Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends--3 Stars

This particular story was intriguing to me. It wasn't too deep, but it drew me in because I wanted to read what happened. I enjoy books like that, especially when it includes fantasy.

Shannon Hale, the author of these stories, is one of my favorite authors in my book. She always makes me feel like I'm on a first name basis with her characters, and although The Storybook Of Legends gave a younger-reader vibe, I had no trouble feeling that way with this book.

I will continue this series out of curiosity, I think, but honestly, this series was initially geared toward the interests of, say, my little sister. It was amusing to read Madeline Hatter's energy as she talked and played with Raven Queen.
Raven has but one friend in her whole school, Ever After High, which is run by the brothers Grimm. Due to her mother's reputation for poisoning Snow White in her story, no one likes Raven, and everyone ignores her. Except when they feel threatened by her; then they run around screaming and panicking.

Apple White, on the contrary, is the most popular girl in school. Beautiful, smart, and heiress of the perfect story, everyone that runs from Raven runs to Apple. Her destiny and story is entwined with Raven's, so to her it is very important that Raven does everything right. But when Raven refuses to accept that her destiny is to be evil, the stories are mixed and it is up to the girls working together to fix them.

There is not one account that I can remember that included deep gore, and so that was a plus for me. Again, I believe it was geared toward younger children and their interests. I'll have my sister read it and see what she thinks as well!

Snow White and Rose Red ~ 4 stars

I’ve been a Patricia C. Wrede reader for several years now. She wrote a few Star Wars novels and I've also enjoyed her Enchanted Forest Chronicles. I’ve always liked the spicy, distinct characters in her books, so when I saw she had also written a retelling of the old fairy tale about Snow White and Rose Red, I thought I’d give it a go.

It wasn't quite what I expected from Patricia C. Wrede. I was used to reading her more recent publications, but Snow White and Rose Red was one of the first stories she had published, and her writing has changed a lot since then. Snow White and Rose Red follows the original fairy tale closely enough that I could see where the parallels were, but the characters had changed enough that the story was obviously "wearing new clothes" as I like to put it. It had been fleshed out and made more intricate. All the leaps of logic, typical of old fairy tales, had been ironed out and explained.

Patricia C. Wrede's Snow White and Rose Red is the story of two beautiful sisters, Blanche and Rosamund, who live with their widowed mother near the border of the world of the fay. When a half-fay, half-mortal man called Hugh is subjected to human magic and forced to take the shape of a bear, kind Blanche and Rosamund try to do everything they can to return him to his original shape. This means taking the considerable risk of being discovered and tried as witches by suspicious neighbors. In the end, they need the help of Hugh's brother John, another half-fay, to break the spell. In so doing, they discover that Hugh's transformation was the result of a plot to tear the human world and the world of the fay apart. 

The story concludes with the classic fairy tale ending: the fair maidens wed their new sweethearts, the half-fay Hugh and John. Usually I don't like these kinds of endings, because it makes the romances very unrealistic, but Patricia C. Wrede did an admirable job of making the relationships between the characters real enough that I could see them getting married.

I found Snow White and Rose Red to be a fairly entertaining story. It was written with a more reserved, strict style than other fairy tale retellings that I’ve read. It doesn't have the very personal style that most novels published in the past 5 or 6 years have, but this is mainly because Snow White and Rose Red was published in 1989, before that style of writing became popular. In fact, the style of Snow White and Rose Red is great for that story, because it makes it read more like a fairy tale and adds grace and elegance to it. I also enjoyed the way the original fairy tale was restructured for Wrede’s retelling, and I think that her revision of it added a lot of appeal to the story.

The biggest thing that I noticed about Snow White and Rose Red was the language. Wrede uses ‘thee’ and ‘thou’, in addition to the usual ‘you.’ Other changes to the language, such as some of the more archaic forms of words (forsooth, seemth), and even the use of ‘an’ in the place of 'if' in some cases, all make the language a little more challenging to less experienced readers. To me, these things just added to the unique style of the book, since it hearkens back to an older way of speaking. But for other, less patient readers, this might make it too difficult to be interesting. My twelve-year-old sister Jo also read Snow White and Rose Red, and although she enjoyed it, she did say that the language was sometimes an impediment.

So, in the end, I would just say this.

"An thou can read and understand it, thou’lt know why I sayeth that it seems a goodly book."

Link to author website: http://pcwrede.com/

Poison ~ 4 stars

Poison, by Bridget Zinn, is a new book to me. I first heard about it when I read a review posted on a blog I follow - Katherine Marie: Writer of Dreams. Find her review HERE. I decided to give Poison a shot after reading Katherine Marie's review, so here's what I thought of it.

Poison is Bridget Zinn's first and only novel - she died in 2011, two years before her book was actually published. Poison is the story of potions master Kyerra, a sixteen-year-old girl who specializes in making perfumes and potions - and poisons. She never imagined she would one day have to use her skills to kill her best friend, the Crown Princess in order to save the kingdom. But the poisoned dart she threw missed, and now Kyerra is on the run, trying to track down the missing princess without getting caught and thrown into the dungeon by the royal guards. With the aid of a magical piglet and a handsome stranger called Fred, Kyerra must find a way to save the kingdom from destruction and ruin. And if she can at all avoid it, she’d like to avoid having to kill her best friend.

I enjoyed Poison more than I expected I would. Going strictly by the title and the cover, I was expecting a more gritty, gut-wrenching story, but I actually found that the story had many similarities to the Castle Glower series that I just recently reviewed. Poison is comfortable, engaging, and funny, with plenty of laughs and moments of light-heartedness. It's a story that gradually reveals the backstory of each of the characters and the events that brought them where they are - a very engaging way to tell a story. There was plenty of action and adventure as well, and a strong mystery element that kept me guessing at every new chapter.

Poison is a book I picked up for fun, casual reading, not a deep, morally engaging story. It was fun, funny, and amusing. I actually laughed while reading it, and not every amusing book can do that for me. I found Poison had an interesting, well-written plot, fascinating and funny characters, and the right mix of charm. What could be more charming than Rosie, the magical piglet? It's unfortunate that Bridget Zinn died before she could write a sequel - I bet it would have been a barrel of laughs.

Poison website: http://bridgetzinn.com/index.php

Updates to the blog

     Merry Christmas, everyone, and a Happy New Year coming up here as well. 

     There are a few updates and changes I'm making to the blog this Christmas - no, I'm not setting myself a schedule for getting new reviews up or anything crazy like that. But I am going to try to make it easier to find books on this blog by adding labels to each post. Labels like "teen" or "adventure" or "fiction" or "knights". Anything that might help you find the reviews of the books that you might be interested in. Hopefully this will make my blog easier to use to find new books to read.

     For instance, if you've got a 11-year-old boy who is interested in historical fiction stories about sailors and goats, you can browse through my reviews under the categories "8-12", "historical fiction", etc. You might find something that fits. Alternatively, you might find out that I have never read a book like that, and, in fact, had no idea anyone had ever written such a book. And if you're a teen girl who likes science-fiction romances, there should be categories for that sort of thing as well - if not now, than eventually.

     The other change I'm making is the addition of author websites to each review whenever possible. I like browsing through author websites - you can find extra material, another opinion about the book, and other books by that same author if you're interested in more. So go back through the archives and look at your favorite books that I've reviewed to find the author websites.

     Hopefully these changes will make the blog more useful to you. My plan all along with Under Cover Agents has been to make it a place to find new books to read. I know you can look through online bookstores and read reviews, but its my hope that through reading my reviews you'll understand my opinion of the book, coming from my reading history. And maybe that's better than reading a dozen reviews posted by complete strangers. So I'm making these changes with the idea of making my blog easier for my readers to use in this way. Please enjoy, and let me know if you do find my blog useful to you. Thanks!

     Merry Christmas, everyone, and happy reading!

Castle Glower series - 4 stars

     The Castle Glower series by Jessica Day George is a very charming story about a girl, a griffin, and a castle that is constantly changing. I wouldn't normally describe a series with the word 'charming', since that might give you the idea that it's just another 100 page kid story. But this series really is charming: pleasant, agreeable, and even lovable.

     The story throughout the three published books in this unfinished series is interesting in itself - first the Castle in ambushed, then Celie, the princess of Sleynth, secretly hatches a griffin, and finally she and her siblings are transported to the original home of Castle Glower. I always enjoy a good story about children solving problems bigger than themselves, and Princess Celie does a very good job of that in every book of the series. Also, I was intrigued by the concept the series is built around: the mysterious Castle Glower. It almost seems to be alive, creating new rooms every few days or taking away old ones. No one is sure why or where the rooms come from or where they go to when they disappear. 

     Besides the interest of Castle Glower, the characters are also fun. First of all is Princess Celie, who is a plucky girl of twelve years. She's a fairly practical princess, and she's mapped most of Castle Glower, and is always adding the new rooms to her map. Also, she's Castle Glower's favorite person, and she can count on it to help her in it's own way when she really needs it. When the Castle is under attack, Celie is the best person to help save it. And when the Castle starts to fall apart and no one knows why, Celie is the one who understands the clues the Castle is leaving for them. Besides her special connection to the Castle, Celie is also smart and cheerful even when things get bad.

     Her brother Rolf and sister Lilah are also enjoyable characters, and they're both sweet and act just like family would. Then there's the quaint, dog-loving Prince Lulath and Lilah's sweetheart, Pogue. And there's even a griffin that Celie names Rufus, which is a cute name for a griffin.

     Besides having a great story premise and fun characters, the Castle Glower series is a nice series in other ways. One thing I really enjoyed was that when Celie is in big trouble, she goes to her family for help. In lots of stories, this doesn't happen and the character has to rough it out on their own for various reasons. While there's no problem with this - and in fact, I enjoy it a lot - there's something refreshing and appealing about a character who gets some help for once. Another thing I enjoyed was Celie's sassy sense of humor. I always enjoy characters with a sense of humor.

     I bet the Castle Glower series won't build up a fan base like the Harry Potter series or Lord of the Rings, but they're still a fun, enjoyable read. Not every book has to be a hit series to be good, or even to be someone's favorite. The Castle Glower series isn't my favorite series, but it's one that I have had a good time reading. I'd definitely recommend it, especially to kids. It's about that reading level, is completely clean, and is a very fun series. It might not be entertaining to more advanced readers, but I found it worth reading and definitely worthy of four stars.

Link to author website: http://www.jessicadaygeorge.com/