Review with Giveaway: The Grimm Chronicles Vol. 1

Title: The Grimm Chronicles Vol. 1
Authors: Isabella Fontaine, Ken Brosky
Series: The Grimm Chronicles (Episodes 1-3: Prince Charming Must Die!, Happily Never After, Revenge of the Castle Cats)

Summary: 200 years ago, the Brothers Grimm unleashed their stories upon the world. Literally. Now the characters of the Grimms’ stories walk among us. With every day that passes, they grow more evil. They are the Corrupted, and only a hero can stop them.

For 18-year-old Alice Goodenough, that means taking precious time off from her summer vacation. In addition to volunteering at the local library, Alice must stop the Corrupted who are now actively hunting her down. With the help of her magic pen and her trusty rabbit friend, the world has suddenly gotten a lot more complex. The Corrupted are everywhere, and only Alice can see them for what they truly are.

Additional features for this special edition include an introduction, two special “Lost Diaries,” a behind-the-scenes interview, and a collection of original Grimms’ Fairy Tales.

The Grimm Chronicles is intended for Young Adults aged 13 and up. The goal is to provide Young Adult readers with a strong, charismatic young woman in the role of the hero and provide readers with a positive protagonist who uses her brain to overcome obstacles life throws in her way.

My Thoughts: I’ve always loved my fairy tales. It’s something I’ve seen intensified somewhat recently. I can’t help but wonder whether ABC’s Once Upon a Time and NBC’s Grimm have something to do with it. Both are fantastic – and amazingly different – shows centered on fairy tales. Anywho … I signed up for this tour because, well, again, I love fairy tales. This sounded intriguing, and I’ve found that I’ve enjoyed many of the recent fairy tale retellings.

The Grimm Chronicles Vol. 1 by Isabella Fontaine and Ken Brosky surpassed my expectations. The stories are unique but familiar – thanks to the grounding in the tales created by the Grimm brothers. Alice (is her name the Wonderland girl’s name on purpose? I know that’s not a Grimm story, but I still had to wonder …) is mostly very likable. I say mostly, because she occasionally gets on my nerves – saying “Gawd!” When most people would say “God!” The “gawd” thing got very annoying very quickly. If we’re trying to avoid using “God” for whatever reason, can we find something that’s different enough to not pretty much sound the same? “Gosh” is the first one that comes to mind … Other annoying habits? Focusing way too much on her looks – and being slightly vain at times. But, I suppose, that’s somewhat normal for an average (even though I’m not so sure she can be considered average) 18-year-old girl. There were a couple of specific things that I didn’t like, but these were recurring, thus more worth mentioning. Despite these things, she’s a great character. I liked her very much.

Now, since I’ve mentioned a few things I didn’t like about Alice, I’m just going to stop here and tell you my absolute biggest beef with this book. It needs a good read-through by an experienced copy editor. There are a bit too many things that need to be cleaned up and/or fixed. Given that these episodes were originally published in 2012, I think it’s safe to expect they be better edited. Fortunately, I can’t think of any big-time, major problems. Just a lot of little – and quite annoying – things. BUT, I loved the imaginative nature of these stories, the characters, and how everything came together enough to forgive the book its imperfections. While annoying, I wouldn’t call them distracting. These issues aside, the book is written well enough that I found myself easily moving past these problem areas.

This particular volume is jam-packed with stuff, as listed above. I loved the “Lost Diaries” and the original Grimms’ stories. Each one is pertinent to some part of the episodes in this book, and being able to read them was really neat. It made the use of the characters from these tales just that much more awesome.

Seriously, I could gush about this book forever. I really could! I’m excited to say that I’ll be reviewing the next volume later on in this blog tour. I cannot wait, as this one was fantastic!

Source: Received an ebook as part of a blog tour hosted by I Am A Reader Not A Writer. (Click the button below for more tour stops.)

Read It: Get your own copy HERE. (This is a Book Depository link, and purchase through this link will result in my receiving a small commission at no cost to you. Your support is appreciated!)

About the Authors: Ken Brosky received his MFA in fiction writing from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He also teaches English at Madison College. This is his first Young Adult series.

Isabella Fontaine owns a farm in Wisconsin and enjoys reading weird books like House of Leaves. This is her first Young Adult series.

Web site | Facebook

Giveaway: 5 Kindle ebook copies of The Grimm Chronicles Volume 1

Ends 3/15/13
a Rafflecopter giveaway

~*~

FTC Disclosure: All items reviewed were either obtained by me for my own enjoyment or sent (from the author, publisher, publicist, via tour sites, etc.) in exchange for an honest review. I receive no monetary compensation for my posts. All opinions expressed are my own. Any exceptions to this are clearly noted in the appropriate posts.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.