The Princess Blog

Cinders of Glass  was one of the best fairy tale adaptations I have ever read, so it was difficult to follow up with a book that was just as romantic, compelling, and magical. Songs of Stone  by Celeste Baxendell  has all of those things to an extent, but it does not live up to the high pedestal that its predecessor set for it. This is the fifth book in the Bewitching Fairy Tales series  and is inspired by two somewhat lesser known stories, "The Pied Piper" and "The Sandman."  The book has a rough-and-tumble protagonist similar to the one in Beasts of Beauty , the third book in this series, and is a far cry from the gentle Liora in Cinders of Glass . It is jam-packed with so many references to previous books that many chapters were cumbersome to get through even though I've already read the rest of the series. Piper is a tragic young lady who lost most of her family and turned to a life of crime to save the one relative she has left. She is "gifted" a...

In about a month and a half, I completed all 20 books from the Enchanted Kingdoms anthology . It was not easy to read this many novels in such a short period of time. I learned about a lot of terrific authors and some that I probably would not have been interested in reading otherwise. Each of the four sets of books I reviewed follow vague themes. The first five books  were contemporary retellings of well-known fairy tales. The second five  were horror and paranormal romance. The third set  included more traditional retellings, and these last books placed a spotlight on disabled characters  overcoming seemingly impossible odds. I thoroughly enjoyed this last set of books and even learned about some new fairy tales. Silent Melody  by Alice Ivinya This is a creative and beautiful retelling of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin."  It's one of the best books in this entire anthology and incorporates new ideas that fully flesh out the characters and settings in an other...