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prationality's review
4.0
This trio of fiery fairy tale re-tellings are by DiPasqua alone, though her influence is Perrault's fairy tales and the Sun King (Louis XIV) of France's court. His very decadent, very conniving and utterly ruthless court. There are Musketeers! That alone wins it a thumbs up from me.
Mild warnings for language--actually its not a mild warning at all. Not a language person at all, but I had no idea that half of the words (still used in today's modern times) were also used way back when (the late-ish 17th century) in France.
"Sleeping Beau"
Poor poor Adrien--he gets completely ravished by a beauty and when he wakes up she's disappeared. But oh! He finds her again! And she is carrying a lot of baggage. Of the three I think this one was the best, in both terms of characterization and development. Communication is the paramount lesson (of all three quite frankly), but I think Adrien and Catherine learned this best, with both coming clean very early on in the story. I wasn't really pleased with Catherine's other suitor, he proved himself to be the lowest sort of man and Adrien's half-sister Charlotte had some serious mental problems.
"Little Red Writing"
Mon dieu but who knew Musketeers were so...dashing? And secretive. And oh. He's not really approaching this in the most gentlemanly manner is he? That said...I think we can forgive him eh? Nicolas is on a mission from his King and he does has the best of intentions at heart. Mostly. Well, he sort of started out righteously upset about the whole Leduc thing and sort of mellowed by the end. I'm not entirely convinced he understood Anne's reasons for being Leduc. And if I had to be completely truthful Anne seemed made of sterner stuff then he was. The chemistry between them was significant and it made me enjoy the story more--plus made me forget about nagging little things like, what happens next.
"Bewitching in Boots"
This was definitely the story that amused me the most. Elisabeth was always about two words away from smacking Tristan upside his head--for some reason or another--and Tristan was ready to strangle her. Quite often. Tristan made a very brief appearance at the end of "Little Red Writing" as Nicolas' boss, but this is set some months later, after Tristan is injured. And forced to retire to the country to brood and dither and be Mr. Crankypants where the King didn't have to listen to him. Elisabeth, in lust for Tristan for years finally managed to use her considerable influence with her father, the King, to something beneficial to her. Unfortunately for her Tristan is rather sick of the Sun King's Court politics. Even when they were getting hot and heavy it was an amusing time because despite Tristan's...bedroom tricks, Elisabeth is more than a match for him. The old blight spot was we're told how influential Elisabeth is with his Majesty--his favorite daughter--but that didn't always seem the case.
Overall this collection was a fun diverting read. And it had musketeers, I'm sorry didn't I make that clear? It was interesting seeing a book full of women who were, by in large, sexually liberated in a historical setting. I'm much more used to reading about historical books where women were more afraid to show their sexual bent. I liked how DiPasqua used the fairy tales as unique plot devices, but didn't batter the theme to death. Elisabeth had to drool-worthy boots and well I think you see where that was going don't you?
Her second collection, The Princess in his Bed, looks to be equally charming and is due out in November, featuring erotically charged romance novellas with "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Ugly Duckling," and "The Princess and the Pea." as the themes.
Mild warnings for language--actually its not a mild warning at all. Not a language person at all, but I had no idea that half of the words (still used in today's modern times) were also used way back when (the late-ish 17th century) in France.
"Sleeping Beau"
Poor poor Adrien--he gets completely ravished by a beauty and when he wakes up she's disappeared. But oh! He finds her again! And she is carrying a lot of baggage. Of the three I think this one was the best, in both terms of characterization and development. Communication is the paramount lesson (of all three quite frankly), but I think Adrien and Catherine learned this best, with both coming clean very early on in the story. I wasn't really pleased with Catherine's other suitor, he proved himself to be the lowest sort of man and Adrien's half-sister Charlotte had some serious mental problems.
"Little Red Writing"
Mon dieu but who knew Musketeers were so...dashing? And secretive. And oh. He's not really approaching this in the most gentlemanly manner is he? That said...I think we can forgive him eh? Nicolas is on a mission from his King and he does has the best of intentions at heart. Mostly. Well, he sort of started out righteously upset about the whole Leduc thing and sort of mellowed by the end. I'm not entirely convinced he understood Anne's reasons for being Leduc. And if I had to be completely truthful Anne seemed made of sterner stuff then he was. The chemistry between them was significant and it made me enjoy the story more--plus made me forget about nagging little things like, what happens next.
"Bewitching in Boots"
This was definitely the story that amused me the most. Elisabeth was always about two words away from smacking Tristan upside his head--for some reason or another--and Tristan was ready to strangle her. Quite often. Tristan made a very brief appearance at the end of "Little Red Writing" as Nicolas' boss, but this is set some months later, after Tristan is injured. And forced to retire to the country to brood and dither and be Mr. Crankypants where the King didn't have to listen to him. Elisabeth, in lust for Tristan for years finally managed to use her considerable influence with her father, the King, to something beneficial to her. Unfortunately for her Tristan is rather sick of the Sun King's Court politics. Even when they were getting hot and heavy it was an amusing time because despite Tristan's...bedroom tricks, Elisabeth is more than a match for him. The old blight spot was we're told how influential Elisabeth is with his Majesty--his favorite daughter--but that didn't always seem the case.
Overall this collection was a fun diverting read. And it had musketeers, I'm sorry didn't I make that clear? It was interesting seeing a book full of women who were, by in large, sexually liberated in a historical setting. I'm much more used to reading about historical books where women were more afraid to show their sexual bent. I liked how DiPasqua used the fairy tales as unique plot devices, but didn't batter the theme to death. Elisabeth had to drool-worthy boots and well I think you see where that was going don't you?
Her second collection, The Princess in his Bed, looks to be equally charming and is due out in November, featuring erotically charged romance novellas with "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Ugly Duckling," and "The Princess and the Pea." as the themes.
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