Mini Review: Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Title: Fairest 
(The Lunar Chronicles # 3.5)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Length: 222 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Classification: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Retelling, Science Fiction
Release Date: January 27, 2015
Source: Hardback
Read: December 2015

In this stunning bridge book between Cress and Winter in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles, Queen Levana’s story is finally told.
Mirror, mirror on the wall,Who is the fairest of them all?
Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a story that has never been told . . . until now. 
Marissa Meyer spins yet another unforgettable tale about love and war, deceit and death. This extraordinary book includes full-color art and an excerpt from Winter, the next book in the Lunar Chronicles series.

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Reread Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cress
(The Lunar Chronicles #3)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Length: 550 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Classification: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Retelling, Science Fiction
Release Date: February 4, 2014
Source: Hardback
Re-Read: December 2015

In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. 
Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. 
When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has. 

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Reread Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Title: Scarlet
(The Lunar Chronicles #2)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Length: 452 pages
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Classification: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Retelling, Science Fiction
Release Date: February 5, 2013
Source: Paperback 
Re-Read: November 2015

Cinder is back and trying to break out of prison—even though she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive if she does—in this second installment from Marissa Meyer.
Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother, or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana.

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Reread Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder
(The Lunar Chronicles #1)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Length: 390 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Classification: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Retelling, Science Fiction
Release Date: January 3, 2012
Source: Hardback
Reread: September 2015

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

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Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas

Title: Ash & Bramble
Author: Sarah Prineas
Length: 464 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
Classification: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Retelling, Fantasy
Release Date: September 15, 2015
Source: e-galley via Edelweiss (Thank you, HarperTeen!)
Read: September 2015

A prince.
A ball.
A glass slipper left behind at the stroke of midnight.
The tale is told and retold, twisted and tweaked, snipped and stretched, as it leads to happily ever after.
But it is not the true Story.
A dark fortress.
A past forgotten.
A life of servitude.
No one has ever broken free of the Godmother’s terrible stone prison until a girl named Pin attempts a breathless, daring escape. But she discovers that what seems to be freedom is a prison of another kind, one that entangles her in a story that leads to a prince, a kiss, and a clock striking midnight. To unravel herself from this new life, Pin must choose between a prince and another—the one who helped her before and who would give his life for her. Torn, the only thing for her to do is trade in the glass slipper for a sword and find her own destiny.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review***

Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis

Title: Spinning Starlight
Author: R.C. Lewis
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Classification: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Retelling, Science Fiction
Release Date: October 6, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Disney Hyperion!)
Read: September/October 2015

Sixteen-year-old heiress and paparazzi darling Liddi Jantzen hates the spotlight. But as the only daughter in the most powerful tech family in the galaxy, it's hard to escape it. So when a group of men show up at her house uninvited, she assumes it's just the usual media-grubs. That is, until shots are fired.Liddi escapes, only to be pulled into an interplanetary conspiracy more complex than she ever could have imagined. Her older brothers have been caught as well, trapped in the conduits between the planets. And when their captor implants a device in Liddi's vocal cords to monitor her speech, their lives are in her hands: One word and her brothers are dead.Desperate to save her family from a desolate future, Liddi travels to another world, where she meets the one person who might have the skills to help her bring her eight brothers home-a handsome dignitary named Tiav. But without her voice, Liddi must use every bit of her strength and wit to convince Tiav that her mission is true. With the tenuous balance of the planets deeply intertwined with her brothers' survival, just how much is Liddi willing to sacrifice to bring them back?Haunting and mesmerizing, this retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Wild Swans strings the heart of the classic with a stunning, imaginative world as a star-crossed family fights for survival in this companion to Stitching Snow.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

Title: Mechanica
Author: Betsy Cornwell
Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Clarion Books
Classification: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Retelling, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Fantasy
Release Date: August 25, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you HMH Books!)
Read: August 2015

Nicolette’s awful stepsisters call her “Mechanica” to demean her, but the nickname fits: she learned to be an inventor at her mother’s knee. Her mom is gone now, though, and the Steps have turned her into a servant in her own home. 
But on her sixteenth birthday, Nicolette discovers a secret workshop in the cellar and begins to dare to imagine a new life for herself. Could the mysterious books and tools hidden there—and the mechanical menagerie, led by a tiny metal horse named Jules—be the key to escaping her dreary existence? With a technological exposition and royal ball on the horizon, the timing might just be perfect for Nicolette to earn her freedom at last.
Gorgeous prose and themes of social justice and family shine in this richly imagined Cinderella retelling about an indomitable inventor who finds her prince . . . but realizes she doesn't want a fairy tale happy ending after all.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt

Title: Hold Me Like a Breath
(Once Upon a Crime Family #1)
Author: Tiffany Schmidt
Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's
Classification: Young Adult, Thriller, Crime, Mystery, Retelling
Release Date: May 19, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Bloomsbury!)
Read: April 2015

Penelope Landlow has grown up with the knowledge that almost anything can be bought or sold—including body parts. She’s the daughter of one of the three crime families that control the black market for organ transplants.Penelope’s surrounded by all the suffocating privilege and protection her family can provide, but they can't protect her from the autoimmune disorder that causes her to bruise so easily.And in her family's line of work no one can be safe forever.All Penelope has ever wanted is freedom and independence. But when she’s caught in the crossfire as rival families scramble for prominence, she learns that her wishes come with casualties, that betrayal hurts worse than bruises, that love is a risk worth taking . . . and maybe she’s not as fragile as everyone thinks.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

Title: Crimson Bound 
Author: Rosamund Hodge
Length: 448 pages
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Classification: Young Adult, Retellings, Fantasy, Magic
Release Date: May 5, 2015
Source: e-galley via Edelweiss (Thank you, HarperTeen!)
Read: April 2015

When Rachelle was fifteen she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless— straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.
Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her find the legendary sword that might save their world. As the two become unexpected allies, they uncover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a love that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?
Inspired by the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, Crimson Bound is an exhilarating tale of darkness, love, and redemption.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review***

2015 Retelling Releases That Have Caught My Eye

So pretty much ever since I read Cinder a couple years ago, I have been wanting to read more and more Fairy Tale Retellings. (Pretty much any kind of Retelling really, since I also really enjoyed The Madman's Daughter.)

So I was looking at Goodreads and discovered some Retellings that were coming out this year, that for some reason hadn't been on my radar yet. After adding them to my TBR, I decided to put together a list of some of the ones I am looking forward to.

Here are some 2015 Releases that have caught my attention:

The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith

Title: The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales
Author: Jon Scieszka
Illustrator: Lane Smith
Length: 54 pages
Publisher: Scholastic 
Classification: Children's Book, Caldecott Honor Book, Humor
Release Date: January 1992
Source: Paperback

If geese had graves, Mother Goose would be rolling in hers. The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales retells--and wreaks havoc on--the allegories we all thought we knew by heart. In these irreverent variations on well-known themes, the ugly duckling grows up to be an ugly duck, and the princess who kisses the frog wins only a mouthful of amphibian slime. The Stinky Cheese Man deconstructs not only the tradition of the fairy tale but also the entire notion of a book. Our naughty narrator, Jack, makes a mockery of the title page, the table of contents, and even the endpaper by shuffling, scoffing, and generally paying no mind to structure. Characters slide in and out of tales; Cinderella rebuffs Rumpelstiltskin, and the Giant at the top of the beanstalk snacks on the Little Red Hen. There are no lessons to be learned or morals to take to heart--just good, sarcastic fun that smart-alecks of all ages will love. 

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