Beauty and the Beast, but with a medieval Russian flair. I love the Russian folklore aspects, and that the sisters are kind, and that the father doesn't need Beauty to sacrifice herself. I love Beauty's agency.

But. This book felt like a slog. Every time I went to pick it up, I'd put it right back down again. The writing is good and the story itself is interesting, but this is over 300 pages of just Beauty in her own head, whining about how unhappy she is like that's unusual for a peasant in medieval Russia. There are no side stories. When she gets kidnapped, you don't see what her sisters are doing or what her fiance is thinking. There's no break from her thoughts, which aren't that unusual for a teenager, but are a pain in the ass when it's all you get for the entire book.

I did love the firebird and the leshy and all the other Russian folklore creatures, and wish there had been more of them.

In a word, irritating. Kim was basically a boppy child throughout the whole book (Bitchy Barista? Was that supposed to be endearing? Because it was not) and only has one conversation with Eleanor the entire book that touches on any real topic. I also wanted to punch Eleanor in the face for berating children and battered women with what their careers should be. There was no character growth for either of them.

I like the vignette style of story-telling, but Roesler handles it poorly. There was also no plot, and his awkward self-referential humor made me want to throw my kindle across several rooms.

I never liked Cacy or Eli so it made it really hard to care about their romance. This would have worked better as straight dystopian. There were just more storylines going on than Fine is skilled enough to handle.

A fascinating look at an underrated and stunningly impressive woman. Cooney did a great job telling Hatshepsut's story despite the lack of evidence of her personality available to us. I loved learning about what the world was like back then, and was duly horrified.

This was truly, truly enjoyable, more than my lackluster three stars suggests. I love the idea of a woman pretending to be her dead male cousin so that she can have his money and land and, of course, that she immediately falls in love with a duke. *Chef's kiss*

But this book was 150 pages too long. Carter uses the same jokes and the same scenes multiple times, so instead of tension you just want to roll your eyes. I kept putting this down because I couldn't believe how long it took for anything to happen.

I would recommend this as a palate cleanser, so if you're reading something intense or horrific (like Stephen King's The Stand, or, I don't know, any recent news article) you can stop and read a few pages of this, and then resume your regularly scheduled programming.

This was so much fun. It felt like a movie novelization: not a lot of internals, tons of action, a rapid romance, endless drama, just enough science to keep it feeling real. The downside, of course, is that I am now mad there is not a movie.

I loved the way she integrated the aliens into ancient egypt and still managed to make the story take place in the present.

Solid fairy tale retellings and variations.

I loved the beginning of this, but then it just got really stupid really fast. The constant exclamations of "fricky dicky" and "I'm a married woman" despite the fact that she's legally dead and her husband has already moved on were exhausting. Too much time is spent in Alena's bubble brain with her insipid thoughts, so when other characters keep saying how smart and brave she is, you can't help but think they must all be very, very drunk.

Truly, I loved this. It is so dense, so involved, so fucking melodramatic, so unexpectedly hilarious. Twilight was the book I wanted at fifteen, and this is the book I want at thirty. I took so many pictures of hilarious moments to send to my sister throughout the whole book. I have a deeper love of Jasper and new obsession with Emmett, the vampire himbo I didn't know I needed. Meyer has such an incredible ability to craft tension that before you know it you are racing through the pages. An escapist delight.

A fun and completely outrageous adventure, full of Irish accents and lesbian pirates.