The Princess Blog

A Fable of Moonlight and Memory  by Ashley Evercott is the second ARC I received from the upcoming Dungeons and Legends series. This book is closer to the LitRPG format that the series uses for its aesthetic than the first one was. It is also a retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood,"  which makes for an interesting combination. The plot reminded me of the storyline of Final Fantasy XIII, but with werewolves. Like the first book in this series, it's a fun, spooky read for Halloween with some darker themes. Mira lives in an enchanted fae-like world and notices a dangerous rot poisoning the enchanted plants, which should be an ill omen for everyone living in her kingdom. The trouble is, nobody believes her or cares what she has to say about it. After her grandmother goes missing following monster sightings in the woods, she decides to investigate the disturbances on her own. Her search leads her to Falimir, a werewolf who knows the truth behind these mysteries and leads her...

Falling for the Wolf  by Megan Charlie is the next ARC I read from To Win a Dark Heart , which brings together villains from different fairy tales. This book combines "Cinderella" and "Little Red Riding Hood" with slightly more focus on the latter. The story involves a werewolf, but his transformations have little to no effect on the plot. The espionage and criminal activity make the book feel more like an urban fantasy than a fairy tale. Overall, I thought this book was okay in comparison to the other ones I've read so far in this series. Tasia is exiled to a foreign land after revealing a secret to a prince and is forced to deliver goods for her extended family. Her poor sense of direction makes this a difficult task for her to follow without a guide, so she seeks the aid of Mitch, who she later learns is a werewolf. Mitch takes an instant dislike to Tasia's family, who are manipulative and abusive. He continues to aid Tasia until an even more dangerous...

I don't read a lot of retellings of "Little Red Riding Hood"  because they usually change the wolf character into a werewolf  and eliminate the theme of trusting strangers (which is why I wrote my own version ). However, since I enjoyed The Rose Gate   by Hanna Sandvig  because of the unique modern-day setting and fae worldbuilding, I decided to check out its prequel, The Wolf Gate . This book contains the expected werewolves, but it also does a good job of conveying the theme of trust and stands out from other fairy tale adaptations due to its modern high school setting. It reminded me of Twilight  due to its teenage target audience, so I think I would have enjoyed it more if I read it at a younger age. The last thing Audrey expects after getting chased in the woods is to be rescued by her ex-boyfriend who abandoned her at prom. Nor is she expecting to learn that he is a werewolf from the fae world and that he abandoned her due to his magical responsibilities. ...

I have thoroughly enjoyed what I've read so far of the Singer Tales by Deborah Grace White , which is a more innovative and cohesive series than  her previous collection of fairy tale retellings . For my next read, I picked Song of Moonrise  to explore her take on "Little Red Riding Hood," a story often misinterpreted in other adaptations. Ever since the Red Riding Hood  film came out in 2011, almost every new interpretation of this fairy tale turned it into a mystery story about a werewolf curse in the protagonist's family instead of an innocent coming-of-age story about learning who to trust. In fact, I got so frustrated by this trope that I wrote my own adaptation  of the fairy tale back in 2013. While the Singer Tales version of "Little Red Riding Hood" does incorporate werewolves, it does so in a way that stays true to the themes of the story along with a princess twist and a heated romance. Rosa was an adventurous girl living in the forest until her ...

When I think of Japanese fantasy media, the first thing that comes to mind is anime . That's why I was surprised to see a live-action Japanese movie centered around fairy tales.  Once Upon a Crime  is a recent Netflix release in which Little Red Riding Hood is a detective who attends the infamous royal ball with Cinderella to solve a murder. The movie uses a similar concept to Once Upon a Time  by combining fairy tales and changing the circumstances around certain characters to add an element of surprise. With its lack of wide shots and cheesy visual effects, it was by no means a cinematic masterpiece. However, it did something different with these characters that I have never seen in any other iteration, which is really saying something considering how many versions of "Cinderella" are out there. The movie presents itself as pure camp from the very beginning when a witch named Barbara asks Little Red Riding Hood if she's impressed by the fact that she's a wit...

I had no idea what I was in for when I agreed to read an ARC of Beasts of Beauty  by Celeste Baxendell , the third book in the Bewitching Fairy Tales series. This book really packs a punch! I had read the first book in this series, Stalks of Gold , but I don't remember it being quite as heartwrenching as this one. It is not a light read. If you attempt to climb this mountain of a book, you must be prepared to have your heart ripped out and squeezed into pieces. However, the story is amazing and well worth it if you are in the right mood. It is a gender-bent retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" and "Little Red Riding Hood" and tells both in an innovative way. I loved and hated it at the same time for the way it manipulated my emotions. In this gender-bent retelling of  "Beauty and the Beast"  and  "Little Red Riding Hood,"  Chasen takes on the roles of both Beauty and Red Riding Hood. When his sister tells him about a ferocious beast living i...

This is the second review in a four-part series. If you missed the first part, you can  find it here . I completed the next five books in the Enchanted Kingdoms anthology  and was pretty disappointed. Every single adaptation in this section went for the dark gritty reboot version of the fairy tale ala Fate: The Winx Saga  instead of a creative contemporary retelling. They include vampires, ghosts, or werewolves, making these five fairy tales feel like Halloween horror on steroids instead of an enchanted world, as the title of the anthology would suggest. These stories encompass the rest of the ebook that is provided when you order this set on Amazon . The other ten books in the series are included in a download link that is provided at the end. Hopefully, those books will be more optimistic because dang, I thought I had turned cynical toward fairy tales, but I had nothing on these writers. Rumple's Revenge  by Craig Halloran This retelling of "Rumpelstiltskin" ...

Last week, I received an advance copy of Embers: Beastly Curses  by Sky Sommers  in exchange for an honest review. This is the second book in a new fairy tale series called the Magic Mirrors Saga. I felt that there was a lot I missed by not reading the first book even though this one is supposed to work as a standalone. It is a creative and unique retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood,"  but it loses direction so many times that I wasn't sure which fairy tale I was supposed to be reading after I got several chapters in. Magic Mirrors reads like an ambitious attempt to reboot Once Upon a Time  with new fairy tale characters who are related in various ways, and it suffers from the same flaws as a result. The further I got, the more difficult it was to discern who the main character was supposed to be. It is unique for being the first time I've ever seen the "Red Riding Hood" character as a little boy, but the story is more focused on the wolf, Grace, while cons...