The Book Landers: Book Review+Giveaway:Lore

Title: Lore

Authors: Brinda Berry, Cate Dean, Jayne A. Knolls, Karen Y. Bynum, Laura Diamond, Theresa DaLayne

Genre: Fantasy/Fairytales

Book Blurb:

A collection of six folklore retellings that will twist your mind and claim your heart.

SHIMMER: A heartbroken boy rescues a mermaid… but is it too late to save her?

BETWEEN is about a girl, a genie, and a ton of bad decisions.

SUNSET MOON: Eloise doesn’t believe in Native American magic–until the dreamcatcher spiders spin her down an unknown path.

THE MAKER: An incapacitated young man bent on revenge builds a creature to do it for him.

A BEAUTIFUL MOURNING: The story of a Maya goddess torn between duty and love, and the ultimate sacrifice she must make to achieve true happiness.

THE BARRICADES: When a human girl risks everything to save the life of an Eternal prince, will their feelings for each other change the world they know, or tear it apart?

Review:

Lore was a lovely collection of remixed fairytales and myths. From genies and mermaids to faes and dream-bringing butterflies, Lore has them all. I suppose the best way to go about this review is to dedicate a paragraph to each story.

SHIMMER: I enjoyed the set up of the book and the two main characters seemed very strong. The setting was lovely--a quaint seaside town (kind of reminds me of Portsmouth, NH, a NE seaside city I used to visit quite often.) I simply wished there was more time to develop Draven and Coral as it felt very insta-lovey. But then again--I suppose that's the curse of the short story--too much to say and not enough pages, lol. Other than that, Shimmer was a fun read.

BETWEEN: If you turned "Mean Girls" into a written piece of work and added a dash of magic, Between would be the result. After getting inducted into the Royals (aka the Plastics in my "Mean Girls" comparison), Lucy's life finally seems to be clicking into place until she realizes being that perfect girl comes with a heavy price. When Lucy betrays a friend, a string of bad luck happens and it seems as if only a mysterious genie could help her right her wrongs. The writing was very fast paced and I found Lucy's predicament to be quite interesting.

SUNSET MOON: This is my favorite tale of these anthology. The character development for Eloise is phenomenal. Although you don't know her for long (this is, after all, a short story and not a full length novel) the author does such an excellent job of portraying the core of her character that I felt as if I had spent 300+ pages with her. Her actions, her attitude and her thoughts brought Eloise to life.

THE MAKER: This was a tale of revenge. When Brett's life is ruined by a car accident and a backstabbing girlfriend, he's convinced that making his ex's life miserable will balance the scales of justice. So he decides to create a Golem named Jake to do his bidding only something strange begins to happen as Jake starts to develop a personality. I loved the Edgar Allen Poe reference in this story and Brett's narrative is definitely distinctive and engaging--it feels as if he is in the room directly telling me the story.

A BEAUTIFUL MOURNING: Love the play on words with the title! Title aside, I loved the descriptions put into the world building. Also, this is the first story I have read that involved the Mayan deities :) I don't know if it is strange for me to say, but Balam, a side character, was actually my favorite character even though he doesn't utter a single word the entire story. I suppose the phrase "action speaks more than words" holds true for him.

THE BARRICADE: I really enjoyed The Barricade but wished it could've been longer. There's so much potential for this story to evolve into a full length novel! I mean seriously, a murderous queen/mother, a fae heir that got backstabbed by a friend on orders of the queen and a human framed for the attempted murder--that's fairytale epicness right there (is epicness a word?) Nonetheless, the only quip I have is that I wished a got a bit more background info regarding the two main characters. Awesome tale!

Rating: