Weekly Book Round Up #25

 

 

This book intrigued me from the start. Edited by Melissa Marr, and including short stories from the likes of Neil Gaiman, Garth Nix, Kelley Armstrong, and the duo who wrote the Beautiful Creatures trilogy, Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia, I couldn't help but grab this from Amazon. The stories themselves are retellings of tales that have influenced each author. I found that the stories I knew such as Rumpelstiltskin and Sleeping Beauty were my favourites. The retellings of stories that I didn't know didn't really have that special edge, as I couldn't really tell what was different about them. Still an enjoyable book though, and definitely worth a read if any of the authors I mentioned floats your boat. I think my personal favourite was Neil Gaiman's retelling of Sleeping Beauty.

 

 

Nicola's rating: 3/5

 

 

 

 

 

 I was pretty excited to see what Alyxandra Harvey's new series would be like, after the Drake Chronicles ended last year. I've heard that this is a trilogy, but I'm pretty sure the Drake Chronicles was extended a couple of times, so this could possibly go the same way. The book is set in Victorian London, and follows three cousins. Emma, Gretchen and Penelope have been unaware their whole lives of the fact that they come from a long line of witches, until Emma unwittingly breaks the spell that was keeping them bound. Now, they have to attend a finishing school for high society witches. Following in a similar vein to Gail Carriger's Finishing School series, except without the steampunk element, I really enjoyed this book. If you're a fan of witches, ghosts, gargoyles and fairytales, this book is probably for you!


Nicola's rating: 4/5


In other news, I did mention that I'd be subscribing to Birchbox for the first time this month as an alternative to Glossybox. I'm getting pretty irate though, as they've taken my payment for the January box but I've still not received it. I emailed them last week and was told that my replacement box would be with me soon. I've emailed them again to complain but I've not had a response, and I've not received any dispatch notifications either. Is anyone else having problems?