Hunted by Meagan Spooner

Publication: March 14, 2017

Publisher: HarperTeen

Source: Purchased my own copy.

Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them. So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

Yeva (aka Beauty) and her family are wealthy and enjoying life among high society. Well everyone except for Yeva. She tires of the endless parties and vapid chatter with the ladies in their social circle. She longs for more.

When her merchant father loses their fortune, they are forced to leave the city. Her father is determined to get their fortune back and continues working. One day when he is out traveling, he never arrives back home. After weeks of not hearing any word from him,Yeva takes it upon herself to go search for him.  It is then that she finds herself captured by the Beast….

I was really hoping that I would have liked Hunted more than I did. Maybe I’ve read too many Beauty and the Beast retellings? I enjoyed the author’s writing style and the characters were interesting. I loved  the relationship between Yeva and her sisters. They were very close and cared deeply about each other. However, nothing really surprised me in this story and I didn’t really fall in love with the characters. If you happen to love all things Beauty and the Beast then I would recommend Hunted to you.

RATING: 3 out of 5

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The Turnip Princess by Franz Xaver Von Schönwerth

Publication: February 24, 2015

Publisher: Penguin Classics

Source: Publisher

A rare discovery in the world of fairy tales - now for the first time in English. With this volume, the holy trinity of fairy tales - the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen - becomes a quartet. In the 1850s, Franz Xaver von Schönwerth traversed the forests, lowlands, and mountains of northern Bavaria to record fairy tales, gaining the admiration of even the Brothers Grimm. Most of Schönwerth's work was lost - until a few years ago, when thirty boxes of manu­scripts were uncovered in a German municipal archive. Now, for the first time, Schönwerth's lost fairy tales are available in English. Violent, dark, and full of action, and upending the relationship between damsels in distress and their dragon-slaying heroes, these more than seventy stories bring us closer than ever to the unadorned oral tradition in which fairy tales are rooted, revolutionizing our understanding of a hallowed genre. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

I have to admit, that I have pretty much always enjoyed a good fairy tale or two. And when I had the opportunity to read The Turnip Princess I was intrigued.

Franz Von Schonwerth stories are local stories...passed down or given to him orally. There is no ‘Once upon a time’ in this book. The stories are unique, dark, and entertaining. Morals in them could be debatable, but there are definitely surprises and twists that pop up in the various plots. The book is broken into five parts or categories; ranging from magic and romance, to otherworldly creatures, legends, and everything in between. No matter what you poison(preference) is, there is pretty much something for everyone.

One of the things I liked was in some of the stories I read, the women were not weak and helpless damsels in distress. They could be strong and fierce. Not something I would see much of in other fairy tales.

These are German stories originally and then translated, so the language/way it was written was a little different than I had anticipated, but overall The Turnip Princess was a very interesting read. There wasn’t much censorship in the stories I read, so if you are looking for light fairy tales without roughness and gore then this is not for you. But if you like fairy tales with a bit of an edge to them, then you would want to check this out.

RATING: 3 out of 5.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

FRANZ XAVER VON SCHÖNWERTH (1810-1886) was born in Amberg, Bavaria. He had a successful career in law and the Bavarian royal court, rising to the post of personal secretary to the Crown Prince Maximilian. In the 1850s he began to explore the culture of the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria, recording his observations and the stories of the people he interviewed. Eventually he devoted himself full-time to his research and, between 1857 and 1859, published From the Upper Palatinate: Customs and Legends, cataloging the customs and folktales of his homeland in unprecedented detail. This work contained only a fraction of his total research, the rest of which was eventually discovered in an archive, forming an important addition to the canon of classic fairy tales.

ABOUT THE EDITORS:

ERIKA EICHENSEER discovered 500 previously unknown fairy tales of Franz Xaver von Schönwerth in the municipal archive of Regensburg, Bavaria, in 2009. In 2010 she published a selection entitled Prinz Rosszwifl [Prince Dung Beetle]. She began her career as a teacher, then worked in the theater for the cultural department of the regional government of East Bavaria. An expert on fairy tales and on puppet theater, she has written numerous books on folk art and customs and has appeared on television, produced radio programs, and performed all over Bavaria as a storyteller. She is co-founder and director of the Schönwerth Society and initiator of the Schönwerth Fairytale Path in Sinzing, near Regensburg, and she wrote the libretto for a musical based on Schönwerth’s “The Flying Chest.” She has been awarded many honors for her services to Bavarian culture.

MARIA TATAR chairs the program in folklore and mythology at Harvard. She is the author of many acclaimed books on folklore and fairytales, as well as the editor and translator of The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen,The Annotated Brothers Grimm, The Classic Fairy Tales: A Norton Critical Edition, and The Grimm Reader. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR:

ENGELBERT SÜSS is a sculptor, glass-artist, and illustrator who was born in 1949 in eastern Bavaria. He created the bronze statue “King of Dwarfs” for the Schönwerth Fairytale Path in Sinzing, Bavaria.

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Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson

Synopsis:

The Bluebeard fairy tale retold. . . .

When seventeen-year-old Sophia Petheram’s beloved father dies, she receives an unexpected letter. An invitation—on fine ivory paper, in bold black handwriting—from the mysterious Monsieur Bernard de Cressac, her godfather. With no money and fewer options, Sophie accepts, leaving her humble childhood home for the astonishingly lavish Wyndriven Abbey, in the heart of Mississippi.

Sophie has always longed for a comfortable life, and she finds herself both attracted to and shocked by the charm and easy manners of her overgenerous guardian. But as she begins to piece together the mystery of his past, it’s as if, thread by thread, a silken net is tightening around her. And as she gathers stories and catches whispers of his former wives—all with hair as red as her own—in the forgotten corners of the abbey, Sophie knows she’s trapped in the passion and danger of de Cressac’s intoxicating world.

Glowing strands of romance, mystery, and suspense are woven into this breathtaking debut—a thrilling retelling of the “Bluebeard” fairy tale.

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I have to admit that I went into this story not knowing very much about the fairy tale of Bluebeard. Except that he was a mean, creepy, and a pirate. Who doesn’t love pirates? I was sold. 

After the death of Sophie’s father, she receives a letter from her ‘godfather’ Bernard de Cressac; requesting that she come and live with him at his home. I was a little surprised that since Sophie had other siblings, he only requested her.

She was too enamored with him and all of the gifts and trinkets she was given by him. 

There were times where I wanted to tell Sophie to get the heck out of there and run as far as her legs would take her. 

When she does try to leave however, her efforts appear futile. And de Cressac creates even more boundaries for her. All too quickly her seemingly wonderful home starts to feel more and more like a prison. 

What I liked:

Bernard de Cressac was such an interesting character. He could be sweet and charming one moment, then angry and evil the next. He is a fun villain to read about.

What I did not:

I thought that there could have been more suspense and the pacing of the story was a little too slow for me. It seemed to take a while for something really attention grabbing to happen. 

Final thoughts:

Strands of Bronze and Gold is an intriguing story with a nice Gothic feel to it. Even though it was slow going at first for me, the story was in no way boring. It was a fun and delightfully creepy tale. Fans of dark historical fiction stories /fairy tales might be interested in this one.

Rating: 3 ½ out of 5.

** I received this book from Random House / Knopf Books for Young Readers in exchange for nothing, but my honest review. Thank you!** 

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