I have to admit that I was not too excited to start this one as I make my way through the Twisted Tales series. Ariel isn't one of my favorite princesses and I'm not crazy about her story but I kept an open mind. This was also one of the longer books in the series too so you can understand my hesitation. I actually ended up really liking it, though!
Right off the bat, I have to say that so far this is tied as my favorite Twisted Tale book alongside Belle's story. I just love Belle so much and thought the twist was creative and fit her character and background. I'll admit that Mulan is not one of my favorite Disney Princesses. I've learned to like her more as an adult because of her strength and independence and feministic quality and love for family and desire to protect them, things that as an adult I value. But as a kid I just thought Mushu was funny and the story was pretty good. My childhood friend will passionately argue that Mulan should under no circumstances even be included as a Disney Princesses. She wasn't born a princess, she didn't marry a prince. It's really funny to get her going on that. But this book was really good! It's the first book in the series not written by Liz Braswell.
It's not often that I don't finish a book or won't promote a book I've read, even if it wasn't my absolute favorite there's usually something I liked about it. And I've never thrown a book away physically until this morning. Let me back up though to explain myself before you get the pitchforks out!
I am such a huge fan of historical pieces, especially about people who live in communities like the Vikings did. They're so ancient, they have so many legends that they're almost myths themselves now. I was weary about this one only because I have a love/hate relationship with YA novels. I love how they're written usually and the stories they tell, but I am not a fan at all of when they make the female character smitten, lovestruck, and hopeless for a guy, obsessive really. It's such a huge book turnoff for me. There was a little of that in Fable by this author but then Namesake (the second book in that series) was better about it. When I read this was her first debut novel I had no idea which way it would go.
This was a great addition to the villain series that fit perfectly into the overall story. I read the Cruella story before this, and as good as it was I feel it didn't fit as well. This had more to do with the story of the fairies and the Odd Sisters where Cruella did not. I really thought the explanation for Cruella's jade earrings that seemed to make her crazy would be answered in this book because on the cover Lady Tremaine is wearing the same jade earrings. In the book Jade earrings were never referenced, but she does wear a jade brooch that was said to be cursed pirate treasure when her husband bought it for her. I'm guessing it was a part of the same pirate treasure and if they do a Captain Hook villain book in the future we might finally have that mystery figured out. Those are just my theories.
Alex Apostol 