Book Review: Thorny by Lelia Eye

Published: September 1st, 2014
Publisher: One Good Sonnet Publishing
Read from September 22nd to October 5th, 2014
Synopsis from Goodreads:

"You're nothing but an ugly old witch. I wish I could leave this flock and go back to hunting and being surrounded by pretty things and attended upon, as is my right. I hate the life of a shepherd."
"You would prefer, then, to be the wolf?" she asked, waving her hand about in the air. "Very well. You can have what you want . . . and your outward appearance shall reflect your inner heart. As you wished it to be, so it shall be."
****************************************************************
An Apt Punishment for the Boy Who Cried Wolf . . .
When a spoiled boy is forced to watch over a flock of sheep, he finds himself more interested in catching the eye of a girl with lovely ground-trailing tresses than he is in protecting his boring charges. But after he cries "wolf" twice, a determined fairy decides to teach him a lesson once and for all. She will give him what he desires, and perhaps he shall learn that some things are worth more than simply getting what he wants; some things are worth making sacrifices for.

Review:

I received this book from Story Cartel in exchange for a review.

Thorny is a Beauty and the Beast story with quite a few other fairy tales thrown in. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale, but I often feel like it can be really hit or miss with adaptations. It seems pretty easy of a story to just not work, and I can understand why. For that reason, I'm always really hesitant when I begin reading a Beauty and the Beast adaptation.

I'm really happy to say that Thorny was probably one of the best Beauty and the Beast retellings that I've ever read. I started off skeptical, but I really did fall in love with this story quickly. In many retellings, the beast character is so obnoxious that I just never seem to be able to like him. I didn't have that problem here. He's dislikable at first, but it never seems too unbearable, and by the end I really liked him. (Also, I realized very early on that the author was purposefully concealing his real name, and I liked that bit of the story.) I also enjoyed Elle's character. She wasn't annoyingly good, which is something I think happens a lot with the beauty character. She had flaws just like the beast, and I'm pretty sure they were actually about equal in that regard. I liked that bit.

Another part of the story I really enjoyed were the books and how reading tied in, and the invis (what they call the invisible servants of the castle) and fairies were a fun part of the story as well.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fairy tale retellings, especially retellings of Beauty and the Beast. This is also the first in a series, and I look forward to seeing how the story is continued in the second one. All of the Beauty and the Beast story seems to be wrapped up, and I wonder if it's going to continue on with another fairy tale, especially with all of the allusions to other stories in this first one. I'm excited to find out.

Life Post: Midterm Week Begins

Midterms weeks has officially started. Technically at least. In reality my first test isn't until tomorrow, and then I have either a test or a paper due every single day for the rest of the week. I'm finishing up my papers though, so I'm really starting to feel the stress of knowing I'll hand them in soon. I'm slightly less worried about the tests, which is a bit ironic, but it's easy for push them aside because, even though I have to study, it's not the same as working on the paper that's going to be my grade.

I'm mostly done studying and working on the papers for today though. I still want to edit one of the papers a bit, but I've mostly done everything else. I even got some non-school writing done today, and I think I'm going to write some more in a bit. That's nice considering how little I've been doing of that lately. By the look of things, that won't be happening for the rest of the week either.

Anyway, it's about dinner time, so I'm probably going to go eat something before I get back to homework and writing and all of that.

Supernatural Review: Season 3 Second Half

I can't believe it's been a month since my last Supernatural review. I actually finished watching season three a couple of weeks ago, but that was also around the time things started getting crazy thanks to midterms, which means it took a bit for me to get around to this review.

Anyway, I think this is going to be one of the reviews where I basically just go episode by episode starting with episode nine of the season. That episode is about a coven of witches, and I have to say that I enjoyed the episode. That was something that I don't think had really been in the earlier episodes, and the idea of one of them being a demon playing with the others was an interesting one.

The next episode involved getting stuck in dreams, and that episode had me really freaked out. In fact, I'd forgotten about it, and now I kind of wish I hadn't remembered. I'm really glad I'm writing this during the day at any rate because the idea of getting stuck in your dreams is a terrifying one for me.

The episode after that was about Sam living the same day over and over. I wasn't sure about this episode at first because I tend to hate any stories that involve reliving the same period of time over and over. Usually they feel really repetitive to me, and I get bored. I did feel a bit of the repetitiveness of it, but nothing was ever that boring. Things changed enough that I would say I liked the episode even if it wasn't my favorite. I definitely wasn't expecting it to be the trickster again, so that was a nice plot twist.

The episode where Henriksen shows up again and Sam and Dean get arrested might have been one of my favorites. I really enjoyed seeing Henriksen realize the truth and start working with them. The ending was also really sad, and we got the first glimpse of Lilith.

After that we get a kind of faux documentary with the same ghost hunter guys we've seen before. This one was really light compared to the episode before it, and I thought it was hilarious. The previous episode was one of my favorites from a dramatic perspective, but this was definitely one of my favorites as far as comedy goes. I thought it was great.

Also really liked the episode with all of the people around town getting phone calls from dead people, although that was another episode that had me really freaked out. The scene with the girl on her computer and her "mom" starts IMing her and then appears in the webcam really got to me, especially since I watch Supernatural on my computer. These types of things make me thankful I keep my webcam covered when I'm not using it (although I swear that's for more realistic reasons like people hacking the webcam, which really happens, as opposed to ghosts).

Then we have the doctor who found immortality by practicing alchemy. I thought it was interesting to bring alchemy up. Mostly because alchemy will always remind me of Harry Potter. Mostly though, I enjoyed this episode for the storyline with Bela. We found out just a little bit about her past and then she dies. I'm actually really sad about that. I really enjoyed her character. I will say though. The idea of the doctor guy just being locked up underground bothers me because too much of me is paranoid he'd break out again.

The last episode includes New Harmony, Indiana, and Evansville is even shown on the map when they're looking at it. It's so nice to watch demons terrorizing a town that I once went to on a school field trip. It's even weirder to me when I think about how New Harmony was originally established as an attempt at a utopia, but anyway, that doesn't have much to do with this episode at all. This episode was really intense because of the nearness to Dean's death, and I was intrigued by the idea of him beginning to see demon's real faces.

Overall, I really liked these episodes. I'm only one episode into season four so far, but I really hope I like it just as much.

Legend of Korra Review: Book 4 Episode 1: "After All These Years"

I ended up reviewing the season finale of Book 3 over on Youtube and ranting on an on for over twenty minutes, so I figured I should do the season premiere of Book 4 here in order to try and not go on for quite as long. Believe me though, I definitely could.

I guess I need to start off addressing the time skip since that is such a huge thing throughout the episode. Most of the episode does seem to be exposition more than anything else. Since we haven't seen any of the characters for three years now, it makes sense that we'd a lot of information about what exactly they're up to now. I thought this was all done really well, and the stage for this season's story was also set really well even while we got to catch up with the character's lives.

The most striking thing for me is that a lot of things are not the way I expected they would be. I never thought that the majority of the main characters would have spent those three years apart. Looking back on it now, I guess Korra recovering in the Southern Water Tribe makes a lot of sense. I get it. I just hadn't seen it coming. I don't think we ever got a clear answer on just how distant she's been those three years either. It seemed like she hadn't seen anyone else back in Republic City for the entirety of those three years, and I just find it weird that no one ever went to visit her or something. I'm curious to see if we get more information about all of that as the season progresses.

Aside from that, everyone looks older. I was anticipating the kids' growth so much that I never thought about the teenage characters aging as well. Asami and Maki struck me the most. Funnily enough, even though everyone was freaking out about Korra's haircut before the premiere, she looks the most like her old self to me. Asami looks the most different I think, and I actually had a moment where I had to make sure Asami and Mako were both Asami and Mako even though we'd had the trailer. It will probably take some getting used to, but I'm sure I'll adjust.

Now, relationships. We learn that Bolin and Opal are still together as well as Kai and Jinora. I'm overwhelmingly happy about that. After Bolin's awkwardness around girls in the past, it's nice to see him finally have a relationship that's lasted for an entire three years. This episode alone just made me ship Bolin and Opal so much, and I already considered myself a Bolin/Opal shipper last season. Of course they had a little tension this episode that I foresee becoming even more of a problem during the season, but I get that there has to be drama. I can handle that. I'm pretty confident that they'll stay together. I just can't see them breaking Bolin up with another girl. It would feel pretty repetitive to me at this point.

Also in the whole relationship department, we have Kai and Jinora who don't even interact in this episode. I was so excited about all of the Bolin/Opal stuff, but I was on the edge of my seat for something about Kai and Jinora the entire time, especially since Kai was with Opal. Sure enough, Opal ends up asking him about his relationship with Jinora to let us all know that there is, in fact, a relationship. I'm so, so happy. I can't wait to see them interact at some point. I'm really hoping their relationship will stay drama free. We already have Bolin and Opal as a feuding couple, and I'm assuming there will be something on the romance front for the currently single characters (this is me stating how much I want Korra and Mako to get back together before the end of the show without me really saying it). I don't think Kai and Jinora need to have any drama between them.

In other news, Republic City now seems to be getting along with the spirits just fine, so now I'm going to feel angry whenever I go back and watch about how much crap Korra got for that last season. That's definitely a signal that the story is moving on to focus on something else though, and that has me excited.

Mako's the prince's bodyguard, although I'm not entirely sure how he got wrapped into that one. I do enjoy how he and the prince play off of each other even though the prince infuriates me. I'm assuming this prince guy is sticking around for a bit and we'll get to know him. I'm really hoping Mako doesn't wind up back in Ba Sing Se, especially if none of the other characters will be there. I'll I want is for their reunion and then for them to stick together the rest of the season if I'm being honest. Although I do wonder if Mako and Bolin's family is now back in Ba Sing Se, and then maybe going back would show them again. Who knows.

Kuvira seems like she's going to be an interesting character. I'm not sure if I like her yet or now. I do find it interesting that she's marrying Opal's brother/Suyin's son/Toph's grandson. I can't entirely tell what her intentions are yet (as in is she trying to do good or just out for power). I really love how the politics of this season are shaping up though. I don't think we're going to have all of the "good" characters on one side. It looks like they're going to be arguing with on another (such as with Bolin and Opal), and I love that. So far we don't seem to be getting a black and white/good vs. evil sort of storyline. This all seems to be going to shades of grey route, and I think that's going to make this season amazing.

I was surprised to only see Korra at the very end of the episode, although I'm not really surprised that she's doing what she's doing. What I wonder the most is when she's going to finally go see the other characters. Will she go willingly? Will they go find her? It'll be interesting to see. I'm loving her character development so far though, and I think she's going to have a lot of learning about herself to do this season. It really strikes me the most that she was left until the end of the episode because with everyone else we learned what they've been up to, but Korra clearly feels like she's lost herself. She doesn't even know what she's been up to the past three years. I think that's what got me more than anything about this episode. I look forward to her finding herself this season.

Reign Review: Season Two Episode One: "The Plague"

Reign's back! I'm almost positive that last season I ended up reviewing the entire second half of the season here on the blog as opposed to on my Youtube channel. I'm not sure if that will happen this time. I'll probably try to make more Youtube reviews, but I'm going to try and also start posting those videos here as well. I always mean to start doing that but don't. Maybe actually saying it publicly will force me to. Anyway, on with the episode...

We got so much of Mary and Catherine together in this episode, which is great for me. As I said all last season, Catherine is by far my favorite character, and Mary is definitely second. That may seem a bit odd since they're very different from each other, but I really love each of their character's. Plus, I really love how their relationship has progressed through the show, and that only continued in this episode. I love how Catherine fluctuates between trying to show Mary how to be a good queen to trying to gain power of her own at Mary's expense. They have an interesting dynamic that I always enjoy seeing played out.

I really enjoyed the conflict between the two of them in this episode. It's a nice topic to explore with Mary trying to figure out how to run a country while also sticking to her morals. I hope that's something they continue to explore in the future. It also makes me interested from what I know historically about Mary. I'm thinking about something happening significantly in the future from where the show is, but it's all rather interesting to me when thinking about Mary's character in the show.

I don't think it's surprising that the plague would, of course, enter the castle. I do have to say that the plague is such a nasty way to die, and this episode helped remind me how thankful I am that it's not an issue anymore. It was definitely on my mind that this storyline would really have no choice but to include deaths, but I wasn't all that worried about any major characters dying.

Pascal's death wasn't incredibly surprising either, since he hasn't been around long, but I would have enjoyed him sticking around. In a way it sort of felt like a cop out. Kenna and Sebastian were caring for him (which I thought was a nice little story), but that lasted almost no time at all thinks to his death. Nothing came from it except a sad death scene. I wish that had been something they carried out longer.

There was also the bit where they made everyone think Catherine was dying. Funny thing about this, I didn't really have much emotion when this happened. Catherine's my favorite character, so I definitely didn't want her to die, but I wasn't really bothered either. I think enough of me realized that there was no way they would actually kill her off, not like that at least. And I'm thankful for that too. She makes the show so much more fantastic. (I did love what Catherine decided to tell Mary once she thought she was dying.)

Francis and Lola are a storyline that I'm not entirely sure how to feel about. It'll be interesting to see if Lola and the baby leave or not. I just really hope they don't kill either Lola or the baby off in the plague to be honest because that would most definitely be a cop out. Them leaving kind of would too, and I don't really think they're going to do that. Leaving Lola and the baby at the castle is too good of an opportunity for drama. The only other thing to say about them I think is that I loved the scene where the baby was crying and Francis is awkwardly deciding what to do. That was pretty great.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty good episode. I look forward to seeing what happens next. I suppose we could still get a major character death from the plague, but I'm not really expecting that at this point. We'll see I suppose.