Showing posts with label Retellings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Retellings. Show all posts

Monday, April 16, 2018

From My Notebook #3: Thoughts - Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Feature at My Bookish Itinerary
When I read I write notes, thoughts, and quotes about the book in a notebook. I sometimes write drafts or full book reviews in my notebooks too. And sometimes I forget to write up a review from those notes. Or sometimes I would forget to type up and/or post those reviews. So From My Notebook will be the notes, thoughts, quotes, or full reviews that I had in one of my notebooks from other the past years that I forgot to share before. 

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe by Melissa de la Cruz

 Title: Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Length: 225 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Classification: Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Retelling, Holiday-Christmas
Release Date: October 17, 2017
Source: Library Book
Read: January 2018
Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe, from New York Times bestselling author, Melissa de la Cruz, is a sweet, sexy and hilarious gender-swapping, genre-satisfying re-telling, set in contemporary America and featuring one snooty Miss Darcy.
Darcy Fitzwilliam is 29, beautiful, successful, and brilliant. She dates hedge funders and basketball stars and is never without her three cellphones—one for work, one for play, and one to throw at her assistant (just kidding). Darcy’s never fallen in love, never has time for anyone else’s drama, and never goes home for Christmas if she can help it. But when her mother falls ill, she comes home to Pemberley, Ohio, to spend the season with her family.
Her parents throw their annual Christmas bash, where she meets one Luke Bennet, the smart, sardonic slacker son of their neighbor. Luke is 32-years-old and has never left home. He’s a carpenter and makes beautiful furniture, and is content with his simple life. He comes from a family of five brothers, each one less ambitious than the other. When Darcy and Luke fall into bed after too many eggnogs, Darcy thinks it’s just another one night stand. But why can’t she stop thinking of Luke? What is it about him? And can she fall in love, or will her pride and his prejudice against big-city girls stand in their way?

Monday, April 10, 2017

Geekerella by Ashley Poston

E-Galley Book Review on My Bookish Itinerary
Title: Geekerella
Author: Ashley Poston
Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Quirk Books
Classification: Young Adult, Retelling, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: April 4, 2017
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Quirk Books!)
Geek girl Elle Wittimer lives and breathes Starfield, the classic sci-fi series she grew up watching with her late father. So when she sees a cosplay contest for a new Starfield movie, she has to enter. The prize? An invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball, and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. With savings from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck (and her dad’s old costume), Elle’s determined to win…unless her stepsisters get there first.
Teen actor Darien Freeman used to live for cons—before he was famous. Now they’re nothing but autographs and awkward meet-and-greets. Playing Carmindor is all he’s ever wanted, but Starfield fandom has written him off as just another dumb heartthrob. As ExcelsiCon draws near, Darien feels more and more like a fake—until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise. But when she disappears at midnight, will he ever be able to find her again?
Part romance, part love letter to nerd culture, and all totally adorbs, Geekerella is a fairy tale for anyone who believes in the magic of fandom.

GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million || Book Depository

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

Friday, December 2, 2016

DNF Review: Bright Smoke, Cold Fire

Title: Bright Smoke, Cold Fire

Author: Rosamund Hodge
Length: 448 pages
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Classification: Young Adult, Retelling, Fantasy
Release Date: September 27, 2016
Source: e-galley via Edelweiss (Thank you, Balzer + Bray!)
Sabriel meets Romeo and Juliet in this stunning and atmospheric novel—the first in a duology—from the author of Cruel Beauty and Crimson Bound.
When the mysterious fog of the Ruining crept over the world, the living died and the dead rose. Only the walled city of Viyara was left untouched.
The heirs of the city’s most powerful—and warring—families, Mahyanai Romeo and Juliet Catresou share a love deeper than duty, honor, even life itself. But the magic laid on Juliet at birth compels her to punish the enemies of her clan—and Romeo has just killed her cousin Tybalt. Which means he must die.
Paris Catresou has always wanted to serve his family by guarding Juliet. But when his ward tries to escape her fate, magic goes terribly wrong—killing her and leaving Paris bound to Romeo. If he wants to discover the truth of what happened, Paris must delve deep into the city, ally with his worst enemy . . . and perhaps turn against his own clan.
Mahyanai Runajo just wants to protect her city—but she’s the only one who believes it’s in peril. In her desperate hunt for information, she accidentally pulls Juliet from the mouth of death—and finds herself bound to the bitter, angry girl. Runajo quickly discovers Juliet might be the one person who can help her recover the secret to saving Viyara.
Both pairs will find friendship where they least expect it. Both will find that Viyara holds more secrets and dangers than anyone ever expected. And outside the walls, death is waiting. . . 
GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million || Book Depository


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

Monday, October 24, 2016

Rose & Thorn by Sarah Prineas

My Bookish Itinerary: E-Galley Book Review


Title: Rose & Thorn 

(Ash & Bramble #2)
Author: Sarah Prineas
Length: 416 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
Classification: Young Adult, Retellings, Fantasy
Release Date: October 18, 2016
Source: e-galley via Edelweiss (Thank you, HarperTeen!)
This beauty isn’t sleeping! Discover the true story of Sleeping Beauty in Sarah Prineas’s bold YA fairy-tale retelling filled with thrilling adventure and romance, perfect for fans of The Lunar Chronicles and The Girl of Fire & Thorns trilogy.
After the spell protecting her is destroyed, Rose seeks safety in the world outside the valley she had called home. She’s been kept hidden all her life to delay the three curses she was born with—curses that will put her into her own fairy tale and a century-long slumber. Accompanied by the handsome and mysterious Watcher, Griff, and his witty and warmhearted partner, Quirk, Rose tries to escape from the ties that bind her to her story. But will the path they take lead them to freedom, or will it bring them straight into the fairy tale they are trying to avoid?
Set in the world of Sarah Prineas’s Ash & Bramble fifty years later, Rose & Thorn is a powerful retelling of the classic Sleeping Beauty tale where the characters fight to find their own Happy Ever After.

GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million || Book Depository


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

Friday, August 26, 2016

Break Me Like a Promise by Tiffany Schmidt

Title: Break Me Like a Promise
(Once Upon a Crime Family #2)
Author: Tiffany Schmidt
Length: 416
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Classification: Young Adult, Contemporary, Crime, Retelling
Release Date: June 7, 2016
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Bloomsbury!)
Read: June 2016
No one is unbreakable.
All Magnolia Vickers has ever wanted was to follow father’s path as head of the Family Business. But new legislation is poised to destroy the Family’s operations in the black-market organ trade and Maggie’s recent behavior has wrecked the business-savvy reputation she’s worked her whole life to build.
She’s given an ultimatum: shape up or step aside.
Then Maggie messes up: she downloads a virus onto her father’s computer, and must sneak it off-estate for repair. When Alex, a tech whiz, uncovers the type of information on the machine, he offers Maggie a choice: her Family can give him a kidney, or he’ll irreparably scramble the data. Maggie agrees, but has no intention of keeping her promise or ever seeing him again. That night Alex shows up at her Family estate with copies of confidential Family files and a shocking revelation—the kidney is for him.
The Vickers aren’t willing to let Alex out of their sight, so he moves onto their estate and Maggie is assigned to be his keeper. A task she resents and he enjoys making as challenging as possible. But procuring black market organs is becoming increasingly difficult, and as Alex’s health declines, she’s surprised to find herself falling for him.
Like it or not, Maggie must accept that if she wants to save Alex’s life and carve out a place in the new legalized organ business, she’s going to have to fight for both. 
GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million || Book Depository

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

Thursday, October 29, 2015

A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston

Title: A Thousand Nights
Author: E.K. Johnston
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Classification: Young Adult, Retellings, Fantasy
Release Date: October 6, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Disney Hyperion!)
Read: October 2015
Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.
And so she is taken in her sister's place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin's court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time.But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.
Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.
Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.

GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million

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

Monday, September 14, 2015

Lock & Mori by Heather W. Petty

Title: Lock & Mori
(Lock & Mori #1)
Author: Heather W. Petty
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Classification: Young Adult, Mystery, Retelling, Crime
Release Date: September 15, 2015
Source: e-galley via Edelweiss (Thank you, Simon & Schuster!)
Read: September 2015
In modern-day London, two brilliant high school students, one Sherlock Holmes and a Miss James "Mori" Moriarty, meet. A murder will bring them together. The truth very well might drive them apart.
Before they were mortal enemies, they were much more.
FACT: Someone has been murdered in London's Regent's Park. The police have no leads.
FACT: Miss James "Mori"Moriarty and Sherlock "Lock" Holmes should be hitting the books on a school night. Instead, they are out crashing a crime scene.
FACT: Lock has challenged Mori to solve the case before he does. Challenge accepted.
FACT: Despite agreeing to Lock's one rule--they must share every clue with each other--Mori is keeping secrets.
OBSERVATION: Sometimes you can't trust the people closest to you with matters of the heart. And after this case, Mori may never trust Lock again.

GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million


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

Monday, May 18, 2015

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.

GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million

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

Monday, May 4, 2015

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.

GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million

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

Friday, April 3, 2015

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:


Monday, March 9, 2015

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Title: Cruel Beauty
Author: Rosamund Hodge
Length: 342 pages
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Classification: Young Adult, Retellings, Fairy Tale, Mythology
Release Date: January 28, 2014
Source: Hardback (won from a giveaway)
Read: March 2015
Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.
Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.
Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.
With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.
But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.
As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

GoodReads || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million


***I won a copy of this book from a giveaway. This does not change the way I view this book.***

Monday, September 29, 2014

Great by Sara Benincasa

Title: Great
Author: Sara Benincasa
Length: 263 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
Classification: Young Adult, Contemporary, Retelling, 
Release Date: April 8, 2014
Source: Hardback (I won a copy of this book from Cuddlebuggery's Little Blogger, Big Ambitions project and Coranne @ The Best Books Ever. Thank you so much!)
Read: September 2014
In Sara Benincasa's contemporary retelling of The Great Gatsby, a teenage girl becomes entangled in the drama of a Hamptons social circle, only to be implicated in a tragedy that shakes the summer community. Everyone loves a good scandal. Naomi Rye usually dreads spending the summer with her socialite mother in East Hampton. This year is no different. She sticks out like a sore thumb among the teenagers who have been summering (a verb only the very rich use) together for years. But Naomi finds herself captivated by her mysterious next-door neighbor, Jacinta. Jacinta has her own reason for drawing close to Naomi-to meet the beautiful and untouchable Delilah Fairweather. But Jacinta's carefully constructed world is hiding something huge, a secret that could undo everything. And Naomi must decide how far she is willing to be pulled into this web of lies and deception before she is unable to escape. Based on a beloved classic and steeped in Sara Benincasa's darkly comic voice, Great has all the drama, glitz, and romance with a terrific modern (and scandalous) twist to enthrall readers. 
**I won a copy of this book from Cuddlebuggery's Little Blogger, Big Ambitions project. This does not change the way I view this book**

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Title: Tiger Lily
Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Length: 292 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Classification: Young Adult, Retelling, Fantasy
Release Date: July 3, 2012
Source: e-book (purchased)
Read: June 2014
Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . . Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell. Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter. With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart. 

Monday, June 30, 2014

Cress by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Length: 550 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Classification: Young Adult, Retelling, Science Fiction
Release Date: February 4, 2014
Source: e-book 
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. 

***This is part of a series. There will be spoilers of things that happened in the other book(s) so if you haven't read it and don't want to know things that happened, please stop reading now.***  

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Second Star by Alyssa B. Sheinmel


Title: Second Star
Author: Alyssa B. Sheinmel
Length: 248 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Classification: Young Adult, Contemporary, Retelling
Release Date: May 13, 2014
Source: e-galley (I was pre-approved for this book via NetGalley. Thank you, Netgalley and Macmillian!)
Read: March 2014
A twisty story about love, loss, and lies, this contemporary oceanside adventure is tinged with a touch of dark magic as it follows seventeen-year-old Wendy Darling on a search for her missing surfer brothers. Wendy’s journey leads her to a mysterious hidden cove inhabited by a tribe of young renegade surfers, most of them runaways like her brothers. Wendy is instantly drawn to the cove’s charismatic leader, Pete, but her search also points her toward Pete's nemesis, the drug-dealing Jas. Enigmatic, dangerous, and handsome, Jas pulls Wendy in even as she's falling hard for Pete. A radical reinvention of a classic, Second Star is an irresistible summer romance about two young men who have yet to grow up--and the troubled beauty trapped between them. 

**I received an e-galley from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review**

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Movie Retellings

So I have become obsessed with Retellings lately. I am loving them. And I got to thinking about different movies that I have watched that are Retellings.

And now I want to make a list of Movie Retellings and I want your help to make a list.
Also I think it would be cool to find some new movies to watch. So tell me some that you have enjoyed watching.

What I have so far
  1. 10 Things I Hate About You- Inspired by Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew
  2. She's The Man- Inspired by Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
  3. Sydney White- Inspired by Snow White
  4. Ella Enchanted- Adaption of Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (retelling of Cinderella)
  5. Red Riding Hood- A take on Little Red Riding Hood

Disney Movies:

  1. Cinderella
  2. Snow White
  3. The Little Mermaid
  4. Beauty and the Beast
  5. Sleeping Beauty
  6. Aladdin
  7. Alice in Wonderland
  8. Peter Pan
  9. The Lion King
  10. Mulan
  11. The Princess and the Frog
  12. Tangled
  13. Frozen
I imagine there are movies that I don't know about. So please feel free to fill out the Google Doc and if I get a lot of responses, I will make a list with all of the movies.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

My Bucket List: YA Retellings

(source)

You can find a better list on Epic Read's website here. They even have links for the books. I just copied + pasted their list and combined it to come up with the master list below of all 162 retellings on the above chart.


As of right now, it appears I own 15/162 books.
And have read 5/162.
So I own 11 books that I have not yet read from this list.
This is a BIG bucket list goal. So I am going to break it down some. I know it is going to take me a long time to complete.
By the end of this year (2014) I want to definitely read the 11 books that I own.
It would be nice to also read another 4 from the list.
My local library system appears to have 31 of the books. (That I don't own.)
So that would be 20/162 minimum goal for the end of 2014. (Hopefully I will do better than that!)