Adventures in Crafting with Words

This post is pulling double duty today. First up, An Inconvenient Princess.  The youngest and seventh child - Penny - meets Rapunzel.    Only,  unexpectedly, Penny has no magic - unlike her siblings.  It's expected that the seventh sibling have some sort of abilities, but Penny doesn't, and it disappoints everybody who encounters her. When Penny goes searching for her twin, Anneliese,  she literally finds herself in a tree.  With a tiger in a tree blocking her from climbing down, she calls on Mortimer to help get her somewhere safe.  Mortimer sends her to a tower where she meets Rapunzel.   Once they escape, sorta, Penny finds herself in the arms of Arthur. Arthur, you may recall from A Goose Girl.  He is Conrad's cousin and the younger prince. Chaos erupts as the trio begin searching for Anneliese.  Cases of mistaken identity - Penny IS Anneliese's almost identical twin.  Kidnapping.  And...

A few weeks ago I read, and reviewed, another Joanne Macgregor story.  Hushed is... WOW.   I had trouble putting it down.  Once again I found myself reading at the gym (a given when I'm on the treadmill or elliptical) and not paying a bit of attention on the time or distance just so I could finish a chapter.  I thought about it while doing my stretches/cool down.  While grocery shopping - until I ran into another buggy. Setting - South Africa - including some interesting phrases used.  I love stories set in other countries than my own; I find myself learning something new. Characters - Movie Star Logan Rush and average, everyday girl Rosemary "Romy" Morgan. When Romy discovers that Logan's 20th birthday is going to be on a chartered boat, she sneaks out near the boat on her surf board to spy on him.  Much like in The Little Mermaid, she ends up saving him from drowning and returns him to his hotel after being chased by "Rushers" an...

I am nearing the end of this Special Edition blog post series. A Little Mermaid (Aya Ling) is the fifth and second to the last book in the Entwined Tales series.  (The last comes out today.) Whereas the other tales focused on the female members of the Woodcutter family, this tale features a mermaid named Clio and a Prince named Lukas. Wait... you dear puzzled reader might be asking.  Where's Mortimer?  We just had Elisette's story, what about Martin? Or Annelise? Or Penny?  There's only two books left and three Woodcutter's children left? I'll get to some of these answers.  Promise. Clio is the youngest mermaid and loves to dance.  When she meets Lucanus - after she found herself tangled in kelp while practicing dancing - she falls tail over head for the older merprince.  To the point she can barely speak to him! Years later he returns and her tongue-tied mouth keeps her from getting his attention while her older sisters chase after him....

One of the things I like about the Entwined Tales series is that I'm getting a novella length trial run of authors that have been on my to-read pile or Amazon keeps recommending. Kenley Davidson is one of those authors.  Her The Andari Chronicles keeps appearing in my recommendations.  Her contribution handles another lesser known tale, The Frog Princess, with deftness. Wait? Don't you mean The Frog Prince?  No.  I mean The Frog Princess.  Three brothers (princes) are tasked with three impossible tasks in order to earn the crown.  A cursed maiden ends up helping the youngest brother. A Beautiful Curse follows Elisette on her mission to show that she is more than just a pretty face.  Her quest leads her to a library in Anura where she is reluctantly admitted as an apprentice.  Only she's admitted on trial terms: she can't distract the other apprentices and patrons, she must do her work, and no flirting. It's at the library where she...

Here's another YA cover featuring shoes.  Not my first review/recommendation and probably not the last with a couple shot of shoes. Wait... why am I rambling about cover shots of shoes?  It caught my attention, didn't it? Joanne Macgregor's The Law of Tall Girls is simple.    Tall guys should date tall girls and not short girls.  After all, short girls can date average sized guys but it looks weird of a tall girl dates somebody shorter then her.  Although, Peyton reasoned, it looks weird when a tall guy dates a too-short girl. It all starts with a bet placed shortly before Peyton's Senior Year.  Her co-workers bet her that she can't get a tall guy to kiss her.  Then date her.  And go to prom with her. We are supposed to believe that these older co-workers and a business owner are willing to bet over kisses and dating... Regardless, Peyton accepts the first bet.  This throws her in the path of 6'3 Jay Young, new guy and abs...