

Really, The Wide-Awake Princess is a very cute and enjoyable story.

The emphasis on physical beauty DID get old pretty quickly though. And the way everything just conveniently fell into place for Annie made it kind of hard to take the book as more than just a child’s hero tale of a princess who saves the day and defeats all evil.

Like I said, a very cute book. A good one for the kiddies.

***

2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Reading Assignment Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge
• Mount TBR Challenge

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in January 2016.

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