Review: Snow Whyte and the Queen of Mayhem

Info:

Title: Snow Whyte and the Queen of Mayhem
Author: Melissa Lemon
Publisher: Cedar Fort Inc.
Publication Date: December 11, 2012

Blurb:

Stuck in her family's apple orchards, Kat's got plenty of work to do and only pesky Jeremy to help. But when Jeremy convinces her to run away, Kat will discover that nothing---and no one---in her life is quite what it seems. Wonderfully reimagined, this is the magical tale of Snow White as you've never read it before!

My Thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed this Snow White retelling. Melissa Lemon did an excellent job re-crafting a classic tale in a way that is both familiar and unique. Some of the elements of the original tale were present, such as an evil queen, a magic mirror and the seven dwarfs, while others, such as the poison apple, were absent. A few things were also tweaked, such as the nature of the magic mirror.

I enjoyed the characters immensely. Kat Whyte is extremely naive throughout the book, but she such a kind and good person. I really feel like she embodied the spirit of Snow White, while still being an interesting character. I also really liked the character of Jeremy Simkins. The dwarfs were also great. I loved how they were all a bit different than one another and I enjoyed their banter. My favourite of the dwarfs was poor, breakable Pokole. He was so sweet and I loved how much all the other dwarfs cared for him. The one character that gave me some trouble was Kat's uncle Barney. I had a lot a trouble reconciling the man he was with the man he became later in the book.

I really enjoyed the idea of using the magic mirror as the narrator. It's interesting to have a story told from the perspective of an all-seeing secondary character. And I loved that the magic mirror (or rather, the man inside it) was a character, which emotions, thoughts and opinions!

Overall, I found Snow Whyte and the Queen of Mayhem to be a very enjoyable retelling. I'm a big fan of fairy tales and I would recommend this retelling to any Snow White fan!

On the Cover:

I'm not crazy about the cover. It looks kind of 'old' somehow. I like the font though!

Rating: 4 Hearts

Source: Copy received in exchange for an honest review - via Netgalley

Find the Book: Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository

Find the Author: Goodreads | Website | Facebook

Don't Just Take My Word For It: Ren's Rambles | Nose in a Book | Magic of Reading

Megan Likes (New) Books (4) / Reading Through My Bookshelf (3)

Megan Likes (New) Books

Megan Likes (New) Books is a personalize weekly meme inspired by In My Mailbox, Stacking the Shelves and Book Haul where I show off the new books and bookish items I've received lately.

Books:

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry - Won in a giveaway from Books for Company and Harlequin Teen!
A Million Suns by Beth Revis - Won in a giveaway from Book Loving Mom!

Ebooks:

The Vampire's Daughter (Of Light & Darkness #1) by Shayne Leighton - Thanks Netgalley and Decadent Publishing
Snow Whyte and the Queen of Mayhem by Melissa Lemon - Thanks Netgalley and Cedar Fort
Broken by A. E. Rought - Thanks Netgalley and Strange Chemistry
A Job From Hell (Ancient Legends #1) by Jayde Scott - Amazon freebie
Darkness Falls (Darkness Falls #1) by Jessica Sorensen- Amazon freebie

*  *  *

Reading Through My Bookshelf

Last Weeks Status: 59
Incoming Books: 2
Books Completed: 1 (Across the Universe - review forthcoming)
Current Status: 60

Oh dear, my bookshelf is getting fuller instead of emptier! And it's only going to get worse, as I have a bunch of ebooks to review coming up PLUS I'm making an effort to complete at least one more 2012 challenge, which also includes a number of ebooks. But I'll keep working on reading more of my physical copies and I don't know of anything else coming in the mail!

What's Next (4)

 

What's Next is an awesome meme from Icey Books where I get to hear from you, the readers, about what I should read next. I have a few upcoming blog tours and book releases I'm taking part in before the end of the year, so all of these will be getting read shortly, but where should I start?

1. Shift by M. R. Merrick

Devastated by a terrible loss, Chase is trying to balance the life he’s been left with, a family he’s still getting to know, and power he never thought he’d have. He doesn’t understand why the Goddess has named him the Protector and granted him two gifts: the Mark, a tattoo that now covers his back, and the ring. But between getting interrogated by the Circle and psychic attacks from Riley, the Mark is the least of his concern. There’s a demon inside Rayna that’s fighting to be released, and it’s not her inner witch. It’s something else—a monster threatening to tear her apart.

As Chase struggles to control his magic, his enemies are closing in. Everyone has staked a claim on his ring, and destroying it may be his only chance to stop Riley. But Chase must decide if stopping him is worth risking the lives of everyone he cares about, or if protecting the ring will be enough to save his world.

2. Snow Whyte and the Queen of Mayhem by Melissa Lemon

Stuck in her family's apple orchards, Kat's got plenty of work to do and only pesky Jeremy to help. But when Jeremy convinces her to run away, Kat will discover that nothing---and no one---in her life is quite what it seems. Wonderfully reimagined, this is the magical tale of Snow White as you've never read it before!










3. 13 on Halloween by Laura A. H. Elliott

Roxie has the best night of her life until the popular kids decide they want to celebrate her birthday in a way Roxie never expects––in her attic, with a gift that’s out of this world, and a pact to never tell a living soul what happens next.

Twelve-year-old Roxie wants to be like Adrianne, the popular girl who gets everything she wants––a flock to prowl around the mall with; invitations to parties; and for Hayden, the cutest guy in the eighth grade to, you know, notice her. When Roxie invites all the eighth grade peacocks (code word : popular kids) to her first ever thirteenth birthday party on Halloween, they all come and give her a gift that’s literally out of this world. Roxie astral projects to Planet Popular where she becomes seventeen instantly and gets everything she’s always wanted, but nothing is as it seems. Being a high school peacock is complicated and Roxie will risk everything to be who she thinks she wants to be. Oh yeah, there’s Prom, doppelgangers, a mysterious map, and lots of bad peacocks too. 

4. Broken by A.E. Rought

Imagine a modern spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where a young couple’s undying love and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the destruction of them all.

A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry's boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetery and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.

When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she's intrigued despite herself. He's an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely... familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel's.

The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there's something very wrong with Alex Franks. And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks' estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows

So, what's your pick?