{Review} The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

Series: The Looking Glass Wars #1

Publication date: September 26, 2006

Publisher: Dial Books

ISBN-13: 9780803731530

Synopsis  

Lewis Carrol not only lied to us but he lied to a little girl too, he said he would write Alyss Heart’s story but he took liberties with it, completing the scam with the misspelling of her name.

Lost in a world that is not her own little Alyss only knows two things for sure, first, she is on the run from Redd and second she must learn to live and blend in the new world she has been transported to by the pool of tears.

And let me tell you Victorian London can be a strange and weird place for anyone coming from Wonderland, especially when everyone keeps telling you that you imagined it all.

Review

This book made me feel like a little girl again, when you ask for a little more and your imagination goes on overdrive painting the world the words in the book keep coming your way.

 The world that Frank Beddor created with Alice in Wonderland was revolutionary, he really made it his own, specially by giving us a reason to forget about the original and to let our minds dive into what he has to say.

The thing that attracted me from this book was “Princess Alyss of Wonderland” a side book that is a scrapbook of sorts that digs more into the life of Alyss as she arrives to the obscure and unknown streets of London, as soon as I started reading that small book I knew I would end up reading The Looking Glass Wars.

In The Looking Glass Wars we watch Alyss grow and jump worlds and both her and the reader experience the changes that have happened to Wonderland while Alyss was away and the decisions she would have to make in case she wishes to restore peace to the land that should have watched her grow.

I know this book was in the list of steampunk for kids but honestly this book goes beyond ages, this is the type of book that makes you want to dig deeper into the world, you would want to fill the holes that are left in this book and fortunately Frank Beddor does help you fill up the blanks.

Rating:

{Blog Tour Review} Before Midnight by Jennifer Blackstream

Series: Blood Prince #1

Publication date: July 1st, 2013

Publisher: Key Publishing

ASIN: B00DPYZZXA

Synopsis

After a weird event in a land that connects different planes where a werewolf, a vampire, a demon, an angel and a god meet under a mysterious tree there only lies hope for a prophecy to come to life.

After each of the men part our story follows Etienne the werewolf prince that carries the consequences of a blessing gone wrong that has left him being half of what he once was now he is the future heir of a kingdom he can no longer protect the way he was destined to.

As faith would have it there is a solution for his terrible “blessing” but he must act fast yet a stop on the woods marks an encounter with a creature that makes him find the peace he has not known since the day marked him.

Review

Before midnight is an entertaining story that from the very beginning lets you know that if you wish to truly discover all the secrets this book hides you will have to continue with this series up until the very end.

The way Jennifer Blackstream blended and twisted the story we all know as Cinderella was beyond my expectations, she made this story feel original, fresh and at times as if I was reading it for the first time.

Loupe the gentle creature that catches Etienne’s eye was entertaining to get to know, the way her circumstances changed and her dreams came crumbling down on her don’t present her as a truly weak women but as a strong woman in the making.

My main issue with this book would be the sex scene in this book, for me if there is going to be a scene giving a lot of importance on the sexy times it better be relevant to the story and in my opinion it wasn’t relevant to dedicate such a word count to this event but also the time it took place wasn’t the smartest one.

Before Midnight is a fast and interesting read that will let you feeling that there is more about this Cinderella then you think you knew perfect for those that don’t mind an explicit sex scene.

Rating:

 3.5 Broken TV's

{Cover Wars} Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

Hi guys welcome to Cover Wars the place where covers battle it out for your affection and share your cover loving. Now let’s start sharing the cover loving with the results of last week’s winner! Last week we had Hold Still by Nina LaCour, you guys voted and your favorite cover was….

Cover Make Over!!!!

For this week we have a young adult - fairy tale retelling you guys might of heard about it, it goes by the name “Of Beast and Beauty” by Stacey Jay, and as you might have guessed this is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and this is a little how the book blurb goes:

In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret...

In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.

 Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.

As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.

Now that we are all acquainted with the story let’s see which cover gives out the best face to this story.

First we have the simple cover, the one that with a mate finish would make a gorgeous cover; simple, clean and the rose makes it hard to forget that we are talking the Beauty and the Beast.

The futuristic looking cover, the one that moves this story even further from the original and makes us think how the book blurb and the cover match one another.

Now the players are out on the field it is up to you dear reader take your pick and tell us which one wore it best, are you more into the clean or the futuristic cover? Remember to comment, vote and share the cover loving!

{Trailer Sunday} The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

Series: The School for Good and Evil #1

Publication date: May 14, 2013

Publisher: HarperCollins

ISBN-13: 9780062104892

At the School for Good and Evil, failing your fairy tale is not an option.

Welcome to the School for Good and Evil, where best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

With her glass slippers and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she'll earn top marks at the School for Good and join the ranks of past students like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White. Meanwhile, Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks and wicked black cat, seems a natural fit for the villains in the School for Evil.

The two girls soon find their fortunes reversed—Sophie's dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School for Good, thrust among handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.

But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are . . . ?

The School for Good and Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.

If you liked Ever After: A Cinderella Story, then read Cinder by Marissa Meyer

There is just this weird appeal to retellings, maybe it is the comfort of knowing what is going to happen, the possibility of re-exploring a world we think we know, the pleasure of spending more time with characters we like or the idea of seeing the story we loved through someone else's eyes.

A good retelling goes beyond a guilty pleasure, especially if we get to enjoy strong heroines, breaking the cycle of the "damsel in distress" they might need help but they will not wait for their beloved prince to come to the rescue and if need be they will get their hands dirty.

That is the thing that I love about both "Ever After" and "Cinder" our heroines are strong, they might find themselves in situations slightly or completely different then the Grimm brothers stories or the Disney version but they will fight but they will also try to make smart decisions based on the information they know and even if who they are doesn't fit the society's mold they will not change how they are just to please others.

Title: Ever After: A Cinderella Story

Director: Andy Tennants

Stars: Drew Barrymore, Anjelica Huston, Dougray Scott, and Patrick Godfrey.

Release Date: July 29, 1998

Before her father died both Daniel and him where happy, they missed Daniel's mother but they had one another.

One day Daniel's father Auguste decides that the best thing he can do for his daughter is to give her a mother to give his dearest tomboy in the right direction.

Sadly after Auguste's death Daniel is demoted into a servant working all day and falling asleep by the chimney while she tries to read the books her father left behind, even if that means waking up covered in cinders.

A faithful encounter with prince Henry start a series of events turn Daniel's life upside down and into a future she would have never dared to imagine.

Title: Cinder

Series: The Lunar Chronicles #1

Author: Marissa Meyer

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan)

Release Date: January 3, 2012

In New Beijing leaves a girl named Cinder, a girl who turns out to be the city’s best mechanic. Even if she is the best she is nothing more than a second class citizen a fact her stepmother never lets her forget, she will never let her forget that she isn’t 100% a girl nor the fact that she owns her.

Cinder’s world starts to shift the day that Prince Kai asks her to fix her robot and her dearest stepsister gets sick with the plague that has reached pandemic levels and no cure is known.

One thing leads to another and Cinder ends up in the middle of an intergalactic struggle between Earth and the lunar Queen Levana, Cinder will have to have faith and do what she can to save those that never spared her a second glance.

If you would like to participate in a segment of "If you liked this, then read that" please let me know in Contact Me section.

Trailer Sunday: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

The second installement of The Lunar Chronicles is almost upon us, and to quench our thirst we have been given the book trailer of Scarlet.

Cinder trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother and the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she has no choice but to trust him, though he clearly has a few dark secrets of his own.

As Scarlet and Wolf work to unravel one mystery, they find another when they cross paths with Cinder. Together, they must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen who will do anything to make Prince Kai her husband, her king, her prisoner.
For those poor souls that still haven't had enough MacMillan is letting you take a look at the first five chapters from Scarlet by Marissa Meyer you are just a click away.

First Frost by Liz DeJesus

Publication Date: June 22th, 2011

Publisher: Musa Publishing

ISBN-13: 9781619372269

Synopsis

For generations, the Frost family has run the Museum of Magical and Rare Artifacts, handing down guardianship from mother to daughter, always keeping their secrets to “family only.”

Gathered within museum’s walls is a collection dedicated to the Grimm fairy tales and to the rare items the family has acquired: Cinderella’s glass slipper, Snow White’s poisoned apple, the evil queen’s magic mirror, Sleeping Beauty’s enchanted spinning wheel…

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Frost wants none of it, dreaming instead of a career in art or photography or…well, anything except working in the family’s museum. She knows the items in the glass display cases are fakes because, of course, magic doesn't really exist.

She’s about to find out how wrong she is.

{Review} A Bites Tale ( A Furry Fable ) by Veronica Blade [Book Tour]

Publication Date: January 7th, 2012

Publisher: Crush Publishing Ink. 

ISBN-13: 9780979886973

Synopsis

Ile de la Paix is where Cinderella and Jack (yes, the one with the bean stock) spend their summers together, one as a tourist the other one just escaping from everyday life. When they meet they leave the real world behind, along with their true names and identity's.
After a horrible accident Cinderella is forced to leave the Ile de la Paix with out saying good bye to Jack. Years later our little Cinderella is brought back into the island, will she be able to forgive herself from what happened that faithful day she last saw Jack? Will she be able to trust herself again? and why is a certain vamp so into her going into the prince's ball?

{Review} Storybound by Marissa Burt

Series: Storybound #1

Publication Date: April 3rd, 2012

Publisher: Harper Collins 

ISBN-13: 9780062020529

Synopsis

Una felt invisible to the world, and life as a foster child only  accentuated how much she could phase out. Her favorite place is the school library where she can escape the feeling of invisibility and get lost in a different world every time she opened a book.
One day instead of getting lost in a book she gets sucked into one, here starts the story of Una in the land of Story where kids her age study to become characters of stories we grew to love. Now she must learn not to stand out, because things aren't perfect in Story and that truth may be lost along with the hope of bringin the land of Story back to health.

{A little bit of French with a Lil Berry} "Blanche-Neige"

Series: Ma Princesse Préférée tome 02

Publication Date: October 8th, 2003

Publisher: Hachette

ISBN-13: 9782012008588


This book is a good read for those who are learning french,  you stumble upon some words that aren't usually used in class, or at least not the classes I am taking, and its also a good way to put to the test how much you can understand and figure out on your own. It can also be called an easy read becuase Snow White is a story that everyone is familiar with so it makes it a lot easier to make sense of some of the words that are used in the book. 
If you want to read this book make sure you know:
-passe composée
-imparfait
-passé simple
This books is part of the collection of Ma Princesse Préférée that is part of "ma première bibliothêque rose" a collection of books for kids that are reading their first books. Let it be noted that I am just learning french I have no authority or background knowledge, I'm just trying to share books that I think could help beginners that like to read to continue their learning experience.