Quotes from “Beauty: a Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast”

Those who know me know that when it comes to fairy tales, I am a massive fan of the story “Beauty and the Beast”. In fact, it is one of my two all-time favorite fairy tales (the other being “East of the Sun, West of the Moon”, which also kind of follows the motif of

Book review: “An Offer from a Gentleman”

There is something I must confess: I had stopped reading Julia Quinn’s books for quite a long time before choosing to read “An Offer From a Gentleman”. It was not because her writing style was no longer appealing to me (she’s still one of the best and most favorite historical romance authors on my list).

Book review: “Grimm’s Fairy Tales”

Look what the lockdown due to the surges in COVID-19 cases where I live has brought me to. This week, I treated myself to a trip down memory lane with this “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” collection. I grew up being exposed to books from an early age, and fairy tales were my first experience with stories.

Book review: “Seven Daughters and Seven Sons”

What a captivating and empowering story for young girls and women! This book is based on a popular folktale in Iraq from the 11th century, telling the story of Buran – her father’s fourth daughter among his seven daughters. We all know that at that time, the fact that a man only had daughters would

Book review: “Ella Enchanted”

I really enjoyed this retold version of “Cinderella”. In this version, the protagonist – Ella – was gifted, or rather cursed, with the curse of obedience from a well-meant but totally unthoughtful fairy. This meant that she must always do whatever other people ordered her to do. She couldn’t fight back or have any say

Book review: “Of Beast and Beauty”

“In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret. The secret was as old as the cracked cobblestone streets of Yuan, as peculiar as the roses that bloom eternally within the domed city’s walls, as poisonous as forgotten history and the stories told in

Book review: “Stardust”

I wish I could love this book. I really do. Especially after I watched the movie based on this book, and LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED it! “Stardust” the movie is AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING! It is one of my all time favorite fantasy movies. “Stardust” the book, not so much. The book actually started off really

Book review: “Snow, Glass, Apples”

Who doesn’t love a flipped fairy tale? In this short but memorably terrifying story, Neil Gaiman re-imagined the beloved “Snow White” fairy tale from the point of view of the Evil Queen, with some certain twists. What if there was a reason for what the Evil Queen did to Snow White? What if the one

Book review: “Tiger Lily”

To be honest, I have no deep knowledge about Peter Pan’s story except for the fact that it was about a boy who never grew up, who lived in Neverland and one day welcomed an English girl named Wendy Darling to his place. Countless movies and animations have been made about this story, and sadly,

Book review: “Shadows on Snow”

“Shadows on Snow” is the first book in the “Flipped Fairy Tales” series by Starla Huchton (doesn’t her name sound gorgeous and fairy-tale-like, too?). And as you can see from the cover, this is a retelling of the beloved classic fairy tale “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. But the author didn’t follow the same