Book Review: Unlocking the Spell by E. D. Baker

Now that Annie has helped her sister Gwendolyn (a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty) wake up from the 100-year curse by finding her beloved prince, you would think that things would get back to normal. Think again! That beloved prince, Beldegard, is stuck in the body of a bear and the only way that Annie can be free of the two irritating lovebirds is to help-by finding the evil dwarf who cast the spell. Luckily, Annie has assistance from handsome prince Liam, and she has many tricks up her non-magical sleeve . . . (From Goodreads)

Best Bits: Along the same lines of The Wide-Awake Princess, I absolutely loved all of the fairy tale characters that popped up in this one. Snow White, Rose Red, and so many more that I won't spoil for you. There's something so fun about seeing how Annie's anti-magic gift will impact the fairy tales we've all heard about, and then how she'll fix any problems that arise. This time around, Gwendolyn is along for the quest (to turn Beldegard back into a human). This creates a new sort of trouble for the street-wise Annie, because Gwendolyn has never been away from home. She doesn't quite understand why they need to keep their identities secret, or why Beldegard shouldn't follow them into towns and villages. It's a great contrast between the two princesses. 

Nit Picks: My only issue is that Annie feels unsure throughout the book about Liam's feelings for her. I didn't think it was necessary and if it had been omitted I could have focused on the variety of ways that Annie is able to help the many characters that cross her path. 

Unlocking the Spell 
By E. D. Baker
261 Pages
Published by Bloomsbury USA
Purchased
Rating: B

Teaser Tuesday (October 16)

What is teaser tuesday? It's a meme hosted by Should Be Reading and here are the rules: Grab your current read... Open to a random page Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on the page Don't include spoilers.

"Being awake in a castle where everyone else was sleeping had made her appreciate the little things, like a child's laughter, a dog's bark, and voices rising and falling with the ebb and flow of conversation. Although silence had never bothered her before, too prolonged a silence now made her uneasy."

-Page 10, Unlocking the Spell, by E. D. Baker

Waiting on Wednesday (June 20)

Waiting on Wednesday was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This weekly meme shares the upcoming books that I'm most excited about.

Unlocking the Spell: A Tale of the Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker

A sequel to The Wide-Awake Princess mixes E. D. Baker's inimitable humor with a delightful cast of fairy tale characters.

Now that Annie has helped her sister Gwendolyn (a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty) wake up from the 100-year curse by finding her beloved prince, you would think that things would get back to normal. Think again! That beloved prince, Beldegard, is stuck in the body of a bear and the only way that Annie can be free of the two irritating lovebirds is to help-by finding the evil dwarf who cast the spell. Luckily, Annie has assistance from handsome prince Liam, and she has many tricks up her non-magical sleeve... (From Goodreads)

Published by Bloomsbury USA

Release Date: October 2, 2012

My thoughts: Ahhhhh! Joy! 

Book Review: The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker

In this new stand-alone fairy tale, Princess Annie is the younger sister to Gwen, the princess destined to be Sleeping Beauty. When Gwennie pricks her finger and the whole castle falls asleep, only Annie is awake, and only Annie—blessed (or cursed?) with being impervious to magic—can venture out beyond the rose-covered hedge for help. She must find Gwen’s true love to kiss her awake.

But who is her true love? The irritating Digby? The happy-go-lucky Prince Andreas, who is holding a contest to find his bride? The conniving Clarence, whose sinister motives couldn’t possibly spell true love? Joined by one of her father’s guards, Liam, who happened to be out of the castle when the sleeping spell struck, Annie travels through a fairy tale land populated with characters both familiar and new as she tries to fix her sister and her family...and perhaps even find a true love of her own.

Do you think you know what happened after Princess Gwendolyn (Sleeping Beauty) pricked her finger on the spinning wheel and fell into a magical sleep? According to Baker's new book, Disney got it wrong. It wasn't prince charming who saved Gwendolyn, it was her younger sister, Annie.

Fearing a fate similar to Gwendolyn's, Annie's parents allow only one fairy to bestow a magical gift upon their daughter. This gift means that Annie will be impervious to all forms of magic for the rest of her life. Her gift also drains the magic from others around her. This has made Annie an outcast in her family's castle. Since both her mother and sister were given the gift of beauty, it begins fades in Annie's presence. Despite this, Annie is very kind to those around her. After everyone inside the castle has fallen asleep, she takes time to make sure that everyone is in a comfortable position before she heads off to find a way to break the spell. Annie was also fairly sensible. Instead of relying solely on Gwen's obnoxious boyfriend, Prince Digby, to break the spell, Annie invited numerous other princes back to the castle.

There were a lot of other fairytale references in this book that I really enjoyed (Rapunzel, the Frog Prince). While I think that some younger readers may not recognize all of them, as an older reader I really appreciated these extra twists in the story. I also enjoyed the romance between Annie and Liam. Their feelings for each other seemed to be more genuine, because they weren't based around fairy gifts like beauty, and grace. Don't hesitate simply because it's a middle-grade book. The Wide-Awake Princess was a unique fairytale, with a strong, intelligent heroine.

The Wide-Awake Princess
By E.D. Baker
Published by Bloomsbury USA
272 Pages
Rating: B+
Release Date: May 11, 2010

Thanks to Kate from Bloomsbury USA, and E.D. Baker for this one!

Teaser Tuesday (April 13)

What is teaser tuesday?
It's a meme hosted by Should Be Reading and here are the rules:
Grab your current read...
Open to a random page
Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on the page
Don't include spoilers

"Somewhere in the castle, something crashed and shattered, but the sound was muffled and Annie couldn't tell its direction. "Help!" she yelled to the guards."

-Page 25, The Wide-Awake Princess, by E.D. Baker (from the ARC edition, subject to change)

In My Mailbox (April 11)

In my mailbox was created by Kristi of The Story Siren, who was inspired by Pop Culture Junkie. Here are the books I got this week...

For Review:

The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker
(Published by Bloomsbury USA/Release Date: April 27, 2010)

In this new stand-alone fairy tale, Princess Annie is the younger sister to Gwen, the princess destined to be Sleeping Beauty. When Gwennie pricks her finger and the whole castle falls asleep, only Annie is awake, and only Annie—blessed (or cursed?) with being impervious to magic—can venture out beyond the rose-covered hedge for help. She must find Gwen’s true love to kiss her awake.

But who is her true love? The irritating Digby? The happy-go-lucky Prince Andreas, who is holding a contest to find his bride? The conniving Clarence, whose sinister motives couldn’t possibly spell true love? Joined by one of her father’s guards, Liam, who happened to be out of the castle when the sleeping spell struck, Annie travels through a fairy tale land populated with characters both familiar and new as she tries to fix her sister and her family...and perhaps even find a true love of her own.

A huge thanks to E.D. Baker and Kate at Bloomsbury for this one! I'm loving it so far.

Waiting on Wednesday (February 17)

This was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine. Basically, these books haven't been released yet, but I'm eagerly anticipating them.

The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker

In this new stand-alone fairy tale, Princess Annie is the younger sister to Gwen, the princess destined to be Sleeping Beauty. When Gwennie pricks her finger and the whole castle falls asleep, only Annie is awake, and only Annie—blessed (or cursed?) with being impervious to ma

gic—can venture out beyond the rose-covered hedge for help. She must find Gwen’s true love to kiss her awake.
But who is her true love? The irritating Digby? The happy-go-lucky Prince Andreas, who is holding a contest to find his bride? The conniving Clarence, whose sinister motives couldn’t possibly spell true love? Joined by one of her father’s guards, Liam, who happened to be out of the castle when the sleeping spell struck, Annie travels through a fairy tale land populated with characters bo

th familiar and new as she tries to fix her sister and her family...and perhaps even find a true love of her own.

Published by Bloomsbury USA

Release Date: April 27, 2010