Winter by Marissa Meyer

I love series books.  There was a time when I wasn't a fan because I am not the most patient person and waiting around for the next installment can be frustrating.  There have been many series that I started that I lost interest in while waiting and I didn't go back to but this wasn't one of them.  I totally enjoyed waiting for this last installment.  I have thought about the interesting twists that Marissa Meyer's incorporated to her story using the much beloved fairy tales.  It was an exciting and heart wrenching ride at times.  But it was so well worth it.  I highly recommend the series to fans of dystopian novels, fairy tales and science fiction.  It is gruesome enough for guys with enough romance to keep girls swooning.  A great read!

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Ok, so I am not only on an end of the world/dystopian kick I love novelized fairy tales or fairy tales with a twist.  The 1939 film the Wizard of Oz is a classic for many reasons.  It is the first full color film and it was and still is amazing.  It brought the book by L. Frank Baum to life.  Who would have thought Dorothy had a dark side.
Danielle Paige would.  Amy Gumm is whisked away to the land of Oz by way of tornado and that is where her similarities to Dorothy ends. All Amy really wants to do is survive, but Dorothy has turned into quiet the sociopath and that is just not in her plan.  Power has corrupted the originals from Oz.  Its just amazing how thoroughly it has.

Cress by Marissa Meyer

I am completely enjoying the way the series is progressing and I am so looking forward to the last installment of Winter in November.  I have already pre-ordered it.  There is a good balance between action, adventure, a touch of romance and a lot of humor.  I find myself laughing out loud at the sarcasm and banter between the characters.  I have grown attached to them and feel their joy and pain right along with them.

Cress our title character of this segment has been trapped away in a satellite for the last seven years.  Trapped to due the bidding of Mistress Sybil.  While sequestered away she lets the net dramas she watches invade her imagination and her fantasies.  When she is finally rescued will reality live up to them?

Cress is our Rapunzel, and Cinder and Scarlet come into play.  I am rooting for them all.

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Sorry I haven't reviewed this past September but it was a pretty busy month getting acclimated in the new school.  But I am back now and hopefully will be able to post at least two reviews a month.

So lets get on with it.  I think I posted preciously about starting this series.  I was a bit reluctant, because while I love fairy tales and I love novelization of fairy tales I wasn't sure if I was going to love the novelization and scifi version of fairy tales.  Well quick answer is I do love them.

Scarlet is book two of the Lunar Chronicles.  A feisty, hot-tempered red head.  And while a bit stero-typical it fits her well. Scarlet is passionate and hard-working and will stick up for the underdog.  Then there is Wolf.  Is he truly evil?  Or does he want to help Scarlet and her quest to find her grandmother.

Marissa Meyer takes elements of the Little Red Riding Hood tale and makes them her own.  Intertwining them with Cinders story.  I highly recommend this series.  It is exciting and fun.  Filled with humor, action, adventure and even romance.  There is something for everyone.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

One word review....WOW.

Word number two.... uggggg CLIFFHANGERish. Which isn't a really a word.
I remember vaguely when this book first came out in the beginning of 2012.  I found the cover intriguing.  I am a sucker for a fairly tale retelling but for some reason every time I picked this book up, I put it back down.  I like dystopian fiction and cyborgs and science fiction I just didn't think I would like them all together.  Boy was I wrong.  Cinder is an engaging and magical story about a cyborg mechanic.  While the story is familiar, Marissa Meyer puts enough twist into it to make it her own.  I highly recommend this story to readers who like fairy tales with a twist.  It is the first book in the Lunar Chronicles Series and I will be reading book two very soon.

A Whole New World by Liz Braswell

What if it were Jafar who summoned the genie? What if he became the new sultan, was granted a great power no one else could surpass and took complete control of the city of Agrabah?

A new twist on a Disney favorite.  I will say that it has been many many years since I saw the Disney movie Aladdin so I do not recall the details of the movie but I do recall the story.  In A Whole New World we meet our lovable street rat Aladdin.  Our favorite their with a moral compass.

The book is an action adventure fairy tale that gives us a bit of back story on Aladdin.  The story takes a turn from the Disney movie when it is Jafar who gets his hands on the lamp and gets control of the genie.

The story mores at a steady pace.  There were times when I felt it was dragging a bit but it soon picked up the pace.  Watching Jafar and his evil wishes gave the story the dark and creepy feeling you would expect.  I loved the secondary characters and wished I had been given more back story on them.
I enjoyed this twisted tale and would recommend it to someone who likes a new take on an old favorite.