Pennyroyal Academy

Pennyroyal Academy is opening its doors to everyone.  For years, the academy has only trained those of noble birth to become princesses, but now anyone has a chance.  A girl with no name sees the posting and determines to join the academy.  She doesn't really know why, just that she is compelled to go.

When she arrives, she gets a name, Evie, and understanding begins to dawn on her.  Being a princess means fighting witches, the most powerful evil force in the land.  Pennyroyal Academy is accepting anyone who applies because the witches are gaining power, destroying lives and kingdom as they sweep across the land.

Evie has never fit in with her family or even met any other people.  Now she is thrown into a world of magic and shifting alliances.  While not everyone at the academy welcomes the penniless girl wearing a dress made of spiderwebs, she will make new friends.

As Evie's past is slowly revealed, the danger grows, and suspicion lurks at every corner.

M.A. Larson's series opener is a good pic for fairy tale and magic fans alike.  My only real complaint is the "training" the girls receive seems a bit dubious..

Baba Yaga's Assistant

Most kids would do anything to avoid a haunted forest and creepy witch who eats children.  Not Masha.  She has grown up with stories of Baba Yaga and all the children who tricked her.

So when her father announces he is going to remarry to a woman Masha's never met, she decides to run away and become Baba Yaga's assistant.  A child eating witch can't be worse than an evil stepmom and her horrible daughter, right?

Masha must use all the knowledge she has from grandmother's stories to outwit Baba Yaga, and a little bit of magical ability always comes in handy when you're dealing with a witch!

I really enjoyed this graphic novel from Marika McCoola and Emily Carroll.  Baba Yaga and her house on chicken legs has always been one of my favorite stories, and I love Masha who is wise enough to know Baba actually likes to be tricked.

Stitching Snow

Essie has been eking out an existence on the frozen mining colony of Thanda.  She survives among the rough miners by repairing and improving drones and other equipment for the mines, but even that is not enough to protect her.  She earns extra money by cage fighting, and it doesn't hurt that the skills she's learned in those fights helps her keep any men with ideas at a distance.  Her only friends are the seven drones she's upgraded to think and work independently and Petey, the soft hearted bar owner.

Her life changes when a shuttle crash lands near her home.  She saves the pilot, a handsome off-worlder who says is looking for treasure.  The damaged ship is a more challenging puzzle for Essie than anything in the mines, so she volunteers to help him repair his ship.

A chance moment reveals Essie's secret to Dane, and she soon realizes she is the treasure he is seeking.  Eight years ago, Princess Snow disappeared from her home on Windsong.  Everyone believed she was kidnapped, and unbeknownst to her, her disappearance sparked a war that has lasted these eight years.

But Essie has more secrets than just her identity.  She wasn't kidnapped; she ran away.  Now Dane has kidnapped her for real and they are hurtling through space and back to her deadly home on Windsong.

But this will not be a straight forward journey for Essie or Dane.  As secrets come to light, the two will grow closer, and there will be no easy decisions.

The time has finally come for Essie to face the truth about her past, her future, and the gentle awakening of her heart.

R.C. Lewis's book is a sci-fi version of Snow White that is fast paced and engrossing.  But be warned, the Evil Queen in Disney's version of the story has nothing on Essie's father and step-mother in this story.  Highly recommended!

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom

Everyone wants to be famous, right?  Especially, if you are Prince Charming of fairy tale fame, but the princes who bear that name have a couple of complaints.  First, they did all the work rescuing princes, fighting dragons, etc, so why are the stories named after the girls?  Everyone knows Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, but have you ever heard of Liam, Gustav, Duncan, and Frederic?  Didn't think so.

Also, the princes didn't realize when they got caught up in those famous stories that they would end up married or engaged to those girls regardless of whether they liked each other.

The princes find themselves kicked out of their homes (and sometimes kingdoms), and they stumble across each other in the forest.  They also stumble across a plot from a wicked witch named Zaubera who has kidnapped the four most famous bards in the four kingdoms.  Now Cinderella has been kidnapped, too!

Who will save her if not a band of Princes Charming?

This first book in Christopher Healy is fun and exciting though it does get bogged down a bit in the middle.  Recommended for fairy tale and humor fans.

Fairest

If you are like me, suffering because Winter, the next book in the Lunar Chronicles is coming out in November instead of February, Fairest will help ease your pain.  But be warned, this book is crazy!

Princess Levana lives a life that is cold and lonely.  She never felt loved by her parents or her older sister.  When her parents are murdered by Shells, Channary becomes queen, and Levana becomes an even bigger joke in the royal court with her older sister taking every opportunity to mock and belittle her.

Meanwhile, Levana has developed feelings for one of her guards, Evret, but she is devastated to learn that not only is he married but his wife is pregnant.  When Evret's wife dies in child birth, Levana is convinced this is her opportunity for love.  Evret will no longer need to cling to his poor seamstress wife when he can be married to a princess.

From the first page of this novella it is clear that Levana has already started developing the cruelty and madness we see in the other books in the series.  This is a fascinating story about motive, loneliness, and delusion, but it is definitely more mature than the other books in the series.

Marissa Meyer weaves in pieces of her other characters' stories in Levana's tale, but you'll need to pay attention to catch some of the details.  This edition also includes the first three chapters of Winter which is good and bad because we still have to wait for the rest.  Recommended for fans of The Lunar Chronicles!

Click below for an interview with the author!

Into the Woods

You all know I love fairy tales.  I'm sure it's no surprise that I also love Into the Woods, and I can't wait for the movie to come out!  Come by the library to check out a book from our fairy tale display, and enjoy the trailer below.

The School for Good and Evil

Sophie is determined to be a princess in a fairy tale, so when it comes time for the kidnapping, she does everything she can to make sure she is taken.  The rest of the village takes precautions: nailing windows and doors shut, patrols in the street, the good dirtying themselves up and the bad trying to be a little better.    Every four years, a mysterious creature comes in the night to kidnap the best and worst child in the village.  No one is exactly certain where they go, but the faces of kidnapped children in storybooks are proof enough.

Sophie believes her devotion to personal beauty and carefully planned acts of charity make her the obvious choice for good.  Sophie doesn't really have any friends.  She's too good for anyone in the village, but what started out as one of her "acts of charity" has actually turned into a friendship of a sort.

Agatha is the opposite of Sophie in many ways.  She is dark-haired, wears only black, has a perpetual grumpy attitude, and lives in a cemetery.  Additionally, she thinks Sophie is insane for wanting to be kidnapped.  So, while Sophie is doing everything in her power to be kidnapped, Agatha is trying to protect her.

When the actual kidnapping does happen, the two girls are taken together, but Sophie's exultation quickly turns to dismay when she is dumped in Evil and Agatha is dumped in Good.  How could this have happened?!

From day one Sophie is intent on proving there's been a mistake, getting her prince, and winning her happily ever after.  Agatha sees the true danger around them and devotes her time to finding a way home.  Will either girl get her hearts desire?  And will these two misfits find out where they truly belong?

I really enjoyed Soman Chainani's book about misconceptions and friendship.  I love the way the author picks apart common fairy tale tropes to show how ridiculous the are in "real" life.  I recommend this one for fairy tale and fantasy fans.

Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy

Ophelia, her sister Alice, and their father are still grieving from her mother's death when her father gets a special commission to prepare the world's greatest exhibit of swords.  As an expert in swords, Mr. Whittard takes the job hoping to distract himself and his daughters from their grief.

But this is no ordinary museum.  The displays are strange and shifting, and the museum curator, Miss Kaminski, is strange and beautiful.  Mr. Whittard is too distracted by the swords to pay much attention, and Alice is enamored by Miss Kaminski who gives her clothes and makeup.  This leaves Ophelia to explore alone.

Soon she finds a door hidden in a mosaic image of the sea.  The door is locked, and inside is a boy.  He does not know his name, and he has been the Snow Queen's prisoner for many many years.  Slowly, he tells Ophelia his story, the story of how he was trained to fight the Snow Queen, but he is now her prisoner.

And slowly, our scientific Ophelia begins to believe.  And she knows she must help him no matter how terrible the danger because if she doesn't, the Snow Queen will bring about the end of the world.

I love Karen Foxlee's new book about magic and friendship!  It is a sweet and delicate tale.

West of the Moon

Astri and her younger sister, Greta, live with their aunt, uncle, and cousins.  Their mother died when Greta was just a baby, and their father left for America.  He is saving money to bring his daughters over from Norway, but he's been gone for years.

When Svaalberd the goat man shows up looking to buy a girl work on his farm, Astri knows it won't be like the fairy tale.  In that story, when the bear shows up to take the girl, he leaves her family with riches, and takes her to a world with soft furnishings, full bellies, and kindness.  Svaalberd is a a goat man.  He smells like the goats he keeps, has a hump on his back, bad breath, and a foul temper.

As she suspected, Svaalberd is not a kind a master, and Astri takes the her chance when she sees it to try to escape.  Thus begins her quest to save her sister and get the two of them on a ship to America to find their father.

They will have to face many dangers and challenges along the way, but they will also find friends and uncover the secrets of the past.  Astri knows the traditional Norwegian folktales by heart, and she blends them into her own tale of survival.  But life is not a fairy tale, and as Astri realizes early in the story, no one is going to show up to save her by magical or mortal means.  If Astri wants to be saved, she will have to save herself.

This story was inspired by the diary of Margi Preus's great great grandmother.  Make sure to read the author's note at the end for more information about Preus's ancestor and Norwegian fairy tales.  It probably won't surprise you to learn that I loved this book.  The mix of fairy tales and reality is wonderful, and Astri's tale is dark and painful but also hopeful.  A great read!

Cress

This is the third book in Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series.  It's not a surprise that I love this series!  Fairy tales plus science fiction equals awesome!  The only problem is the fourth book has been pushed to a November 2015 publication date.  That's over a year away!  Why?!  I hope it's worth the wait.  There is a bonus book coming out in January that appears to be the requisite before-she-was-evil story about our villain, Queen Levana, so I guess that will have to tide me over.

Cress was born a Lunar shell, but her early prowess with hacking and technology is anything but a plus.  She's spent the last seven years alone in a satellite doing the bidding of Queen Levana's Thaumaturge, Sybil Mira.  As far as Sybil knows, Cress obeys her every order, most recently tracking the fugitive Linh Cinder.  Instead, Cress has been protecting Cinder and team of fugitives from detection by hacking into satellite feeds.

When Cinder finally makes contact, the fugitives decide to rescue Cress, but everything goes wrong when Sybil shows up at the same time.  This disastrous rescue attempt divides the team into three parts and no one is sure of the survival of any of the other members.

Despite the loss of her friends, Cinder knows she has to stay focused on keeping Levana away from earth and preventing her marriage to Kai.  Will she have the courage and strength of will to take her place as a Lunar princess?

Cress picks up right where Scarlet left off, and the action moves forward swiftly.  This is another great entry into the series, and fairy tale fans will enjoy picking out the elements of the Rapunzel story in Cress's tale.  I highly recommend this series.  It is sci-fi action, romance, political intrigue, and plenty of fairy tale extras!

Rump

Did you ever wonder why Rumplestiltskin wanted that girl's baby or how he managed to spin straw into gold?  If so, you should read Leisl Shurtliff's book to find out the truth!

Rump was born into a land and time where your name is your destiny.  Too bad for him since his mother died before she could finish saying his.  "Rump" seems like a terrible destiny to him.  He lives on the mountain with his gran where he joins the other mountain people mining for gold to give to their gold-obsessed king.  But the gold in the mountain is running out, and the miller never makes a fair trade when the people bring in their gold to exchange for food.

Everything changes one night when a desperate Rump discovers if he puts straw through a spinning wheel it turns into gold!  Sounds like a dream come true, right?  Wrong!  This is only the beginning of a journey that will get Rump into more and more trouble.

Rump decides to go on a journey that is part hiding from his abilities and part quest to find out who he really is.  Will he find a way to free himself from the curse?


Here is a video of a lady using a spinning wheel to make yarn.

Maleficent!

Ok, I know this technically isn't a book, but it's based on the fairy tale, and you all know how much I love those!  Angelina Jolie is looking pretty creep!  Can't wait!

Far Far Away

I am cheating a little because we don't actually have this book in the library yet.  It is on it's way, I promise!  Despite this, I had to write my review while it is still fresh in my mind because I loved this book!  It is the perfect blend of realism, fairy tale, mystery, and horror.  In fact, I'm not quite sure what section to put it in.  I should just make a section called "Awesome Books That Defy Categorization."

Jeremy Johnson Johnson hears voices, one voice in particular.  It's Jacob Grimm.  Yes, that Jacob Grimm, collector of fairy tales.  Jacob is stuck as a ghost because he has left something, he doesn't know what, undone.  He wondered the earth searching in vain for his brother Wilhelm  until he heard about the boy who could hear ghosts.  Since that time, he has been Jeremy's best friend in the small town of Never Better.

Jacob hopes that protecting Jeremy from a mysterious person known as The Finder of Occasions will help him pass on.  The only problem?  He doesn't know who this person is, only that he is a threat to Jeremy.

Aside from his friendship with a ghost, Jeremy leads a fairly lonely existence.  When his mother left years ago, his father hid away from the world in a deep depression, and Jeremy was left to fend for himself.  Now in addition to the looming specter of the Finder of Occasions, the Johnson home is in foreclosure, and Jeremy may soon be homeless.

Jeremy's life will take a turn for the interesting one day when flame-haired beauty, Ginger Boultinghouse, takes an interest in him.  Ginger starts to break loner Jeremy out of shell.  Even as Jeremy starts to feel real happiness, danger creeps ever closer.

You must read Tom McNeal's new book.  It is just so wonderful and charming and complex and steeped in the ancient world of fairy tales.

Scarlet

Here's another sequel alert!  If you haven't read Cinder yet, stop now and get a copy!  Cinder was one of my favorite books of last year, and I've been eagerly anticipating the sequel since I finished it.  I have to admit, I was a little annoyed, like I always am, when I discovered the sequel added a new protagonist.  That being said, author Marissa Meyer quickly won me over!  The new characters in this book only enhance the mystery and conspiracy we tasted in Cinder.

Scarlet is angry.  No one is looking for her grandmother.  Grand-mere disappeared from their farm in rural France three weeks ago, and the police have given up the search already.  Scarlet will never be satisfied until she finds the only person who's ever cared for her.  On top of all this, she's annoyed that every seems so quick to judge that Linh Cinder girl on the news.  She's just a kid; it's not her fault she's a cyborg.  What can she have done that's so horrible she deserves everyone's scorn?

As she's making a produce delivery to one of the farm's best clients, she meets a handsome and hungry stranger who's never tasted a tomato.  She is both attracted and repelled by Wolf.  But she soon becomes suspicious that Wolf is involved in her grandmother's disappearance even though he insists he isn't.  Soon Scarlet is on a journey to find her grandmother with Wolf in tow.  Can she trust this Wolf?

Meanwhile, Cinder is still reeling from her discovery that she is the long lost Lunar Princess Selene, and she has no intention of falling into Queen Lavana's hands and certain death.  In her escape from prison, she makes a miscalculation and ends up with an actual criminal in tow.  The good news is, Thorne seems pretty harmless, and he has a ship.  With a new foot and hand and her Lunar gift unlocked, Cinder is better equipped than ever but wracked with guilt over her ability to bend others' perception of reality.

How are Cinder and Scarlet connected, and how can these two girls stand against the powerful Lunar queen whose ultimate plan is coming to fruition with violence and terror?  Read Marissa Meyer's action packed sequel to find out.

Strands of Bronze and Gold

When Sophia's father dies, she and her older siblings are left in difficult financial circumstances.  It seems like a stroke of good luck when she receives an invitation from her mysterious and wealthy godfather.  Not only does he want to support Sophia, but he might be able to help her brothers and sister, as well.

Sophia leaves Boston for Wyndriven Abbey in Mississippi, and in 1855 the two are worlds apart.  Monsieur de Cressac plies Sophia with beautiful clothes, fine food, and the wonders of his home and estate.  He is charming and attentive, and Sophia is quick to overlook the problems in her new life.

Sophia has always been opposed to slavery, but she has never really been confronted with the practice before.  She is unsettled by M. de Cressac's reliance on slavery, but he waves her objections away.  When she headed for her new life Sophia believed she would live with de Cressac and his wife, but once she arrives, she discovers his wife is dead, and she silently questions the propriety of living with an unmarried man.

At first M. de Cressac's charm sweeps away her objections, but the longer she lives at Wyndriven Abbey, the more she discovers about her godfather, his disturbing past, and his volatile temper.

Jane Nickerson's Southern Gothic version of the Bluebeard fairy tale is lush, dark, beautiful, and dangerous.

A Curse Dark As Gold

This book is a couple of years old, but I love a good fairy tale adaptation, so when I saw it on audio from the public library, I decided to jump in.  I'm so glad I did!  This retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin tale is layered, complex, and dark.

When Charlotte Miller's father dies, she and her younger sister, Rosie, are left to run the family woolen mill.  Life at Stirwaters has never been easy, and no Miller has even been able to pass the mill on to his son.  Each generation the mill has passes to a cousin or uncle or some other Miller relative, but now Charlotte and Rosie, as the last of the Miller line, are determined to be successful.

The only problem is nature, circumstances, and the mill seem to be conspiring against Charlotte, and they are close to ruin before they can even get started.  The mill workers and villagers hint at dark magic and curses, but practical Charlotte won't hear it.  Even when a mysterious man who calls himself Jack Spinner shows up to save the day in a decidedly magical fashion, Charlotte ignores the truth.

This is only the beginning of a spiral of lies, magic, and ancient rage that jeopardize the mill, the village, and everything Charlotte holds dear.  Will Charlotte become the next victim of the curse, or will she find a way to save the mill and her friends?

This is a beautifully written story filled with characters who have depth and personality.  Elizabeth Bunce's first novel is a perfect mix of history, romance, mystery, and fairy tale.

Whatever After: Fairest of All

In the first book of this new series by Sarah Mlynowski, Abby and her little brother Jonah discover that the mirror in the basement of their new house is no ordinary mirror.  It is actually a passageway into a fairytale kingdom!

They arrive just in time to stop Snow White from eating the evil queen's apple.  Awesome!  They are heroes!  Until they realize that now Snow White won't die, so she can meet her handsome prince and live happily ever after.  Oops.

Now Jonah and Abby have to find a way to fix Snow White's story and get home before their parents realize they are gone and freak out!  That's a lot to accomplish.  It's a good thing they have each other.

I really enjoyed this good fairy tale romp with all the original characters plus a modern twist!  Check out the Scholastic website for for Whatever After games and info!

Bewitching

Fans of Alex Flinn's Beastly should start getting excited!  This book follows Kendra, the witch who cursed Kyle into a beast is back with more problems.  This time she can't decide if she should intervene in the life of a friend whose new stepsister is beautiful but sneakily evil.

As Kendra tries to decide what to do, she reviews other times she's intervened in the past that didn't turn out so well.  There's the time she tried to help a prince with an overbearing mother and the time a mermaid came to her looking for true love.

Meanwhile, Emma is watching her life slowly unravel under the influence of the deceptively beautiful Lisette.

This take on Cinderella looks at the story from a new perspective.  Maybe the beautiful Cinderella character isn't so pure and wonderful after all, and maybe the "ugly" stepsister isn't the evil one.

If you enjoyed Beastly, you'll definitely want to read Bewtiching!

Summer and Bird

What can I say about this book?  It's a new story, but it reads like an old world fairy tale with a modern update.  And if you know me, you know I love fairy tales! 

Summer and Bird live in an old cottage in the forest with their parents until the morning they awake to find their parents missing.  In their despair, they decide to go in search of them and quickly find themselves in Down.  In Up it was almost spring, but in Down it is still winter, and the two sisters are now grieving their parents and shivering with cold, but Down is a strange place in others ways.  Bird seems to be able to talk with the birds there, and Summer has strange visions.

In this moment of crisis, all their sisterly rivalries are strengthened, and Summer awakes one morning to find little sister, Bird, gone.  Now they are on separate paths that will lead them through dangers, revelations, anger, and guilt. 

Bird will continue on a quest to find her heart's desire where she will meet the evil Puppeteer who whispers lies mixed with truth to capture your heart.  She is the little sister always longing to prove her worth to show that she has ideas and plans to be free of her older sister's tyranny.  

Summer will continue in her search for her family racked by guilt over losing Bird and helped by many strange and wondrous creatures including a raven and old man.  She feels the frustration of the older sister always having to be responsible for a babyish girl who steals their mother's affection.

Like any good fairy tale, this is a story of transformation, difficult journeys, sacrifice, and love.  But like real fairy tales and real life, there are no completely happy endings, and we all have to pay for our mistakes.

This is Katherine Catmull's first book, and it is a true gem!