The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club: snow white

Friday, April 25, 2014

Blogoversary: The Fairest of Them All by Carolyn Turgeon

Book Addicts!

We have for our blogoversary event another FFBC author. She writes amazing fairy tale retellings which I love and I am beyond happy to have her here today in my site. Want to know more about Carolyn and her books? Keep reading and don't forget to enter the giveaway!

The Fairest of Them All
by Carolyn Turgeon
Publisher: Touchstone
Release Date: August 6th 2013

Read my review for The Fairest of Them All

Synopsis:

What if Rapunzel was Snow White’s evil stepmother?

From the author of Godmother and Mermaid, The Fairest of Them All explores what happens when fairy tale heroines grow up and don’t live happily ever after.

Living in an enchanted forest, Rapunzel spends her days tending a mystical garden with her adoptive mother, Mathena. A witch, Mathena was banished from court because of her magic powers, though the women from the kingdom still seek her advice and herbal remedies. She waits, biding her time to exact revenge against those who betrayed her.

One day Rapunzel’s beautiful voice and long golden locks captivate a young prince hunting in the forest nearby. Overcome, he climbs her hair up to her chamber and they fall into each other’s arms. But their afternoon of passion is fleeting, and the prince must return to his kingdom, as he is betrothed to another.

Now king, he marries his intended to bring peace to his kingdom. They have a stunning daughter named Snow White. Yet the king is haunted by his memories of Rapunzel, and after the mysterious death of his wife, realizes he is free to marry the woman he never stopped longing for. In hopes of also replacing the mother of his beloved daughter, the king makes Rapunzel his queen.

But when Mathena’s wedding gift of an ancient mirror begins speaking to her, Rapunzel falls under its evil spell, and the king begins to realize that Rapunzel is not the beautiful, kind woman he dreamed of.

Want to win a signed paperback of The Fairest Of Them All? All you have to do is click on the banner below and enter the goodreads giveaway!
The giveaway is INTERNATIONAL and ends May 2nd at 11:59 PST

Want to win a signed paperback of The Fairest Of Them All? All you have to do is click on the banner below and enter the goodreads giveaway that's going on!
The giveaway is INTERNATIONAL and ends May 2nd at 11:59 PST

Carolyn Turgeon is the author of five novels: Rain Village (2006), Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story (2009), Mermaid (2011), which is being developed for film by Sony Pictures, the middle-grade The Next Full Moon (2012), and her latest, The Fairest of Them All (2013). She edits Faerie Magazine and teaches fiction writing at the University of Alaska at Anchorage's Low-Residency MFA program.

Visit Carolyn's website at http://carolynturgeon.com. Visit Faerie Magazine at http://faeriemagazine.com/. Visit Carolyn's mermaid blog at http://iamamermaid.com/.

Win (1) of (3) signed paperbacks of The Fairest Of Them All by Carolyn Turgeon (INT)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, August 16, 2013

The Fairest Of Them All by Carolyn Turgeon

The Fairest Of Them All

Carolyn Turgeon

288 pages

Publisher: Touchstone

Release Date: August 6th

Don't get fooled by the beautiful cover of this incredible book. This is not a lovely fairy tale where everyone lives happily ever after and the evil queen ends up dead or being good. And it's not for sure the story about Rapunzel or Snow White that we all now. Because as you know, Rapunzel was not Snow White's step mom, but in this book she is.

We think that seeing the point of view of Rapunzel was much more fun that reading about a corny story about a princess waiting for prince Charming. Don't get me wrong, I love those corny stories, but being evil, in this story, is much more fun!

Reading about Rapunzel's story, you get an insight into her life. Why and howe she evolves from being that girl in the tower with the long, long hair ending up being the evil queen who want Snow White dead more than anything in her life.

At the beginning, you can see how Rapunzel was all innocent and trustful, letting in her a life a handsome Prince full of promises and beautiful words. She opens her heart to him and he ends up marrying another woman. So you can see how Rapunzel started hating the other woman and asking herself why not her. You even feel sorry for her.

And it's not far after that when she gets what she wanted: the prince and the kingdom. Why not? Even the evil queens deserve a happy ending. But what Rapunzel can't get out of her head is that she's not the fairest of them all, so being the most beautiful of her kingdom becomes her first priority. That's where Snow White enters in the story. When Rapunzel asks the mirror who the fairest of them all is, what do you think it tells her? Not her, for sure. That's when the seed of evilness starts to grow in Rapunzel.

But that's not all. If we have to talk about differences from the original stories that make this book such a killer one, we have to talk about Snow White, too. We have read and seen in movies and TV shows, howe Snow White is the good and forgiving person that everyone tries to be, the saint that cannot be enticed by evil or would not dare doing or saying something considered bad or evil. As a normal person, this version of Snow White has her own character and personality and it's not so saint as every book/movie showed us. You even start, at some point in the story, understanding Rapunzel's hate for this girl.

In general, the story was incredible, captivating, with a catching prologue and a strong plot. How Carolyn Turgeon did to create this awesome mix of fairy tales, escapes our knowledge, but we know one thing: she did a wonderful job. Bringing a dark touch to the fairy story that we know all so well, Carolyn created a story full of unraveling events and twists that were not expecting at all. AT ALL!

So what's our verdict? We loved this book! So much that we have to thank Carolyn to bring to our world this wonderful new story. So you need to read this book, Book Addicts. Because you are going to get hooked with this one.

Let the magic of Rapunzel and Snow White enter your shelves, Book Addicts, and let us know what you think about this book, because we are giving a five gorjuss dolls from our rating system.