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A review by cendi
Stray by Elissa Sussman
4.0
Reviewed By: Paperback Princesses
Stray is a straight up fairy tale. It’s a cross between The Handmaiden’s Tale and Wicked, and it felt like Once Upon A Time might have had some influence as well. In this book, Princess Aislynn is a student who is having difficulty controlling her magic, which all women have. The men make the women believe their magic is a curse, and use it against them in their married lives. Since Aislynn cannot gain control of it, she’s stripped of her princess title and sent to another school to become the fairy godmother to the matriarch princess Linnea. She still cannot grasp her magical abilities, and makes mistakes in her fairy godmother classes, but she sees some similarities between herself and Linnea. Aislynn realizes that her own fairy godmother when she was a princess may have been breaking some rules to cover for Aislynn’s magical mishaps, and discovers that magic may not be as bad as it’s made out to be.
Stray felt a bit underdeveloped, relying heavily on the synopsis to grab readers for the whole series. It moved slowly for majority of the book, but had enough to keep me interested. Its a relaxing read. Most of this book felt like setup for the sequels. It did take some turns I didn’t expect, and that was a good thing.
I probably won’t read this one again, but I might read the sequels.
Stray is a straight up fairy tale. It’s a cross between The Handmaiden’s Tale and Wicked, and it felt like Once Upon A Time might have had some influence as well. In this book, Princess Aislynn is a student who is having difficulty controlling her magic, which all women have. The men make the women believe their magic is a curse, and use it against them in their married lives. Since Aislynn cannot gain control of it, she’s stripped of her princess title and sent to another school to become the fairy godmother to the matriarch princess Linnea. She still cannot grasp her magical abilities, and makes mistakes in her fairy godmother classes, but she sees some similarities between herself and Linnea. Aislynn realizes that her own fairy godmother when she was a princess may have been breaking some rules to cover for Aislynn’s magical mishaps, and discovers that magic may not be as bad as it’s made out to be.
Stray felt a bit underdeveloped, relying heavily on the synopsis to grab readers for the whole series. It moved slowly for majority of the book, but had enough to keep me interested. Its a relaxing read. Most of this book felt like setup for the sequels. It did take some turns I didn’t expect, and that was a good thing.
I probably won’t read this one again, but I might read the sequels.