Book Review: Kiss of the Royal by Lindsey Duga

Kiss of the Royal by Lindsey Duga

Blurb:

In the war against the Forces of Darkness, the Royals are losing. Princess Ivy is determined to end this centuries-long conflict once and for all, so her new battle partner must succeed where the others failed. Prince Zach’s unparalleled skill with a sword, enhanced by Ivy’s magic Kiss, should make them an unstoppable pair—but try convincing Zach of that.

Prince Zach has spent his life preparing for battle, but he would rather be branded a heretic than use his lips as nothing more than a way to transfer magic. A kiss is a symbol of love, and love is the most powerful weapon they have—but try convincing Ivy of that.

With the fate of their world on the line, the battlefield has become a testing ground, and only one of them can be right. Falling for each other wasn’t part of the plan—but try convincing their hearts of that.

My Review:

I was intrigued by the idea of this book - a kiss that can heal or make the receiver stronger in  battle. I liked the mythology of how the Royals came to be even though it seemed a little like sister wives that first Raed had kids with Myriana then turned around and had kids with her friend to "continue the species." Now, at present time it seems anyone can be a "Royal," which struck me as odd since most books I've read lays out a kingdom with one king and queen, their children, maybe some siblings as Dukes and Duchesses, etc. So it felt like the idea of being Royal wasn't so special after all.

First we meet Ivy, and of course being a direct descendant of Myriana she's more powerful than the rest of the "Royals," but her battle partners keep getting killed. She's afraid she'll be put out to pasture for breeding purposes, so to speak. Insert Zach, a prince with legendary swordsman skills from a neighboring kingdom. Together they could be unstoppable - but Zach's mother was a "Romantica," a believer that Love - not a Royal's kiss - would defeat the dark forces. On this, I kind of have to see Zach's point - Ivy's world is so cold; do your duty then when you're too old or your kiss isn't good enough anymore you get sent away to make more royals. There's no real family connections, no warmth, no love. 

Kiss of the Royal moves quick enough but I feel like the world and minor characters could have been a bit more developed. The whole point of this book is two people who don't agree on how things should be falling in love and true love's kiss triumphing over evil which is all fine and good but reads more like a Disney fairytale. It's filled with magic, curses, witches, and dragons to be slayed. 

Overall, I liked this book and I'm glad it was a standalone. I think this is a perfect book for readers looking for a YA Fantasy reminiscent of fairytales of old.

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟

3 of 5 Stars!

"What I'm Reading" Wednesday #45

This "WIR"-Wednesday I'm backtracking and beginning a series by an author I fell in love with while reading an ARC of her upcoming novel. I'm reading...

Splintered (Splintered Series #1) by A.G. Howard

Blurb:

This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

Why I Chose This Book / What I Think So Far:

I chose to find this book after reading and falling in love with A.G. Howard's upcoming novel RoseBlood (review coming in January). At a recent trip to the library I picked up Splintered which is like a retelling of Alice in Wonderland. I'm about 1/3 of the way in and I'm loving it. It's different than RoseBlood, but it's a good different. The only thing I initially didn't like was Alyssa's bug art. It's kind of gross. But as a character I like Alyssa and I'm already in love with Jeb but at the same time I'm eager to see where this story and the next two books in the series go. 

Book Review: Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige

Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige

Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Snow has spent the majority of her life within the walls of the Whittaker Institute, a high-security mental hospital in upstate New York. Deep down, she knows she's not crazy and doesn't belong there. When she meets a mysterious, handsome new orderly and dreams about a strange twisted tree she realizes she must escape and figure out who she really is.

Using her trusting friend Bale as a distraction, Snow breaks free and races into the nearby woods. Suddenly, everything isn't what it seems, the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur, and she finds herself in icy Algid--her true home--with witches, thieves, and a strangely alluring boy named Kai, none of whom she's sure she can trust. As secret after secret is revealed, Snow discovers that she is on the run from a royal lineage she's destined to inherit, a father more powerful and ruthless than she could have imagined, and choices of the heart that could change the fate of everything . . . including Snow's return to the world she once knew.

My Review:

"Mirrors reflect what we want to see, or sometimes they reveal what you really are or what you really want. You have to be very careful with a mirror."

Seventeen-year-old Snow Yardley has spent most of her life locked up in an insane asylum. Life within the locked halls is all she knows after she tried to walk through a mirror and tried to take another girl with her. Surrounded by fellow patients that range from the pyromaniac Bale that she loves, Magpie the thief, Wing the girl who believes she can fly, and Chord the boy who thinks he can step through time, Snow knows that she's not completely insane despite the myriad of pills the Dr. Harris and his staff shove down her throat. 

One year ago Snow's first magical kiss with Bale, the boy she's loved since they were kids, broke something within Bale, ruined their friendship, and resulted in her wrist being broken in two places. Bale hasn't been the same since, all he does sit and stare at the wall. Now Snow's only confidante is her orderly Vern who likes to watch soap operas with her. 

Snow's life at Whittaker has substantially dimmed since Bale disappeared into himself, but when Bale goes missing - taken away from her by hands dragging him through a mirror - Snow knows she must go after him. 

Aided by an unlikely ally in Magpie and a mysterious boy Snow only sees in her dreams Snow manages to escape Whittaker and enter a strange new land, Algid. There the boy, Jagger, and everyone else she encounters insists Snow is the one that they've all been waiting for... the Snow Princess that a prophecy foretold would kill the King and end the permanent winter they've been cursed with for the  past fifteen years. 

All Snow wants is to get Bale back, but every time someone tells her they will help her get him back they want something from her in return. In a world full of people all working on their own hidden agendas who can Snow trust? Will she ever see Bale again? Can she really gain control of her power over the snow and fulfill the prophecy? Does she even want to? Will she and Bale be able to escape from Algid and her father, the Snow King alive? What do you do when every lie you ever knew as truth is uncovered and your life stands on end? 

I liked Stealing Snow. I did not, by any means love it. It was just okay. As far as retellings go, Stealing Snow is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, The Snow Queen. I did see the similarities between the two, but as far as retellings go, Stealing Snow is not one of my favorites. 

Snow is locked in an insane asylum at the beginning of the book, but I can't quite figure out why. Because a six-year-old Snow tried to walk through a mirror? I'm not sure that really warrants institutionalization. Magpie's stay at Whittaker doesn't make much sense to me either, as I'm not sure kleptomania is a reason to be institutionalized either. But I understand that her placement at Whittaker adds into the plot later on in the story. 

As far as the story goes itself, yes the fantasy is good. I won't say that it isn't. But the flow felt strange and disjointed to me. First Snow is with Jagger then she's separated from him. She meets the River Witch and begins to settle into her life there. Then she's separated from Kai and Gerde after a fiasco at the market and ends up with Jagger (again) and the Robber girls. Then after a time there, circumstances change again and she meets the "Duchess" and so on. I guess I just expected the story to go differently than it did. I know each piece is a stepping stone to the end of the story but I felt like Kai and Gerde disappeared and Snow didn't even bother herself to search for them, and then toward the end they make another brief appearance. 

Overall, once I got into the story I want to keep reading, but as to whether I'd pick up the next book in the series, the answer is probably not. The story was all there, I just wanted it to be different. 

My Rating: 

3.50 of 5 Stars

Retellings: What Are They?

With my next major writing project (the top-secret NaNoWriMo project I refuse to talk about) being a YA Fantasy / Fairy Tale Retelling, and the sub-genre being more popular than ever I've been asked: What is a retelling? How can an author take something that's already published and write about it again? Isn't that plagiarism? The simple answer is no. 

What is a retelling of a story?

A story retelling is when an author takes a preexisting story (whether a fairy tale or a classic story) and updates it, changes it, gives the story a new twist. 

For example: Romeo & Juliet. What if Romeo and Juliet were from two different warring planets? Or what if Romeo were an alien and Juliet was a human? What if they hated each other? 

Why isn't that plagiarism? 

Well, because though the characters are named the same and the basic format of the story (lovesick boy meets girl, they fall in love, their families hate each other, they both die [or maybe not]) may be the same, it's no longer Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. The setting is different, the timeline is different, the genre is different, hey maybe they don't even die at the end! That's what makes it a retelling. A retelling is a completely new version of an old classic. 

What sorts of stories have been used for retellings?

Lately every time you look there's a new retelling hitting the shelves. Lots of stories from Romeo & Juliet to Pride & Prejudice to fairy tales like Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Beauty and the Beast have been used as inspiration for story retellings. 

In fact, I just read an ARC for a retelling of The Phantom of the Opera and another book I saw on Netgalley is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Retellings are becoming the new "big thing" in YA fiction. 

Does That Mean Authors Are Getting Lazy & Don't Have Any Original Thoughts?

Absolutely not! No my dear readers, that's what's happening to Hollywood and the film industry! But I digress... back to the original point. If you had a cool idea to spruce up or take something old and beloved and make it newer, fresher, and even better wouldn't you pursue it? 

That's kind of what a story retelling is like. We all love "this story" but what if secretly that story didn't go like that at all? What if it really went more like this... That's another way to bring about a story retelling. As an author you may create a character that you felt got "wronged" in the original. Let's say they were cast as the villain. Aren't all villains just misunderstood heroes that's dreams were crushed? What were they like before they became the villains every one knows them to be? It makes you think, doesn't it?

What Are Some Story Retellings I Might Like?

A lot of story retellings come into the YA Paranormal or Fantasy genres so here are a few story retellings you might like...

*Note: Each of these books are part of a duology, trilogy, or series, so for this blog's purpose I'm showing you the first book in the sequence. 

1. Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Release Date: August 9, 2011
Retelling of: Romeo & Juliet
Tagline: The greatest love story ever told is a lie.

2. Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: September 1, 2013
Retelling of: Alice in Wonderland

3. The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

Genre: YA Mythology / Fantasy / Paranormal Romance
Release Date: May 1, 2011
Retelling of: The Persephone Myth

4. Cinder by Marissa Meyer:

Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: January 3, 2012
Retelling of: Cinderella

5. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas:

Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: May 5, 2015
Retelling of: Beauty and the Beast

6. The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins

Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: March 8, 2016
Retelling of: The Singing Bone by the Brothers Grimm

7. The Hollow by Jessica Verday:

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Release Date: August 3, 2010
Retelling of: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

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Do you like story retellings? What's your favorite retelling?