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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
I liked this installment almost as much as the first. Hines did a good job incorporating all the aspects of the original Little Mermaid tale into this cleverly retold and expanded tale. I look forward to reading more from him.
Jim C. Hines does a great job with retellings. He twisted the tale of the little mermaid into such an amazing story. There were so many twists and turns in this book. At some points I had no idea who to trust and who to believe. I love it when books make me feel this way. I can't wait to read the next two in this series and see how other fairy tales are retold and twisted.
Once I was able to settle into this book (it took about 1/3 of the way into it), I found I enjoyed it more than the previous one. It gives you more of the background of the "Sleeping Beauty" character and while things don't always work out "Happily Ever After", it's also nice to see the heroes not just win automatically and to have consequences to their choices.
It’s so good to see an amazing spin on how The Little Mermaid actually was compared to the Disney version. I love these three girls and Queen Bea.
I really loved this book this series only gets better the more I read of it. I still really love the characters they are all so well written I love the relationships between the characters romantic and friendship and more. I like how the characters have been developed more for this book like finding out more about both Talia and Snow. I really loved the plot there was never a dull moment once it started it never really stopped. I liked the different take on the little mermaid it was so very different than any other I have ever read. So overall I loved this book and will continue the series at some point.
Excellent follow up to the step-sister scheme. This is one of my favorites from the quartet.
While the princess tales never grab me as quickly as Hines' Libriomancer novels, they're wonderful reads. These are the princesses I would want my kids to emulate (if ever I had any).
The second installment in the Princess series wasn’t quite what I expected. For some reason, I went through all of the book just waiting for Danielle, Snow and Talia to find Lirea, fix her madness, and welcome her into their princess club, which isn’t the case. Lirea (an anagram of “Ariel” as another GoodReads reviewer points out) serves as the crazy mermaid. Her grandmother cast a spell so that she could be human and win the love of her prince; instead, he used her and threw her away, so she stabbed him with a magic knife. He dies, and she goes crazy, swearing revenge on humans. She’s able to transition between fins and legs, albeit painfully, and hears voices in her head, questioning her decisions and telling her she’s worthless. She rallies the merpeople and swears revenge on the prince’s kingdom.
Our story begins with Queen Beatrice and the three princesses on a sea voyage. Lirea attacks their ship and stabs the Queen with her magic knife, not quite killing her, but stealing her soul. The princesses enlist the help of Lannadae, Lirea’s younger sister, and grandmother, Morveren, to find Lirea and steal the knife in order to save the Queen. We are also introduced to Hephyra, a dryad whose tree was cut down and made into the Queen’s ship as a punishment, so she is both the captain AND the ship itself. Hephyra was aggressive and occasionally combative, but I liked her character and giggled when they were talking about ship repairs and how such-and-such part of the ship would “grow back” within a day or two.
The pacing for MM was slow, and I set it down and read other things numerous times before finishing. The journey wasn’t as interesting as The Stepsister Scheme, and the characters didn’t read as fresh after one book. Danielle misses her husband and son and still can’t protect herself in any way, Snow learns new ways of doing magic and flirts with any male that moves, and Talia continues to kick butt and use cool weapons. Hines focused heavily on Talia and her feelings, which I assume he will continue to explore in the other two books in the series. I won’t spoil it, but I will say it feels a little forced, as if because he was writing a lady-centric series, he had to do something radical, and this was it.
3 stars. I enjoyed the book and the setting, and I’ll probably check out the rest of the series.
Our story begins with Queen Beatrice and the three princesses on a sea voyage. Lirea attacks their ship and stabs the Queen with her magic knife, not quite killing her, but stealing her soul. The princesses enlist the help of Lannadae, Lirea’s younger sister, and grandmother, Morveren, to find Lirea and steal the knife in order to save the Queen. We are also introduced to Hephyra, a dryad whose tree was cut down and made into the Queen’s ship as a punishment, so she is both the captain AND the ship itself. Hephyra was aggressive and occasionally combative, but I liked her character and giggled when they were talking about ship repairs and how such-and-such part of the ship would “grow back” within a day or two.
The pacing for MM was slow, and I set it down and read other things numerous times before finishing. The journey wasn’t as interesting as The Stepsister Scheme, and the characters didn’t read as fresh after one book. Danielle misses her husband and son and still can’t protect herself in any way, Snow learns new ways of doing magic and flirts with any male that moves, and Talia continues to kick butt and use cool weapons. Hines focused heavily on Talia and her feelings, which I assume he will continue to explore in the other two books in the series. I won’t spoil it, but I will say it feels a little forced, as if because he was writing a lady-centric series, he had to do something radical, and this was it.
3 stars. I enjoyed the book and the setting, and I’ll probably check out the rest of the series.
What if fairytale princesses didn't exactly live happily ever after? That's partly what informs Jim C. Hines' The Mermaid's Madness.
Danielle, the former Cinderella and now princess of Lorindar, accompanies her mother-in-law Queen Beatrice, Snow White, and no-longer-sleeping beauty Talia to the annual gathering of undine--merfolk to the uninitiated. But instead of the usual gift exchange, they encounter Lirea, queen of the undine tribe of Ilowkira, who is a mermaid on a mission: to unite all the undine tribes under her rule and hold sway over all the seas and the lands that border on them. Lirea isn't like the other undine; she fell in love with a human prince and begged her sorceress grandmother Morveren to give her legs so she could walk upon the land. But Morveren had another agenda in mind...
I enjoyed this book. I had a little trouble with it, though, until I realized that I'd accidentally picked up not the first but the second book in the series (there are four in total, I think, though I could be wrong--I found four through the library). Fairytales have been reimagined by several authors recently, but I think Hines does an absolutely outstanding job of it here. His princesses are seriously kick-ass; Talia owes more to Xena than Walt Disney, especially. I'm definitely going to read the rest in the series.
Danielle, the former Cinderella and now princess of Lorindar, accompanies her mother-in-law Queen Beatrice, Snow White, and no-longer-sleeping beauty Talia to the annual gathering of undine--merfolk to the uninitiated. But instead of the usual gift exchange, they encounter Lirea, queen of the undine tribe of Ilowkira, who is a mermaid on a mission: to unite all the undine tribes under her rule and hold sway over all the seas and the lands that border on them. Lirea isn't like the other undine; she fell in love with a human prince and begged her sorceress grandmother Morveren to give her legs so she could walk upon the land. But Morveren had another agenda in mind...
I enjoyed this book. I had a little trouble with it, though, until I realized that I'd accidentally picked up not the first but the second book in the series (there are four in total, I think, though I could be wrong--I found four through the library). Fairytales have been reimagined by several authors recently, but I think Hines does an absolutely outstanding job of it here. His princesses are seriously kick-ass; Talia owes more to Xena than Walt Disney, especially. I'm definitely going to read the rest in the series.
After the first book, I knew I could expect high quality when it comes to characters and plot. But what I got was even better. Plot was complex and the plot twists unexpected. I really enjoyed the story from the moment I started, till the very last page. Can't wait to read more!