Princesses Can Save the Prince Too!

Published:  December 17th, 2008

The Stepsister Scheme (Princess #1)

By: Jim C. Hines

DAW

ISBN-13:  9780756405328

You know how all those old fairy tales take you through lots of scary adventures till you finally reach that inevitable line: "And they lived happily ever after..."  Guess what?  It's not true.  Life in never-never land isn't all sweetness and light.  Cinderella - whose real name is Danielle Whiteshore (nee Danielle de Glas) - does marry Prince Armand.  And (if you can ignore the pidgeon incident) their wedding is a dream-come-true.

But not long after the "happily ever after," Danielle is attacked by her stepsister Charlotte, who suddenly has all sorts of magic to call upon.  And though Talia - otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty - comes to the rescue (she's a martial arts master, and all those fairy blessings make her almost unbeatable), Charlotte gets away.

That's when Danielle discovers a number of disturbing facts: Armand has been kidnapped and taken to the realm of the Fairies; Danielle is pregnant with his child; and the Queen has her very own Secret Service that consists of Talia and Snow (White, of course).  Snow is an expert at mirror magic and heavy-duty flirting.

Can three princesses track down Armand and extract both the prince and themselves from the clutches of some of fantasyland's most nefarious villains?

Review

     I am a fairy tale obsessed, freak!  I love retellings of fairy tales - modern ones, retro ones, historical fiction, christian fiction, disneyfied ones, humorous ones, etc.  Doesn't really matter what exactly it is, I am bound to be attracted to it, if not drawn in completely.  The cover on this book looks a bit like Charlie's Angels crossed with Brothers Grimm, so color me intrigued.  I was told by a couple of my online friends to read it, even if just to get to the second one (which they said is better).  So I decided to give it a go and see what would happen.  Is starts focused on Danielle de Glas (aka Cinderella), who has married the Prince and now has to learn to become a Princess.  She still can't help her instinct to befriend all the servants and clean the palace around her though; but she loves her husband, Armand, and is willing to make some changes to be what he needs.  Imagine her surprise when her stepsister Charlotte tries to kill her seemingly out of the blue, using magic she's never had before.  Danielle is saved from assassination by Queen Bea's secret protector - Talia, otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty.  It turns out she and Snow White work for Bea, and help her keep the kingdom and its royals safe from threats.  But when they find out Armand has been kidnapped by Charlotte and her sister, it's up to Danielle to rescue him - with the help of Talia and Snow she might even succeed.  However, what will the cost be to retrieving Prince Armand from the danger he's in?

     I enjoyed this one a lot.  At first it feels pretty slow moving (even with an assassination attempt), but once Talia, Danielle and Snow finally hit the road, the plot picks up its pace pretty quickly.  Probably my favorite thing about this book is that it uses the darker and older versions of the fairy tales that a lot of people only know from the Disney versions, for the back stories of the characters.  Talia's in particular is a real doozy and definitely gives a great basis for her inability to connect emotionally to other people and fondness for solving difficult situations with violent means.  Also, the fact that Snow herself worked with mirrors for magical purposes (a la the Evil Queen) was interesting and not something I've ever seen done before in a retelling or reworking of Snow White's story.  The lack of Prince Armand was both disappointing and refreshing.  So wonderful to see a fantasy/fairy tale book NOT laser-focused on the romance, but considering that Danielle is going to great lengths to save him, it would have been nice to get some more insight into her relationship with Armand (especially considering how little time they've actually known each other when you consider their relationship as a whole).

     The entire novel, while revolving around an assassination plot, still managed to feel like it was moving at molasses speed.  But when it hit Fairytown, shit really started to hit the fan!  I enjoyed them trying to find an ally and since by this point Danielle knows she's pregnant, the whole thing with every fairy asking for the baby in exchange for the help was hilarious!  Such a stereotypically fairy tale thing to do!  I also really was impressed at how much motivation and character development Hines managed to work in for the Stepsisters (Charlotte and Stacia) who are usually just cardboard cutout villains in any adaptation of Cinderella that's published/filmed.  The rescue of Armand and the imprisonment of Danielle are both full of very dark scenes and somewhat disturbing.  Especially when we're unsure whether or not the baby is going to come away from the ordeal unscathed.  The one complaint (as others have said) that I really can think of besides slowness, is the one dimensionality of Talia and Sleeping Beauty as characters.  But by the end of the novel, we've gotten closer to understanding what makes them tick.  Also, I have read the second book in the time before I started writing this review and it definitely gives us more meat to those two characters.  Overall, I had a swell time trying to figure out where Hines was taking this and I think I'm along for the whole ride.

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

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We're Off To See The Wizard

Published:  November 12th, 2013

No Place Like Home (Dorothy Must Die #0.5)

By: Danielle Paige

HarperCollins

ISBN-13:  9780062280763

In this digital original novella, Dorothy travels back to Oz to reunite with old friends, but her story may not have a happy ending.  No Place Like Oz is a prequel to the forthcoming novel Dorothy Must Die.

After returning to Kansas, Dorothy Gale has realized that the dreary fields of Kansas doesn't compare to the vibrant landscapes of Oz.  And although she's happy to be reunited with Aunt Em, she misses her friends from the yellow brick road.  But most of all, Dorothy misses the fame and the adventure.  In Kansas she's just another prairie girl, but in Oz she was a hero.  So Dorothy is willing to do anything to get back, because there really is no place like Oz.  But returning to land she left comes at a price, and after Dorothy is through with it, Oz will never be the same.

Review

     So anyone who actually knows me in real life, knows that I am completely obsessed with The Wizard of Oz in all of its forms!  Mostly the movie from 1939, but also the book and re-imagined SyFy T.V. miniseries Tin Man.  There is just something about the story that attaches itself to my imagination and places an ache in my wanderer's heart.  So while I was keenly interested in reading this novella and the following book that's released in April, I was also wary.  After all, it turns Dorothy into a villain instead of a heroic, lost girl from Middle America.  But even with my doubts, I can never resist a retelling if it even sounds halfway good!  So I went into it with an open mind and an adventurous spirit.  To understand anything, you need to know that the story starts two years after Dorothy returns to Kansas from Oz.  She was at first, something of a novelty in town for surviving the twister after no one thought she was alive.  But now she is sixteen and without friends, completely disillusioned with life as an average prairie girl in dusty, boring Kansas.  She would do anything to go back to Oz.  Anything to be important and the center of attention again.

     And that is where we find the biggest problem in this novella.  Dorothy is never satisfied with what she has.  She always wants more, no matter the cost or the pain to others because of it.  Dorothy wants fame, attention and things that don't belong to her.  She feels like she's better than everyone else in her town, including her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, whom she finds boring and unimaginative.  So when Dorothy is given some ruby slippers on her sixteenth birthday after a disastrous party, she puts them on hoping to go back to Oz like nothing changed.  Only things have changed since she's been gone.  Glinda is missing, the Scarecrow is no longer King and a mysterious girl named Ozma is ruling the Emerald City now.  Dorothy finds it up to herself to free Oz from Ozma and put the rightful ruler back in control.  Also, she must free Glinda the Good Witch from her imprisonment!  But is everything really quite the way Dorothy thinks it is?  And when she starts using the magic of Oz, will Dorothy herself be corrupted beyond all saving?

     Overall, I found this to be an interesting concept and was surprised that the novella was almost 200 pages long.  It was longer than most are, which gave it a lot more plot development and allowed an actual story to unfold.  It was nicely blended from the 1939 film and the Oz books, with mythology from both.  My favorite nugget was when Dorothy talks about the silver slippers from her previous journey - a thing from the book.  And also her pet hen Bilina, and the whole history of Ozma being disguised and hidden away until it was her time to rule.  The mythology of the ruling line of Oz being born from flowers was beautiful and if it was Baum's concept or Paige's, it was a nice touch either way.  Yet something was missing with Dorothy as the narrator.  I got truly annoyed quite a bit trying to wade through her inner monologue and really had little sympathy for her.  Especially after the way things go down between her and Ozma.  Also, the way she treats her Aunt and Uncle is horrendous.  That detracted from my true enjoyment of the novella.  Also, the preview for Dorothy Must Die in the back of the novella had me fearing that I wasted my time altogether reading it.  I did not like the protagonist of it AT ALL and am now really ambivalent of the whole thing.  I guess I'd recommend this if you're curious about the idea.  Otherwise, avoid it with all your might.

VERDICT:  3.5/5  Stars

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book is now available online as an ebook only.**

With A Little Luck

Published: October 1st, 2011

Time At The Top & All In Good Time: Two Novels

By: Edward Ormondroyd

Purple House Press

ISBN-13:  9781930900554

"Wait a minute!" Mr Shaw said.  "You want to take me back to the nineteenth century, to marry someone there?"

His daughter Susan must be mad!  Only a girl suffering from hallucinations would make a request like that, on top of a wild story about a good witch, an elevator that travels to 1881, a vanquished scoundrel, a dug-up treasure, and a distressed nineteenth-century family named Walker.  Better humor her, Mr. Shaw thinks, until I can get her to a doctor.

Susan is not mad.  Her story is true.  She and her new best friend Victoria Walker just know that when their parents meet it will be love at first sight, and the two families will become one.

But nothing happens the way it should.  Their parents meet and don't fall in love.  Domineering Cousin Jane forbids more meetings.  The treasure disappears overnight.  The vanquished scoundrel returns, with sinister plans.  Everything is spinning out of control!

So why does an old photo show that Susan and Victoria's dream comes true?

Review

     So, I never read either Time At The Top or its sequel when I was a child, but I had seen the movie that was based on the first book and absolutely loved it beyond measure!  I think it probably contributed to my complete obesession with time travel that I still have, even midway through my twenties.  The story is all about Susan Shaw, a preteen who is having a horrible time of things.  Her Mother has recently died, her Father is always working and at school she's been passed over as the lead in the play, so others can have a "fair chance."  Susan is just utterly grumpy about things in general, yet she still stops to help a strange old lady pick up her spilled groceries from the street.  The old woman promises her "three" and Susan doesn't know what she could possibly mean.  It doesn't mean three wishes, but three trips to 1881 (there and back) in the old elevator in her apartment building!  While she's there, she becomes good friends with Victoria Walker whose Mother is being taken in by a fortune-hunter.  So Susan helps Victoria get rid of him by making him think they have no money - only for the girls to find out it's suddenly true!  Can Victoria, Susan and Vic's brother Robert find a way to save the Walker family.  And will Susan find a way to stay in 1881, with her Father, and join the Walker family with her own?  Add in a buried treasure and some very interesting things will be happening!

     I really loved the story in this one and how it focused on Susan for a decent portion in the beginning, mainly for the chance to show the readers why she would want to live in the past.  Considering this book was written in the 1960s, it really wasn't a gigantic time gap when you think about it.  The most hilarious character in her time period is the housekeeper Mrs. Clutchett who is completely paranoid and extremely nosy!  Her commentary on Susan's disappearance is priceless.  Only eighty years or so between Susan and the Walkers.  I thought that the way Susan got rid of the fortune-hunter was slightly ridiculous and over the top, but it was also pretty amusing.  The whole scenario with the buried treasure definitely appealed to my inner youth.  Such a fun plot to unravel along with the children (even if it wasn't difficult at all to figure things out).  But my favorite thing about this book was the way the author, Edward Ormondroyd, inserted himself into the narrative as the Shaw's neighbor in their apartment building.  He barely interacts with Susan except for one notable time before she disappears.  But he desperately wants to know where she's gotten to, almost as much as her Father and the police do!

     The sequel, All In Good Time, is just as much fun with Susan finally taking her Father back to 1881 with her.  But nothing goes according to plan.  The Walker childrens' Mother is wary of accepting anonymous money (i.e. the treasure the children found and sent secretly to her), and therefore is still planning to sell the house.  Her horrible Cousin Jane comes to help manage the household, and terrorizes everyone in it.  She interferes with Mr. Shaw and Mrs. Walker's first meeting, disapproves of Susan who she sees as trashy, and does everything possible to prevent Victoria and Robert from seeing her.  And when the evil fortune-hunter Mr. Sweeney comes back once more, it's up to Susan and Mr. Shaw to find a way to save the Walkers from disaster - especially when the fortune disappears!  Overall, I highly enjoyed both of these books.  They flowed together beautifully and it felt a lot like one continuous novel.  Also, the adventure was fun even as a disbelieving adult.  I think that I would have absolutely adored this beyond belief if I had read it between the ages of eight and twelve.  As it is, I highly enjoyed it and will probably re-read it sometime.  That is a distinction not many kid's books I've read as an adult can boast of! :D

VERDICT:  4.5/5  Stars

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

A Tale of Ladies and Kitchen Maids

Expected Publication:  January 28th, 2014

Manor of Secrets

By: Katherine Longshore

Point

ISBN-13:  9780545567589

The year is 1911.  And at The Manor, nothing is as it seems...

Lady Charlotte Edmonds: Beautiful, wealthy, and sheltered, Charlotte feels suffocated by the strictures of upper-crust society.  She longs to see the world beyond The Manor, to seek out high adventure.  And most of all, romance.

Janie Seward: Fiery, hardworking, and clever, Janie knows she can be more than just a kitchen maid.  But she isn't sure she possesses the courage -- or the means -- to break free and follow her passions.

Both Charlotte and Janie are ready for a change.  As their paths overlap in the gilded hallways and dark corridors of The Manor, rules are broken and secrets are revealed.  Secrets that will alter the course of their lives...forever.

Review

     Lady Charlotte Edmonds is still very young and full of dreams, even if she does know pretty much exactly how her life will turn out.  She will be married, take her place in society and slowly become nothing in the eyes of the world, except for an addition to her husband (who she probably won't choose or love of her own accord either).  Charlotte wants nothing more than to break free, see the world and fall in love with someone of her decision.  Janie Seward is a kitchen maid at the Manor and has known hunger, tragedy and injustice.  But she has a fiery spirit and something very important: freedom from societal expectations.  All Janie wants though is to have a stable place at The Manor, and somewhere to belong.  She's too afraid to even dare to dream of going beyond her current station in life.  When Charlotte and Janie collide into each others' daily lives, it's all they can do to hang on for dear life.  Secrets long since buried come to light and the girls find out they have more than they ever thought possible in common.  Can they help one another rise above the mistakes of the past and into a brave new future together, that they can be excited for?

      This book was basically like Downton Abbey for a younger audience, with less emotional and character depths.  In Charlotte and Janie we have two of the normal stereotypes of the time period (early 1900s): the privileged lady and the kitchen maid.  That said, I did appreciate Charlotte's desperate want for something more and freedom to make her own choices.  She was realistically drawn in the sense that Charlotte has no real concept of the way the world works.  When she toys with the idea of an affair with a young servant named Laurence, Charlotte doesn't realize that it could end in ruination for her or at the least dismissal for him.  And his dismissal (along with the reasons for it) would lead to never being hired in another grand house.  Thus, a career and established life have been destroyed by fleeting fancy.  Also, the idea that Charlotte was at first appalled by the idea of Lord Andrew Broadhurst, because he was the one who her Mother wanted her to marry, and later actually liked him once she got to know him was wonderful.  He wasn't a disposable, one-dimensional boring moron (or evil jerk) like a lot of historical fiction love interests turn out to be.  Instead Laurence was a womanizing jerk!  It would have been so easy to go in the other direction for the sake of romanticizing and I applaud Longshore for not doing it.

     Janie on the other hand, was just as realistic in different ways.  She had such an uncertain childhood, that all she wants is to belong at the Manor and have nothing change ever again.  The interpolitics and hierarchy of the household servants, upstairs and downstairs, was well played.  I especially liked the fact that even with her Mom as the head cook, Janie was still treated as something of an outsider by the other servants, except her best friend Harry, the hall-boy.  Janie is up to taking small risks and dares that don't cause any real upheaval in her life, but she doesn't want adventure like Charlotte.  She just wants stability, even though she dreams of running her own kitchen.  When Charlotte's long-lost Aunt Beatrice comes to The Manor and brings an astounding secret with her, Charlotte will do anything to uncover it.  So enlisting the help of Jenny, and causing more trouble than either of them imagined (upstairs and downstairs), the girls set out to find the truth.  In the process they become pretty good friends and learn that the grass isn't always greener.  I have to say though, the secret of Beatrice's was extremely predictable and I feel only younger readers might be fooled into any modicum of surprise.  I have to say that I was expecting the secret to encompass Janie as well (which it did), just not in quite the way it did.  With no obvious plans for this to be a series, I am also disappointed in the very open ending.  We are left with next to no resolution for Janie or Charlotte.  That said, while I overall enjoyed the book, I wouldn't be continuing in the even of another anyhow.  I recommend this if you're in need of a early 1900s class study fix, or some lite Downton Abbey to tide you over.  Maybe a good intro to fluffy historical fiction for younger teens as well.

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie & also from Scholastic on NetGalley.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book's expected publication date is January 28th, 2014.*

Cozy Classics: Jane Eyre

Published:  November 20th, 2013

Cozy Classics: Jane Eyre (Cozy Classics)

By: Jack & Holman Wang

Simply Read Books

ISBN-13:  9781927018316

Give a kid a classic!  Cozy Classics is the popular board book series that presents well-loved stories to children age 0+ through twelve child-friendly words and twelve needle-felted illustrations.  Jane Eyre is Charlotte Bronte's mysterious romance about a young governess who discovers a terrible secret about the man she loves, and is one of the world's most beloved classics.  Now you can share this classic with children of any age.  www.mycozyclassics.com

Review

     So for anyone who didn't catch my first review, this is my second foray into the Cozy Classics books.  My first was their version of Jane Austen's Emma, which I found truly adorable and hilariously fun to read/interpret as an adult who has read the original book.  I can say that I was laughing throughout this one as well.  The biggest issue that I had was how little it actually represented the original story.  But as other reviewers (and I myself) have said, representing a literary classic in just twelve words, with felt puppets staged around is not an easy endeavor!  Jane Eyre is pretty complex story, not necessarily more so than Emma, just in very different contexts.  It's a lot easier to allude to social niceties and blunders, mixed with romance/friendship than it is to talk about the crazy wife in the attic.  

     It introduces the reader to Jane (the word "girl") sitting at a table with a book, looking miserable.  Next we see the word "red" and she is pictured looking terrifed and trying to wrest open the door to the red room of her nightmares.  The third word is "stand" and has Jane on a stool at the front of a classroom, being humiliated.  These are the only words we're given to represent Jane's mess of a childhood.  While the less horrific of some of the things that could've been shown to children, it also doesn't do much to tell us what exactly is going on - unless we already know (as lots of adults probably already know the gist of the story).  Then we get "woman", with Jane all grown up (I respect that the Wangs make the Jane puppet plain looking in accordance with the story.  It could be tempting to do otherwise, especially when marketing a romantic classic to children!)  We are introduced to Rochester on the ground, clutching his knee ("fall").  Probably the most nonsensical thing about this is how far in the background his horse happens to be, when he's just fallen from it.  We next see Rochester leaning on Jane and limping away from the scene of misfortune (help) and all of the sudden he's recovered, they're holding hands and about to kiss each other (appropriately titled "kiss").  I like the light filtering in between them and the trees, and the happy looks on the puppets' faces.  Especially considering the shit's about to hit the fan!

     This is when the action (if you can call it that) starts to take place in the book, with Rochester leading Jane to the attic to tell her the big secret ("stairs" with her veil in hand and trailing after them) and running away, obviously upset ("leave").  This is very confusing without prior context.  What's so important about the stairs?  Why is Jane running away two seconds later, upset and not wanting to be around the man she was in "kiss" position with only two pages ago?  Either this book is meant for babies who won't ask questions or adults who will find it a fun exercise in terse storytelling with beautifully crafted visuals.  It's fun to speculate on that as well!  Next we seen Jane on a doorstep with her eyes closed ("cold") and Rochester backed into a corner with a fire raging in front of him ("hot").  The last scene depicted has Jane once again with Rochester, smiling and leading him to a chair with his eyes closed ("care").  I believe that the Wangs did the best they could to depict the full story, but to a child this would probably come across pretty confusing.  I think that last scene should have had bandages over Rochester's eyes probably, to depict the fact that he was blind a little more clearly.  The whole reason Jane leaves when she finds out about Rochester's crazy wife is that she's got a serious moral backbone, but also a devalued sense of self in that she doesn't think she was enough for him anyways.  An extremely difficult thing to depict in a children's board book, with twelve words, when trying to give any sense of story as well.  All that aside, I had fun once again with this concept (even if it wasn't quite as good as Emma). 

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, Simply Read Books, via NetGalley.  No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book was published November 20th, 2013.*

Side Effects of a Serious Attitude

Expected Publication:  March 18th, 2014

Side Effects May Vary

By: Julie Murphy

Balzer + Bray

ISBN-13:  9780062245359

What if you'd been living your life as if you were dying - only to find out that you had your whole future ahead of you?

When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, her prognosis is grim.  To maximize the time she does have, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs -- however she sees fit.  She convinces her friend Harvey, who she knows has always had feelings for her, to help her with a crazy bucket list that's as much about revenge (humiliating her ex-boyfriend and getting back at her arch nemesis) as it is about hope (doing something unexpectedly kind for a stranger and reliving some childhood memories).  But just when Alice's scores are settled, she goes into remission.

Now Alice is forced to face the consequences of all that she's said and done, as well as her true feelings for Harvey.  But has she done irreparable damage to the people around her, and to the one person who matters most?

Review

     I am always reluctant to read books about kids or teens with cancer.  Just because I feel like it's very difficult subjecr matter and the author usually devolves into something overly maudlin and sappy - like a Nicholas Sparks book or something!  That said, I think the only one I've ever read that really touched me and came across realistically was The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder.  I enjoyed The Fault In Our Stars the first time I read it, but it didn't hold up very well upon further re-reads.  So I was apprehensive to see what direction that Julie Murphy would decide to take.  It was already different in the fact that the main character, Alice, starts the book off by going into remission.  So when the readers are introduced to her, Alice has been told that she is going to live after all.  Except she's not happy about it as you would expect her to be.  Because she just spent what she thought were the last months of her life, doing whatever the hell she wanted and getting revenge on the people that hurt her in the past.  Now she has to deal with her feelings for her friend Harvey, the mean things she did to her ballet rival and ex-boyfriend, and the fact that she saw her Mom cheating on her Dad right before she got cancer.

     I enjoyed the alternating between the present time and the time before/during when Alice had cancer.  It gave more of an insight into her complicated friendship with Harvey and the reasons for the things she had on her bucket list.  I feel like one of the biggest problems I had with this book was that Alice was an irredeemable bitch for almost the entire thing.  We get to see her POV and Harvey's, but whereas I ended up rooting for Harvey and sympathizing with him, I just wanted Alice to get some help or something.  Harvey was her best friend all throughout their childhood (their parents were good friends) but she dropped him when they entered high school, without a second thought.  Then when Alice is diagnosed with cancer, she takes Harvey back into her life, mostly so that she can use him to help her complete her buckt list/revenge on other people.  Harvey knows that she's just using him, but the poor guy spends almost the entire book trying his hardest to find any sort of redeeming quality in her to make up for her just plain mean and awful behavior.

     Alice on the other hand, is totally unexplainable other than to say that she probably has some kind of personality disorder or something.  She acts downright evil to people, even ones who do nothing but take care of her and try to make her life pleasant.  One major example of this is when she goes into remission, pretty much after admitting to Harvey she loves him, and ditches him again.  Instead Alice starts to go after Eric, the new guy in school.  She kind of likes him, but it seems like she's mostly just doing it to make Harvey jealous and hurt him.  She wants him to be there for her when it's convenient, but Alice will do anything possible to make Harvey feel expendable and refuses to admit anything to him now that she's stuck being alive.  I was really happy that shortly before the end Harvey stopped making excuses for her and kind of just gave up on redeeming Alice in any way.  So of course, in the last 2% of the book, Alice decided to become a better person and try to win Harvey back.  That said, there were some major emotions in this book and reading Alice's POV you can tell that she really doesn't want to be this way and doesn't know why she is.  So I still managed to enjoy the what-if aspects, even if this book has somewhat of a vindictive nature for my tastes personally.  Overall, a good read that makes you really think about life and the people in it.  Not recommended for people who can't stand truly mean characters though.

VERDICT:  3.5/5  Stars

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book's expected publication date is March 18th, 2014.*