Nancy Butcher

This is a nice but dark version of Snow White. Beauty tries to make herself ugly to keep the affection of her mother. When she is sent off to school (set up by her mother with an evil plot) she learns about herself and helps her classmates survive and defy her mother.

This trilogy started out very promising with the first book. It had good story development and exceptionally good character development.

It was quite readable, and I enjoyed it. However, the third book in the series was such an unbelievably poor conclusion to such a promising start, that you should avoid disappointment and not even start this book.

Clever take on the "who's the fairest of them all" Snow White fairytale. Queen Veda is so obsessed with being the fairest that she sends all the young women in her kingdom away to a special academy ( including her own daughter) where they are supposedly being educated and brought up to be proper ladies. But the reality is far different, and Princess Ana, who has always thought of herself as plain and ugly anyway, notices that the girls are nor "taught" anything and that their handsome tutor show more appears to be feeding the girls some sort of drug that eventually robs them of their wits and their beauty. When Ana confronts her mother, the horrible truth is revealed. show less

A very interesting take on the Snow White tale where the protagonist is more proactive in her life- and in the world. a fan of most fairy tales in their purest of forms I enjoy the darker takes on them as opposed to the fluffy, light Disney versions of things- though I admit they hold their place (and yes, I will admit that Disney's Snow White was my favorite move when I was little). This doesn’t fail to be dark though appropriately so for a young adult audience. Fast-paced and emotionally show more stimulating you learn to care about the protagonist Ana quite easily and sympathize with her when she discovers what is really going on with her family. Definitely worth a read for anyone who enjoys fairy tales that aren't all sunshine, rainbows- and cute little talking animals. show less