Very different from the film! Maybe almost a prequel? That will depend on where the 2nd boom goes for sure. 

I never got into this series when it came out despite wanting to read it, my local library never picked it up and I never saw it pass through second hand stores, so I'm very past the target age group. I do wonder what I would have thought if I'd originally read it as a pre-teen early teen, since I was into Ever After High and School for Good and Evil. 

It was very enjoyable, but what did bother me were the villain parent. Lady Tremaine felt off, she never struck me as someone wantonly evil per se. All of the villains are underdeveloped characters who's main quality is evil to point of not even loving their children. Though I will concierge this is probably better suited for a target audience, but I was thinking the boom would be much more interesting if the parents were trying to be good parents, but utterly fail becuase they simply can't/don't know how. I felt like the struggle between wanting to be good and having to do evil wasn't the best executed either, but other than that I enjoyed thia read a lot andnplan on finishing the series. 

I'm curious how this will go given how different from the films it is. Currently, I like the series more than the films. There is lot more going on in terms of politics in both the Isle and the Kingdom. And I like the authors writing style. It does feel a bit like to story is being told to me by a narrator, however, I think that works well for the target audience and in the context of the book. Gives it a bit of charm.