Review: Amazingly Well Written Fairy Tale
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 30, 2013
I figured it was time to choose another book from my ever-growing vast collection of Kindle ebooks (um... freebies really). What more than another dose of a fairy tale retelling? (The words "Fairy tale retelling" got me. *YES!*)Not just any dose really. Scarlette is essentially a combination of the "Little Red Riding Hood" fairy tale and paranormalcy (no, not the book) added in with history. It's very well written for Juroe's debut novel.In Scarlette, we follow a peasant girl named Scarlette living in late eighteenth century France in the Gevaudan province who looks for the help of a woodcutter and a member of nobility to help save her grandmother from a wolf bite.You might be wondering where the wolf's at. I'm not saying anything about that (welcome to the spoil-free zone ;)).I won't say that I was terrified, because I definitely wasn't, but there were times where I practically breathed a sigh of relief that I was reading the book in the daytime (spared from nightmares! *cheer*). To be honest, I probably opened up Scarlette every time awkwardness commenced in a certain required reads (we all know how boring those can get) and was eager to finish up required reading just so I could open up Scarlette and read a book that is a thousand (possibly a million?) times more interesting and page turning than 1984.The romance between the baron and Scarlette was probably a little too fast, though in the case of historical viewpoint, it probably wasn't too fast. In the modernly way, it was thankfully not written in a very awkward way (it was a little awkward...) in which I may have choked on water (or food...) with my eyes bugging out and frantically turning the pages to skip awkward parts while silently screaming my head off ("Oh, gods. Get. Me. Out. Of. Here. Now." *flip, flip*). It happens...Scarlette is also written in a complex way that keeps the reader guessing. I had no way of knowing about the main character's mother or Jeanne's mother until it was revealed. In fact, I had no clue about the baron either, even though I had my suspicions. I basically just brushed it off.I'm definitely not Sherlock material. *disappointed look* So much for wanting to be a detective one day... (kidding).The very end seemed more of "oh, hey, there might be a sequel!" and a huge gap between the end and the epilogue. Thankfully, it had an ending that wrapped up well with a bow on top. The short story from Francois's point of view filled in the gap. ^_^In two words though? Paranormally awesome. I know I made up paranormally. Would supernaturally work better? :p