eBook Review: The Enchantress Returns (The Land of Stories #2) by Chris Colfer

Title: The Enchantress Returns
Author: Chris Colfer
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Edition: I/eBook English Version
Published: August 2013
Page: 517
ISBN: 978-0-316-25237-9
Genre: Children, Young-Adult Fiction, Adventure, Fairy Tale Retelling

Synopsis: After decades of hiding, the evil Enchantress who cursed Sleeping Beauty is back with a vengeance.
Alex and Conner Bailey have not been back to the magical Land of Stories since their adventures in The Wishing Spell ended. But one night, they learn the famed Enchantress has kidnapped their mother! Against the will of their grandmother, the twins must find their own way into the Land of Stories to rescue their mother and save the fairy tale world from greatest threat it's ever faced.

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eBook Review: Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

Synopsis: When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years for Saren's refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment.

As food runs low and the days go from boiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them fed and comfortable.

But the arrival outside the tower of Saren's two suitors—one welcome, and the other decidedly less so—brings both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows.

With Shannon Hale's lyrical language, this forgotten but classic fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm is reimagined and reset on the central Asian steppes; it is a completely unique retelling filled with adventure and romance, drama and disguise.

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eBook Review: My Name is Rapunzel by K.C. Hilton

Synopsis:  My tale has been told again and again, and I’ve heard each one. Except for my hair, I barely recognize the pitiful renditions. Muddled versions, crafted to entertain laughing children…but the children wouldn’t have laughed if they’d known the real story. It wasn't their fault. They didn't know the truth. Nobody did. My name is Rapunzel. I will tell you my story. I will tell you the truth.

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It is another story about Rapunzel. Rapunzel in this book is described as a teenager, she was 16 years old, and she was fall in love with a guy named Henry. At first, she expected that Henry will be her only love of her life. She wanted to marry him, and he wanted to propose her to be his wife. Their charming love story was not that easy to be true. The day when Henry proposed Rapunzel, something horrible happened. There was a weird storm approaching then Henry was gone. And something left behind after the storm was only the Witch with a suspicious Dragon standing in front of Rapunzel.

eBook Review: Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

Synopsis:

Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. They had been best friends since they were six, spending hot Minneapolis summers and cold Minneapolis winters together, dreaming of Hogwarts and Oz, superheroes and baseball. Now that they were eleven, it was weird for a boy and a girl to be best friends. But they couldn't help it - Hazel and Jack fit, in that way you only read about in books. And they didn't fit anywhere else.

And then, one day, it was over. Jack just stopped talking to Hazel. And while her mom tried to tell her that this sometimes happens to boys and girls at this age, Hazel had read enough stories to know that it's never that simple. And it turns out, she was right. Jack's heart had been frozen, and he was taken into the woods by a woman dressed in white to live in a palace made of ice. Now, it's up to Hazel to venture into the woods after him. Hazel finds, however, that these woods are nothing like what she's read about, and the Jack that Hazel went in to save isn't the same Jack that will emerge. Or even the same Hazel.

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," Breadcrumbs is a story of the struggle to hold on, and the things we leave behind.

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eBook Review: Entwined by Heather Dixon

Sinopsis:

Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her . . . beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing . . . it's taken away. All of it.

The Keeper understands. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an invitation.

Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest.

But there is a cost.

The Keeper likes to keep things.

Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.

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eBook Review: Splintered by A.G. Howard

Sinopsis:

This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

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Book Review: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire

Judul: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

Judul Asli: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

Pengarang: Gregory Maguire

Penerbit: Atria

Cetakan: I/April 2013

Penerjemah: Khairi Rumantati

Tebal: 442hlm

ISBN: 978-979-024-500-6

Genre: Novel (young-adult)

Sinopsis: 
“Letakkan dua gadis di balik kegelapan, yaitu tempat mereka semestinya, dan biarkan cahaya menyirami gadis yang ketiga. Bunga tulip kami, Clara kami.”

Kita sering mendengar kisah Cinderella, gadis cantik yang dipaksa menjadi budak oleh ibu tirinya. Namun, bagaimana dengan sang kakak tiri, sepasang gadis buruk rupa yang terasing oleh ketenaran adik tiri mereka yang cantik? Takdir seperti apa bagi mereka yang tak tersentuh keindahan … dan apa kutukan yang mengiringi keelokan Cinderella?

Berlatar di Belanda pada abad ketujuh belas, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister adalah novel menarik yang merupakan penafsiran baru atas kisah Cinderella dengan tokoh-tokoh yang berbeda. Novel memikat ini bercerita tentang kecantikan, pengkhianatan, cinta, dan ilusi yang mengingatkan kita bahwa kebohongan pasti akan terungkap dan cinta bisa bersemi di tempat yang paling tak terduga.

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