Tag: Retelling

Posted in Spicy Romance

Wolves Love Red

Posted on by Little Bee

Wolves Love Red: An Erotic Bedtime Story by C.C. Genovese

Rating: 5 stars

This is my first book I have read by this author. It is a quick read, but very intriguing. It follows a werewolf, named Valan, who catches the scent of Red, a rather ravishing woman. On the night the werewolf first gets a whiff of Red, he can hardly contain himself. He begins pleasuring himself in a nearby alley, however, he has to immediately run to the woods because when he orgasms, he howls, and he did not want to alert the town of his presence. He goes off into the woods where he has a wild romp with another wolf, named Fiona. Fiona asks about the woman who had him fired up like that, but he is reluctant to really give away anything.

The next day he goes looking for Red again, because he really wants her. He discovers she is bringing some sex toys to grandma’s house, who happens to be the town bicycle. He comes up with the idea to go to Grandma’s house to wait for Red to get there. Instead, he comes across Fiona. Fiona again is curious about the woman who has Valan so wound up. Fiona suggests taking Grandma off his hands, because Fiona heard she likes blonde bombshells, so that Valan can have his woman. Fiona takes Grandma and her current client off into another room, so when Red comes in and sees a very naked, human Valan, she becomes entranced. Valan is very well endowed, which is mentioned several times. So there is a lot of foreplay to help Red take him.

I will not give away the ending, because it was so amazingly unexpected. I really enjoyed this story overall. My issue I often have with short stories/novellas, is that many authors try to rush everything together. Some stories do not have a beginning, middle, and end. Wolves Love Red did have all parts to make a good story. It was easy to follow along with, it had the right amount of background information to set the scene, it had enough character development, and it didn’t feel like everything was rushed together. The sex scenes that were in the book were well written and very descriptive, so it was easy to imagine while you were reading it. Even though the story as a whole is good, the ending makes it all worth it. The ending is what takes this story out of the normal cookie cutter short story/erotic/paranormal/twisted retelling mold and makes it something completely unique.

Posted in YA Book Reviews

Troy High

Posted on by Little Bee

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Troy High by Shana Norris, Narrated by Khristine Hvam

Rating: 4 stars

Narrator Rating: 5 stars

 

I selected to listen to Troy High over reading the physical book due to the narration style of Khristine Hvam. Hvam brought this Homer’s Iliad retelling to life narrating the intense feud between the Troy High Trojans and the Laseed High Spartans. When the school rezoning happened and one of the popular, beautiful Spartan cheerleaders, Elena, becomes a Trojan teenager, it is only the beginning of a series of increasingly unfortunate events. Putting forward into motion these events, Elena begins dating the protagonist’s, Cassie, brother. Elena decided the perfect time to tell her Spartan on-again-off-again boyfriend, was during one of the first Spartan football games of the season. For the Spartans, this meant war.

Cassie is a sophmore in high school. She goes unnoticed until Elena comes to the school. Elena and Cassie become fast friends, even though Elena’s Spartan boyfriend is the older brother of Cassie’s BFF (whom she secretly wants more with), Greg. Once Elena befriends Cassie, Cassie grows a new found popularity, that she is not wanting to let go of. Once Elena break’s up with her Spartan boyfriend, the Spartans launch a series of pranks against the Trojans. Not to be outdone, Cassie’s 2 older brothers Perry and Hunter lead the charge in retaliation against the Spartans. Caught in between is Cassie and Greg, each on opposing sides, trying desperately to remain friends.

There were very intense moments within the story, especially the culmination of the gifted Trojan Horse from Spartan’s 10th Grade Council at the Homecoming game. I felt that the story was easy to follow along with. I felt that, even though there were times Cassie came off whiney, many of the students dealt with very real issues that we have all experienced in some capacity in high school.  I felt Cassie’s inner struggles about whether or not Greg reciprocates her feelings were very easy to relate to as I am sure at some point we have all been there.

I really enjoyed the narrator. Hvam has narrated many high rated series such as Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Vampire Academy, and Shade of Vampire. She was able to adequately portray and narrate emotions for the characters and the gut wrenching, intense pranks/experiences.

I am glad the end happened the way it did, but I was starting to question it at some point. I really didn’t know for a while if it would end how I desperately needed it to. This may not be the best written book you will ever read, but it was quick, enjoyable, and brought a new way to retell a classic like Homer’s Iliad.

Posted in YA Book Reviews

Trapped in Wonderland

Posted on by Little Bee

Trapped in Wonderland by Dani Hoots

Goodreads Rating: 5 stars

Actual rating: 4.5 stars
I received a copy of Trapped in Wonderland from Netgalley. This is my own review. I was not paid for this review. 

This is the first book I have read by Dani Hoots and I can guarantee it will not be the last. Having said that, before I get to the “good stuff,” I want to explain why my actual rating was 4.5 stars.

There were times in the story, especially the first few pages, where it felt very rushed. The narration was very fast paced, almost like a kid hopped up on too much sugar. I felt I had to read fast to keep up. As the story went on, the narration pace slowed down.

I know this is an ARC, and hopefully there are many revisions to come as there are some things that need editing. This includes the use of wrong words, sentence structure issues, and some redundancy. I did not count off for this in my rating as, again, this is an ARC copy. I wanted to make note of this for editing purposes.

Normally I complain about weak female characters but in Trapped in  Wonderland this worked. Alice, who is not a very confident girl, gets sucked into Wonderland by kids she knew from school. It is her job to destroy Morpheus and the Cirque de Reves, a circus that brings about darkness from the inhabitants’ of Wonderland fears. Alice considers herself a weakling and is confused on what she can do to help. She is accompanied by the Mad Hatter, The March Hare, the Dormouse, the Cheshire Cat, and eventually the Knave of Hearts. This group, who develop and strengthen friendships as the adventure continues, traversed through the Red and White Kingdom, escapes the Dream Kingdom, enters the Dark Forest and lives to tell the tale. With each adventure, Alice becomes bolder and more confident in her abilities to possibly succeed when she meets with Morpheus for a second time. Will she succeed? You’ll just have to read the book to find out!

My favorite character is Chase, or as we know him from the stories, the Cheshire Cat. He is funny, troublesome, and caring. He’s definitely my book boyfriend and I look forward to seeing more of him in the series. I found this image by thezayniac and I think it would be a perfect Chase:

I found myself becoming completely immersed into Wonderland and this particular story. I liked the various nods to the original story, while keeping true to this retelling. I have read a few Alice in Wonderland retellings, and Trapped in Wonderland is probably my favorite. I look forward to recommending this to friends once it is released and I look forward to future books in this series!

Posted in YA Book Reviews

The Wrath and the Dawn

Posted on by Little Bee

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Goodreads Rating: 3 stars

 

I read The Wrath and The Dawn after I read A Thousand Nights. Both books have made me want to read Arabian Nights, of which, I bought the Barnes and Nobles Classics Edition (it is a difficult read).  I still feel that, like A Thousand Nights, this book just did not do any justice. I was just as disappointed. Everyone seemed to LOVE this book, and I struggled through it.

The positive to this book, is I liked the love story. I also liked the play out of the curse. I thought it did have the upper hand compared to A Thousand Nights but I still didn’t get why everyone has been so obsessed with it. I look forward to reading how the love story progresses.

I liked that it had some action, conflict, and violence on top of the underlying story. I do think the author was able to portray why it was such a big deal Shahrzad remained alive, and her fear of when her time would come. I also liked the attempt that were being made on her life. I think it was interesting she was fine with dying for her purpose, but I liked that when the time was coming, and the attempts were made, she started feeling a bit differently.

Overall, I liked the writing style of the author. I felt this book had a lot of promise, and feel maybe the author had to cut out some scenes so the book wasn’t super long. I wished there was more emphasis on the story telling aspect and include a few more stories than it did.