Helpful Score: 4
This is the first book in a (so-far) trilogy about Anita, who doesn't know that she is actually a Faerie Princess named Tania. This was an easy and boring read.
Anita gets in a boat accident the day before her sixteenth birthday; when she is at the hospital recovering she grows wings, loses her wings, and then is pulled into the fairy realm.
The best thing this book had going for it was that it was a really quick read. It's a little over 300 pages long, but the print is so big that it would suit a children's book (okay maybe a slight exaggeration). It literally took me 2-3 hours to read. Unfortunately I wish that I hadn't even spent that time on it. I picked this up because it had a pretty cover (shame on me again, for judging a book by its cover) that and I love books about Faerie realms. This was a horrible book.
The character Anita (whose name as a Faerie is cleverly Tania, wow look if you rearrange Anita what do you get!) is supposed to sixteen; unfortunately she has the mentality of a nine year old. She is dumb as a brick and extremely gullible. Right from the beginning I could have told you what was going to happen in this book. There are no surprises, the plot is extremely transparent. I seriously think I wrote better stuff in junior high and so did my classmates. None of the characters have any depth or passion; they seem to be wandering around the book in a daze. Nothing really happens in the book either. Anita/Tania spends most of her time whining about how she wants to back to the Mortal Realm and, when she's not doing that, she is constantly reminding the other characters in the book that she can't remember her past as a Faerie Princess. The scary thing is that the other supporting characters need help remembering that Tania wasn't there for the last 500 years and even when she reminds them, they forget by the next paragraph.
The book is boring, boring, boring. The writing is simplistic and child-like. I am very surprised that this is dubbed a "young adult" book because really it would be more appropriate as a children's book. I know I am ranting here, but I am honestly surprised sometimes at the books that make it through to publication. I am doubly irritated because by buying this book new, I supported this!
Okay I am trying to think of some positive things to say here... The cover is very pretty. The sentence structures in the book were proper, if not really all that flowing. It was readable and there weren't any typos that I saw. You definitely won't strain your vocabulary here. Those are the only thing that pull this book up from one star. I know I am being harsh, but I feel a bit misled here.
Needless to say I will note being reading more books from this author.
Anita gets in a boat accident the day before her sixteenth birthday; when she is at the hospital recovering she grows wings, loses her wings, and then is pulled into the fairy realm.
The best thing this book had going for it was that it was a really quick read. It's a little over 300 pages long, but the print is so big that it would suit a children's book (okay maybe a slight exaggeration). It literally took me 2-3 hours to read. Unfortunately I wish that I hadn't even spent that time on it. I picked this up because it had a pretty cover (shame on me again, for judging a book by its cover) that and I love books about Faerie realms. This was a horrible book.
The character Anita (whose name as a Faerie is cleverly Tania, wow look if you rearrange Anita what do you get!) is supposed to sixteen; unfortunately she has the mentality of a nine year old. She is dumb as a brick and extremely gullible. Right from the beginning I could have told you what was going to happen in this book. There are no surprises, the plot is extremely transparent. I seriously think I wrote better stuff in junior high and so did my classmates. None of the characters have any depth or passion; they seem to be wandering around the book in a daze. Nothing really happens in the book either. Anita/Tania spends most of her time whining about how she wants to back to the Mortal Realm and, when she's not doing that, she is constantly reminding the other characters in the book that she can't remember her past as a Faerie Princess. The scary thing is that the other supporting characters need help remembering that Tania wasn't there for the last 500 years and even when she reminds them, they forget by the next paragraph.
The book is boring, boring, boring. The writing is simplistic and child-like. I am very surprised that this is dubbed a "young adult" book because really it would be more appropriate as a children's book. I know I am ranting here, but I am honestly surprised sometimes at the books that make it through to publication. I am doubly irritated because by buying this book new, I supported this!
Okay I am trying to think of some positive things to say here... The cover is very pretty. The sentence structures in the book were proper, if not really all that flowing. It was readable and there weren't any typos that I saw. You definitely won't strain your vocabulary here. Those are the only thing that pull this book up from one star. I know I am being harsh, but I feel a bit misled here.
Needless to say I will note being reading more books from this author.
Helpful Score: 2
This dreadfully boring tale about a young girl who discovers she's the long-lost, centuries-old daughter of the King and Queen of Faerie was easily one of the worst books I've ever read. I really wanted to like this book as I have a fondness for the Fey Folk, but the writing was so bad it had me scratching my head as to how the author even managed to get this tripe published.
For one thing, Jones does a lot more "telling" rather than "showing" when describing her characters. As for the characters themselves, they were all rather bland and uninteresting, and not a single one managed to endear themselves to me. The main character Tania/Anita was the worst culprit of them all, as she pretty much had zero personality and was flat as a board. Her slew of sisters were all merely a bunch of stock characters (the silly sister, the brainy sister, etc.) and the "villain" was pretty much just your generic, run-of-the-mill, power hungry bad guy with no real reason for doing what he's doing.
With it's lackluster writing and eye-crossingly boring storyline, I recommend this cliche-ridden crapfest only to very young readers (I'm talking no older than 10 or 11-year-olds here)...older readers will most likely be turned off from the start. For those Faerie fans with more discriminating tastes however, I highly recommend Holly Black's Tithe, The Chronicles of Faerie series by O.R. Melling, and Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr.
For one thing, Jones does a lot more "telling" rather than "showing" when describing her characters. As for the characters themselves, they were all rather bland and uninteresting, and not a single one managed to endear themselves to me. The main character Tania/Anita was the worst culprit of them all, as she pretty much had zero personality and was flat as a board. Her slew of sisters were all merely a bunch of stock characters (the silly sister, the brainy sister, etc.) and the "villain" was pretty much just your generic, run-of-the-mill, power hungry bad guy with no real reason for doing what he's doing.
With it's lackluster writing and eye-crossingly boring storyline, I recommend this cliche-ridden crapfest only to very young readers (I'm talking no older than 10 or 11-year-olds here)...older readers will most likely be turned off from the start. For those Faerie fans with more discriminating tastes however, I highly recommend Holly Black's Tithe, The Chronicles of Faerie series by O.R. Melling, and Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr.
