Marina Myles

Cinderella and the Ghost (The Cursed Princes Book 4) by Marina Myles is a fun book to read. I gave it four stars. It is about a young woman who inherits a French chateau from her father after years of abuse from her stepsisters & stepmother. In it she is fascinated by a portrait of Jean-Daniel Girard from three hundred years ago. She dreams about him. The chateau is also haunted by him.

"Before Jean-Daniel died a tragic death, he hadn't know much about ghosts. Now, unfortunately, he knew too much." He had only his dog Remy to keep him company in the chateau.

Ella had lived by the motto: "Don't let it show. Then no one will know." After her stepmother died she was left with her stepsisters who were named Hope & Charity. She thought their names would more appropriately have been Squalor & Misery.

After she first encountered Jean-Daniel, she thought: "How can I be afraid of a ghost with dimples?"

I received a complimentary copy from Kensington Books & NetGalley. That did not change my opinion for this review.… (more)

Read Original Review @ The Indigo Quill: http://theindigoquill.blogspot.com/2013/06/review-beauty-and-wolf-cursed-princes...

Here we have a more adult version of the beloved fairytale, Beauty and The Beast. Mix that with a touch of the traditional werewolf and you have a hero that you really hate to love. If you're a fan of the TV series Once Upon a Time like I am, you will be intrigued with Marina Myles' spin off of the tale. Just as they integrate old stories to have a more in depth plot, so has Miss Myles in Beauty and the Wolf.

I'll be honest, I was a little wary of this being another book about a werewolf, but it really wasn't too bad. Just like the vampire stories, I can only read one of these every once in a while because they have been so incredibly worn out. Lucky for me, the plot was enough to keep me going.

There were twists where I was entirely caught off guard and everything I believed up until that point was a lie. But it's okay, I survived it. And that just adds more meat to the story. The main characters were pretty well developed. Sometimes I felt that Isabella, the heroine, was slightly inconsistent, but Draven was such a well in-depth tortured soul that it made up for it enough. I thought it was a little odd that they claimed Isabella was "so beautiful" and had many prospects before Draven, yet no one had proposed to her. If this was written back in the 1800s, that seems slightly out of place.

Easy read. Good storyline. Steamy romance. Probably could use a little more work to be fully well-rounded, but it's definitely worth a read and I am looking forward to the next installment!… (more)

A few weeks ago, I was in a reading slump. I picked up and put down several different books that I just could not get into. Was it the book's fault? Probably not. After some advice from fellow readers I decided to pick a book from a genre that I haven't read in awhile. Because who doesn't love fairy-tale retelling? It turns out Cinderella and the Ghost was the perfect book to get me out of my reading slump.

I do want to begin by saying that though this book got me through, I didn't love it. There were a great many things to like about this book--Ella, a haunted portrait, a French chateau--but this book also had it's problems (at least for me).

Ella or Cinderella has lived a tumultuous life. Her father died when she was young, She had to take care of her evil stepmother, and her stepsisters were a joke. After her stepmother passed away, she learned that her father had left her a chateau in France. With the help of a close friend (who acts as her fairy godmother), Ella throws caution to the wind and moves to France. Once there, she's transfixed by a painting. A painting of a man that she swears she's met before. And this is where the mystery begins . . .

I definitely liked the mystery aspect of this book; it's what kept me turning pages. What I didn't quite like was not understanding if this was a reincarnation or time-travel book. It seemed like both at times. It actually confused me a bit. Though I liked it, I also thought the story line was predictable. I also liked the chemistry between the two main characters: Ella and Jean-Daniel. I don't want to give too much of the story away, because it will ruin the reading experience for anyone who hasn't read it yet. And if you haven't, this would be a great book to read to de-stress.

Read more at http://www.toreadornottoread.net/2015/03/review-cinderella-and-ghost.html#ESQClu...… (more)