Isabella Fontaine

Long ago, the Brother's Grimm set about writing their tales on magic paper with a special pen. The paper brought their stories alive- literally; the characters from each of the fairy tales began appearing in real life, destined to play out their stories over and over again. However, over time all of the characters became corrupted, evil and a menace to society. A hero emerged, a servant of the Grimm's realized the special pen holds the power to rid the Corrupted characters from Earth. Now, a show more new hero is needed. Alice is a high school student who has the most wonderful boyfriend that she can imagine, Edward. Edward is handsome, sophisticated, mature, rich and has parents that never seem to be around. With the end of the school year coming, Alice only has to pass her fencing final and has a volunteer position at the library coming up. In the library basement, she finds an interesting pen in between the pages of The Grimm Fairytales and her adventure as the next hero begins. Too bad her first mission is to kill Prince Charming.

I love fairytale retellings and this series of twelve stories about the Grimm's characters coming to life grabbed me right in the beginning. I loved Alice's character, she absolutely loves books, is into the sport of fencing, and is intelligent. She also makes realistic decisions for a teenager; I was impressed with her thought process about her friendships, alcohol and sex. When Alice learns about being a hero, she takes it slow and takes everything in. The Briar Rabbit as the hero's guide is awesome, I have a feeling that he will be a favorite character of mine in the books to come. I enjoyed that there were some lesser known fairy tales thrown in here, too; it definitely peaked my interest. Though I figured out who Prince Charming was right off the bat, this is a pretty awesome young adult fairytale retelling with a great heroine. I will definitely be working my way through the rest of the episodes.

This book is free for Kindle on Amazon if you want to check it out. show less

Alice is becoming more secure in her position as the hero. This episode takes Alice, Briar Rabbit and her best friend Sam deep into the Grayle’s corporation. The Grayle’s are several of Snow White’s dwarves that are now prominent businessmen in society. In addition to banking and real estate, they have developed a phone app game, Castle Cats that everyone is going crazy for. In true Corrupted style, the Grayle’s have put some subliminal code into their game to sell some more gross show more candy bars, they’ve also snuck in some code for everyone playing the game to track, photograph and eventually kill Alice.
This was by far the most exciting episode by far. Alice, Briar and Seth go on a suspenseful espionage mission deep inside Grayle headquarters. This really showcased Alice’s intellect, strength and will. I was glad that Alice was able to find a friend to share her secret with; Seth seems like a character that will grow on me. Seth is smart and his interest in computer programming is definitely a skill Alice could use, I also see some relationship potential here, but nothing has happened yet. I loved learning about the fairytale Hans the Hedgehog-another one I had no idea about. I also though the ending was awesome, it was something different and showed a different side to the Corrupted and Alice. I can’t wait for more!

This book was received for free in return for an honest review. show less

I loved reading about Alice's adventures with Rapunzel and the 12 dancing princesses. I really like Briar although I felt he took a bit of a backseat in this book. I hope to see him more in the rest of the books.

Take a "hero" with a 5 ft rabbit sidekick, add in a horse-sized goose that lays eggs with dragons in it. Mix it all together and this book is what you get. This series is addicting because you never know what to expect except the unexpected. Looking forward to the next book in the series.