Sarah Hines Stephens

This is the fourth book in the series. It can be tricky to tell with this series, but it does have a little 4 on the spine. It does not have an interior page where it lists all the previous books in order. (Though this is an ILL library book, so it's _possible_ that page fell out. It doesn't seem like it.)This one is all about Sleeping Beauty, lest you think it's actually about Beauty and the Beast. Definitely playing with the idea, and trying to confuse. Both stories even involve show more roses.Anyhow, Briar Rose is all like 'I have all these fairy gifts, and it sucks.' 'Everyone thinks I'm beautiful and perfect, and it sucks.' 'They don't like me for me, they like me because of my fairy gifts.' So she attempts to be less than perfect. She messes up her hair. She eats messily. She snorts when she laughs. But everyone just starts copying her, because she's a trendsetter.Meanwhile there's exams to be studying for. And a masquerade to go to. So she gets to dress up like a beast.She doesn't do well on her exams, because all this time she was trying not to be perfect, she wasn't studying for them. And that part I found a little unrealistic. Because when you're smart, when you've been doing your homework all the time up to that point, then studying for exams is redundant. She should've done just fine on them. Maybe not A , but certainly an A. But all she manages to do is pass. I think her fairy gift of intelligence is crap!But at least this book didn't suck so badly as the last one. There's a new prince who isn't bad, but his clumsiness is annoying. Only a few more books to go! show less

With her feet bare (those glass slippers don't fit) and her second-hand gown splattered with mud (thanks, evil stepsisters), Ella's first day of Princess School is off to a lousy start. If she can only find her fairy godmother before the first class begins, Ella is sure she'll put things right. But her FG is off at a convention and Ella is on her own--she'll have to get through the first weeks of Princess School without any bobbity-boo. Ella is terrified--until she meets silly Snow, spunky show more Rapunzel, and beautiful, sheltered Rose. show less

I liked this better than I thought I would. I have a thing against princesses. But I love school stories.Main premise is that Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Rapunzel are all going to Princess School. They meet for the first time there. I'm not sure how old they are. Tweenage, I would guess. Their stories aren't quite the same as in the fairy tale. Cinderella is living with her evil stepmother, stepsisters, and ineffectual dad. Rapunzel, however, has escaped her tower with the show more encouragement (if not actual help) of a boy prince.When you're taking a fairy tale, messing with it, and turning it into a children's book, there's a real risk of being cutesy and funny to the point of being unfunny and uncute and just plain annoying. Martial arts moves in case you're attacked by a wolf on your way through the woods? I wasn't so keen on that bit. But then when a teacher explains that many frogs have acquired adaptive camouflage of spots in the shape of a crown on their head to fool unsuspecting princesses into thinking they're princes and therefore being nice to them.. well, that was pretty cool. And scientific! Yea, froggy evolution totally would do that!And I couldn't really hate any of the princesses, even if there was a lot of niceness and friendship and looking pretty in pretty dresses going on.What I disliked was that the princess school isn't a boarding school. There are some real-world American analogs that I would've preferred not be there. Hearthroom instead of homeroom. Trunks instead of lockers. I think an older style of school would've fit better in this fairy tale world.I will be reading the next one though, because this book ended with the tantalizing promise of a competition between the Princess School and the Grimm School, which is the school of witches. Games, along with school, is another weak point of mine! Curses! show less

I wasn't really engaged with this one. Not even on the level of being really, really annoyed by the message it was sending (as in Let Down Your Hair).Snow White's witch of a stepmother had sent her father out on the high seas to get rid of him. (Not sure why she'd do that. Wasn't she competing with Snow for his affections and attention?) In this book, he comes back. Shipwrecked or something. But he doesn't have his memory!So he becomes a gardener at the school while the girls try to help him show more get his memory back. Meanwhile the dwarves are all jealous that Snow's got her father back. And, seriously, people, Snow White is NOT THAT AWESOME, you totally don't have to be JEALOUS or AFRAID OF LOSING HER. Stop treating her like a freaking object.Well, I'm going to spoil here, because I have a problem with the ending.The girls sneak into the castle to steal the magic mirror, and end up breaking it by accident. But that seems to do the trick, because King White gets his memory back. And then suddenly realizes he left a ship full of his crew out lost on the high seas. A) How are they still out there when he washed ashore? B) Why did he not think of that sooner? C) Did you not have a first officer? Seriously, they're grown men (presumably), so if they can't take care of themselves at this point, what makes you think you're going to help them? You don't even know where they are or if they're alive. And either they have a ship that works or they don't. Not a lot of middle ground there. They'll either find their way to shore or they're already dead.The worst bit is that he's abandoning his daughter, who's living with barely competent guardians, let's be frank, and is still under threat from the witch of a woman you apparently married for Snow's sake?Not that I can expect better from this series. There are no honorable, non-ineffectual men in here. A couple of decent princes, and everyone else male is relegated to servant status. Oh, except for Briar Rose's Dad who's treated more like half of the Overprotective Parents pair.Oh, meanwhile they're working on family trees. And suddenly we learn that Rapunzel knows who her parents and grandparents are, but they're 'gone' now. And she's totally into researching her 'foster mother' the witch's family tree. Which is full of witches and warlocks.Yea, no, Rapunzel's upbringing is still messed up, no matter how much of a spin you're trying to put on it retroactively. I'm not saying you can't write the witch as a sympathetic character and the good guy in the story. But not the way you guys did it in book 3.So, yea. Amnesia plot and stupid ending to get rid of the father you totally didn't have to drag into things in the first place gets you 2 stars from me. And I'd better end this review before I drop my rating even further. (I had started off giving it 3.) show less