If you've been reading my blog for very long, you'll know that I always look for these fairy tale retelling type of stories. And this was a very unique one! At first I was wondering just when we'd get into any of the things that were familiar about the Jack and the Beanstalk story, but it wasn't long before we got to the magic beans. Even if they were introduced in a different manner, my brain was still like, "Ah-ha! There they are!" But this story had so much more detail and back story than the original fairy tale, and I loved all of that! Now obviously the story is about Jaclyn instead of Jack, but the weird thing is, there was still a character named Jack, a main character actually. I'm not sure I liked this repetition of names, but in the end, there was a reason it kind of worked.


I liked the way little things that happened at the beginning got explained later on in more detail. Like the way that when she touched the one sword that she saw visions. Finding out who the visions were of, and just what they meant later on, really added to the story. I also loved what the magic beans did not only for the beanstalks, but for the story in the end. And you know how if you're like me, you always kind of wonder what happens after the story, after the HEA? Well you're in luck with this tale, because the author gives a few epilogues that show us just how it all goes. I will say that there was a definite religious/Christian slant to the story, and for me it was a bit much at one point. But since I liked how that fed into the background of our "giants" or monsters, I was okay with that. I haven't actually read this author until now, although I've done some promoting in the past because her books sound really good. So maybe the religious part is something that is in her stories usually? I do know that this part of the story intrigued me and made me want to do some research into the story that I only remember the basics of.

This review first appeared on Lisa Loves Literature.