Posts Categorized: Review

Friday, March 11, 2016

Blog Tour: Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood by Liesl Shurtliff – Review

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I received this book for free from Random House Children's Books in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Blog Tour: Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood by Liesl Shurtliff – ReviewRed: The True Story of Red Riding Hood by Liesl Shurtliff
Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers on April 12th 2016
Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Middle-Grade, Retellings
Source: Random House Children's Books
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"Red is the most wonder-filled fairy tale of them all!”—Chris Grabenstein, New York Times Bestselling author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library.

Red is not afraid of the big bad wolf. She’s not afraid of anything . . . except magic.
But when Red’s granny falls ill, it seems that only magic can save her, and fearless Red is forced to confront her one weakness.

With the help of a blond, porridge-sampling nuisance called Goldie, Red goes on a quest to cure Granny. Her journey takes her through dwarves’ caverns to a haunted well and a beast’s castle. All the while, Red and Goldie are followed by a wolf and a huntsman—two mortal enemies who seek the girls’ help to defeat each other. And one of them just might have the magical solution Red is looking for. . . .

Liesl Shurtliff weaves a spellbinding tale, shining the spotlight on a beloved character from her award-winning debut, Rump. 

And don't miss Jack: The True Story of Jack and the Beanstalk, "a delightful story of family, perseverance and courage"

RED Blog Tour Banner

 

Hello everyone!! I am honored to be participating in this huge blog tour for Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood. I adore fairy tales and I love retellings, so naturally I had to take part. This tour has been running for about a month and there is plenty more to come. You can refer to the tour schedule that will be at the end of this post. Don’t forget to check out the other stops for really great guest posts and fun things! For my post I am doing a review of this book.

This book was all sorts of fun. The characters were fantastic and the storyline was great. There was a bit of mystery to it as well as magic (of course), friendships, and adventure. This is Red Riding Hood like you have never read before and it was a delight to read. It had a lot of charm and heart and it’s a great read for both younger kids and adults.

Red is quite an interesting character. We learn a bit about her childhood before stepping into an adventure of a lifetime. Her grandmother is amazing at magic. She creates life and does such awesome things. She wishes that she could be as great as her. The only thing is, Red is scared of her magic and won’t use it. After almost killing her grandmother when she was younger (among other mishaps with her magic) she fears the ways that her magic can go wrong. When her grandmother gets sick she goes on a mission to try to find a way to help her. Along the way she faces many truths, makes some friends, and has to learn to not fear her own magic or that her grandmother may not always be around. She grows so much as a character and I loved watching her transformation.

Along the way she learns that the magical things that she is looking for to save her grandmother are not what they seem. Of course all of these powerful magic solutions come with a price, but is the price worth it to save someone that she loves? Not only are the magical items not what they seem, but either is anything else. Things she thinks to be true are not. Things she feared are the things that are the least likely to harm her, and the most unsuspecting people or things are what are the read dangers.

If you are looking for a great story of Red Riding Hood, this is the one. This book is rich with detail and an intriguing story that will keep you reading until the end. The friendships built and really finding herself were wonderful. Imaging all the places she goes and the creatures that she meets was so fun. This is a book that I will be reading with my daughter for sure. Being that it is a middle grade book, it is very clean and appropriate so it makes a great family book. It would be a great gift for anyone, including yourself. If this is your type of book, you should definitely read it. Even if it’s not your type of book you should because who doesn’t like fairy tales? Especially those with a fun twist.

 

Don’t forget to check out the other stops on the tour. The full tour schedule is below. Happy Reading!

 

RED: THE TRUE STORY OF LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD Pre-Pub Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, February, 1: Bookiemoji, Author Guest Post

Tuesday, February, 2: Seeing Double In Neverland, Review

Wednesday, February, 3: MundieMoms/Kids, Review

Thursday, February, 4: BookHounds, Author Interview

Friday, February, 5: The Lovely Books, Review

Saturday, February, 6: I’m Shelf-ish, Guest Post

Sunday, February, 7:  Kid Lit Frenzy, Review

Monday, February, 8: Mel’s Shelves, Review

Tuesday, February, 9: Once Upon A Twilight, Author Random Facts

Wednesday, February, 10: SciFiChick.com, Review

Thursday, February, 11: Swoony Boys Podcast, Review

Friday, February, 12: Bittersweet Enchantment, Review

Saturday, February, 13: WinterHaven Books, Review except 18

Sunday, February, 14: The Cover Contessa, Review

Monday, February, 15: Pandora’s Books, Review

Tuesday, February, 16: On Starships and Dragonwings, Review

Wednesday, February, 17: As They Grow Up, Review

Thursday, February, 18: Owl Always Be Reading, Review

Friday, February, 19: Such a Novel Idea, Playlist and Review

Saturday, February, 20: The Children’s Book Review, A Selfie and a Shelfie

Sunday, February, 21: The Mod Podge Bookshelf, Author Movie Cast

Monday, February, 22: Katie’s Clean Book Collection, Review

Tuesday, February, 23: Words We Heart, Review

Wednesday, February, 24: Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers, Author Guest Post

Thursday, February, 25: Confessions of a Readaholic, Review

Friday, February, 26: Bookish Antics, Review

Saturday, February, 27: Bumbles and Fairy-Tales, Review

Sunday, February, 28: Valerie’s Reviews, Review

Monday, February, 29: Lili’s Reflections, Review

Tuesday, March, 1: To Read, or Not To Read, Review

Wednesday, March 2: Stories & Sweeties, Review

Thursday, March 3: Cafinated Reads, Review

Friday, March 4: The Book Monsters, Review

Saturday, March 5: Twinning for Books, Review

Sunday, March 6: Curling Up With A Good Book, Review

Monday, March 7: The Compulsive Reader, Review

Tuesday, March 8: The Reading Nook Reviews, Review

Wednesday, March 9: Resch Reads and Reviews, Review

Thursday, March 10: Beauty and the Bookshelf, Review

Friday, March 11: Xpresso Reads, Review

Saturday, March 12: Diamond’s Reads, Review

Sunday, March 13: Blissful Book Reviews, Review

Monday, March 14: Vi3tbabe, Review

Tuesday, March 15: The Book Cellar, Review

Review: After the Woods by Kim Savage

Posted by on 02/26/2016 • 2 Comments

My feelings about After the Woods are complex. I think it is a great novel on the whole but there are also bits about it that bothered me. Either way, if you are looking for a psychological thriller with a potentially unreliable narrator, After the Woods is for you.

The reason why I am not completely ready to say I loved this book though is that I am not satisfied (I’ll never be satisfied.)  There are so many questions left unanswered by the end of the novel. It feels unfinished, like there is more of the story to be had. Not necessarily in terms of plot but in terms of character development and understanding the motives. Also what actually happened in the woods.

Don’t get me wrong, I love books…

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Review: Titans by Victoria Scott

Posted by on 02/11/2016 • 10 Comments

You know when you start reading a book and you are just pulled into it and want to devour it? Yeah, this was one of those. I loved just about everything about it. The underlying story is sad and bleak, but the main part of it is thrilling and full of adventure. This book is fast paced and keeps your heart racing along with the characters. And the best part is, there’s not really romance in it. There’s no need for it and it would have taken away from the story and I am glad that the author didn’t feel the need to throw it in there. The characters are fabulous and I really enjoyed getting to know them. The Titans were so interesting and I couldn’t help but want…

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Blog Tour: Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum – Review

Posted by on 01/30/2016 • 4 Comments

Hello and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Tell Me Three Things!! I adored this book. It was just one of those books that makes you feel good. It’s not all fluff and rainbows and all that cute stuff though. There is a lot of depth to it, and things that aren’t quite so easy for the characters, but in the end it’s a book that just made me happy. I loved Jessie getting to know Somebody Nobody. I had a pretty good idea of who it was from the start, but I did keep wondering throughout if I was right. And man did it throw me for a loop at times. Anyways, I liked the honesty in the messages that they sent to each other and…

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Review: Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Posted by on 01/20/2016 • 9 Comments

Passenger AKA the much awaited, highly anticipated time travel romance. I had hoped it would be everything I wanted, I had hoped I would swoon and die because cuteness, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. Passenger was by no means a bad book, I just had a hard time relating to the character and getting behind the romance (which is kind of a big deal given that it is a time-travel romance.)

Etta is really my biggest problem with the book. It isn’t that she is fundamentally flawed, I just couldn’t get behind her as a character. Her privilege, growing up the way she did and in the century she did, is so blatant and her ignorance of it really bothered me. Being with Nicholas did make her realize that she was…

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Review: The Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos

Posted by on 01/13/2016 • 2 Comments

So I’m not really sure what to think of this book. It wasn’t bad, and it had the potential to be really good, but it missed the mark. I’m all about background information and learning the history of the character and their lives, but this one was to the point that is was very disruptive to the story and it really just disconnected me from the whole thing. It was hard to really care abou the story and what was happening when it was interrupted for long stretches explaining something about the past. I get that it’s the thought process of the main character as she is the one telling the story, but it just did’t quite work for me.

Imogene is the MC and she was just okay…

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Review: Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

Posted by on 12/23/2015 • 14 Comments

I am a bookworm (hopefully there are no doubts about that) so a book that featured an evil library definitely got my attention. Ink and Bone also had a lot of hype surrounding it and some of my most-trusted peeps loved it. When I finally dove in, I was expecting my mind to be blown and it wasn’t necessarily blown but there is just something about this book. It’s really really slow but it is also really fucking amazing.

If you love fascinating villains, this book is for you. The Library is the villain here. The library essentially controls the world so there is definite dystopic quality to this book but don’t be turned off by that if dystopias aren’t your thing. The library isn’t some mindlessly evil villain….

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Review: My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories Edited by Stephanie Perkins

Posted by on 12/22/2015 • 6 Comments

I love the holidays, so when I was approached about reviewing this book I couldn’t pass it up. I also always love “feel good” stories and knew this would be filled with them. It didn’t disappoint. It has twelve different stories having to do with the holidays written by an amazing variety of authors. No matter what holiday you celebrate, this book will make you smile. Some even had me tearing up with happy tears. I always really have a hard time reviewing anthologies because I don’t want to have a review that is super long or too short, but I am going to try to do it as good as I can, but be assured, this is a book you want to read around the holidays or any time…

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