Melissa de la Cruz

HO HO HO...ly Cow. I can't believe I didn't DNF this one.

This modern-day, gender-swapped version of the classic has about as much charm as Alvin & the Chipmunks singing "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" -- on repeat.

NOTHING about this story makes sense:
- Our 29 year old female protagonist (Darcy Fitzwilliam) is continually hounded by friends and family for not being married. Um, hello! This is 2017, not 1950.
- Darcy is supposed to be a mega multimillionarie hedge fund manager, but acts show more like a total ditz. No one could reach that level of professional success at such a young age and be so much of a mess.
- Darcy's act of valor to aid the Bennett twins is baffling (as the Bennett twins' behavior is abhorrent)
- The book contains silly editing mistakes. For example, the text referrs to Darcy going shopping at Bloomingdales while she's back home in Ohio. There are no Bloomingdales in Ohio (which an editor should have caught).

I could go on, but I need some eggnog to recover from this mess.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

Emphatically booting this out the door. I will try all things Alcott. But this is an abomination.
The authors can’t keep track whether they are featuring Jo March or Louisa May. And several other offenses…

On the first page, they have Jo, at age 17, turning in her manuscript for Little Women. Excuse me? Jo doesn’t become a successful novelist till Jo’s Boys and Louisa May is 36 when Little Women is published.

The second large sin is eliminating Marmee and replacing her with Mama Abba. show more Why? Marmee is correct for both Jo and Louisa.

And somewhere in there Jo toys with the idea of having Laurie marry Beth in her writings.
Agh!!!
Yes, Beth does die, but these authors make so little of it, it’s hard to find.
And what of the great love between Jo and Professor Bhaer? Discarded.

This is simply a stupid stupid book.
But it did have me pulling out the originals again. show less

A prince comes to town looking for a bride. A barmaid with no interest in becoming a princess hopes to get the prince interested in one of her sisters. Unfortunately, her sisters have eyes for other people, and the prince only has eyes for her. A series of circumstances forces Aren (the barmaid) and Dietan (the prince) on an adventure to save the kingdom, stop some pretty monstrous creatures, and overthrow a mad king.

I enjoyed this a lot. The back and forth banter between Aren and Dietan was show more very good, and I enjoyed that we got alternate points of view. I also liked that things were wrapped up neatly and there wasn't a cliffhanger. As this is marketed as the "Curses and Crowns" series, I wasn't sure what to expect. While I enjoyed the book, I did think there was a lot of traveling and not enough action. The climax of the book seemed to be so rushed at the end. But I enjoyed the story, and I eagerly await the next installment in the series. show less

*4.5 stars*

July 3rd 2017
Read this book in a little over one day while I was camping! Full review to come.

July 4th 2017

Let's be real. We all know that the initial reason for me purchasing this book was based solely on my obsession with Hamilton.



I went into this book expecting something similar to the story that's told of Eliza and Alex's love in that musical, but I got something completely different. Something that can stand on it's own. Something fun and light, yet also endearing and show more encapsulating.

Creative liberties are obviously taken as not much is known about Alex and Eliza's love, and in the beginning I got a Pride and Prejudice sorta vibe from the way all the Schuyler sisters had to get ready for a ball. Enter Alexander Hamilton ("Enter me" he says in the parenthesis 😏). Things took off right from their first introduction, and I enjoyed watching them maneuver around each other. AND the pining! Oh the pining. I lived for it.

The only reason I didn't give this book the full five star treatment was because I wanted more of Alex and Eliza and seeing them as a couple. But if you're a fan of Hamilton, or just a fan of reading books from this era (with the obvious noting that it glosses over the historically accurate fact that the Schuyler family were notorious slave owners), then you would love this book, cheesy aspects and all. show less