Rate this book

Wickedly Charming (2011)

by Kristine Grayson(Favorite Author)

3.45 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1402248482 (ISBN13: 9781402248481)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Sourcebooks Casablanca

series

Fates

review 1: (Please note: I've added a few thoughts to the end of this review.)I really wanted to like this book. I've read this author's short stories (under the name Kristine Kathryn Rusch) and loved them. But the ending to this made me wonder if it was a longer story that had been trimmed. Overall, an okay read, but I've read much better from her.Maybe it'll work for you better than it worked for me. Here are my more detailed thoughts.The Good:* In spite of the half-dressed guy on the cover, this is a sweet romance (i.e. no bed scenes and just a couple of kissing scenes). It was a refreshing find. I think she handled the emotional aspects of starting over, especially while attempting to base the relationship on friendship, really well.* Charming. He's funny, shy, and a hero I can r... moreeally fall in love with. There's only one scene where I lost some sympathy for him, but it wasn't a fatal blow to his character.* Mellie's background. She starts out as very unlikeable. About halfway through, I agreed with Charming: she's amazing. Her biggest weakness is her insecurity, but I like how that was handled.* The fairy tale world of the Kingdoms is fairy-tale-ish in the same way Once Upon a Time is. Lots of Disney references and comments on how fairy tales and myths change over time. It works surprisingly well here.* In-depth coverage of what it's like in the publishing industry. Fairs, drafts, screenplays, book tours, even the ego of some writers, all of it came to life in this book and I loved every minute of it.The Not-so-Good:* It's obviously part of a series, and yet there's nothing to indicate that on the cover or front pages. Only two things directly told me it was part of a series (one indirectly but I put that in the next point), both of which could be missed by the casual reader. 1) More than one guy receives an in-depth description, thus indicating that there's going to be multiple heroes since heroes are typically the only handsome ones described in a romance. 2) On the very last page, under the author bio (which not everyone reads) is the statement that the next book in the series, Utterly Charming, is coming in Oct 2011. Seriously? That's it?* There's a major thread left untied at the end (which only makes sense in a series). I think a number of readers unaware of that might throw the book against the wall.* This book falls into the same nonsense other romance novels that greatly annoy me fall into. Except this was the worst one yet. The nonsense, in general, is this:Danger surrounds either the hero, the heroine, both, or someone they love. Lives are on the line. Everything is tense.And in the middle of all this? They hump.At best, this bit of nonsense makes me laugh. In this story, considering who was in danger and how all the fathers I've known would have reacted, I nearly stopped reading the book. I won't say any more than that, but I was NOT impressed.* While the publishing aspect of the story remained strong, the fantasy aspect was very anticlimactic. In fact, it turned out to be so incidental to the story that this could have easily been a contemporary romance. None of the magic in this book mattered. None. The only thing that came close was the act that took the magic from Snow White's stepmother. But it really wasn't crucial to the plot itself. It was just an interesting bit of backstory.I don't know. YMMV. Most of it is a fun ride, so if you love Once Upon a Time, you might like this.Update: Silly me. I hadn't noticed this was the seventh book in the series. It reads like the first, which doesn't impress me. When I looked at the synopses for the others, I became even less enthused. Maybe she does something with that major, untied thread in the next book. It focuses on Bluebeard (mentioned in this book), so who knows? I'm going to try starting from the beginning (Utterly Charming) and see if that works better for me.
review 2: It's rare for me to hate a book within the first chapter and I think this must be a record! If one is going to poach the characters and ideas of another writer, one needs to be quite good at creating a story beyond the characters. In this case, Grayson fails miserably. The story is simplistic, the characters are flat, and the writing is irritating (seriously, how many times does an author need to include [excessively I might add for the hubris is obviously taking over the writing of the book]all of these subtext of subtext asides). less

Download links for: Wickedly Charming

Advertising