E. D. Baker (1)Besprekingen

Magic

Meh, cute, but the male romantic lead has zero redeeming qualities.

Princess Emma is the almost-16-year-old only child of her parents and is not interested in marrying the self-centered Prince Jorge to whom her mother is planning to marry her. To avoid him when he arrives, multiple days she goes to her favorite spot - the swamp - and is eventually persuaded to kiss a frog who claims to be an enchanted prince named Eadric. The kiss doesn’t change him back into a prince but her into a frog. He has experience being a frog, so he helps her adjust and escape from predators in the immediate aftermath. Even as a frog, she has her distinctive, unprincess-like laugh.

They have various encounters while seeking a solution to their froghood - including a persistently-pursuing white dog, an unfriendly witch who catches them, a very nice bat, a helpful snake, giants, and other - before reaching her Aunt Grassina for assistance.

Grassina is a nice witch and the protector of the kingdom. Her beloved had disappeared after her mother had transformed him into an animal. They find him, too, but no one knows how to change him back. It is an entertaining adventure.½

Millie and Audun are getting reading for their wedding when something goes terribly wrong-her brother, Felix, gets kidnapped. He is stuck in a pond with other frogs. The other adults are busy solving other problems in the kingdom so Mille and Audun know they need to help Felix. But in order to do this, they have to fight Wizard Olebald. They have to do all they can to get her brother back and the family together so they can continue on with the wedding!

I preferred the first book in the series, but this one was necessary to tie up the loose ends.

I really liked how other fairy tales were subtly woven into the story.

What do you do when a curse is genetic and comes around puberty? You rebel like a proper teenager would and look for the cure. Which is even more fun when being around the family members who are infected with the curse, which in nice words, turns a kind person into a big grumpy as- jerk.

This book reads for later teens, it's more wordy and written curiously. I found my attention drifting and had to set it aside and return it to the library for a later date. It's not bad, it's more I didn't expect to need to pay so much attention to things written, a single sentence not taken in makes for a confusing page, or minor details make for a dozen questions if you really think on them. Definitely not for little kids unless they're fully invested.

Magic using has its consequences. All that time that Princess Emma, the Green Witch, spent as a dragon means that her daughter can change into a dragon (green, of course). Sadly, Millie changes whenever she gets angry and can't change back until she's calm again -- and Millie has a hot temper (pun intended).

Millie's paternal grandmother has not improved. The queen insists that Millie spend her birthday at their castle in Upper Montevista when all the preparations have already been made to hold it at Greater Greensward. Millie tries to keep her temper, but finding out the real reason for her grandmother's insistence is too much. Now everyone is going to know. Millie's dual nature is already bad for keeping suitors. An old witch tells her that the Blue Witch of the North can help her. Millie was going to go alone, but her cousin-once-removed, son of her great-aunt Grassina and Haywood, not to mention Zoey, daughter of Li'l and the Prince of Vampires.½

The Salamander Spell is about Princess Emma's mother, Chartreuse, and her Aunt Grassina, when they were girls. Grassina meets her beloved, and Chartreuse meets Emma's father. We also learn how Emma's grandmother fell under the family curse and her grandfather became a ghost. I could feel sorry for Chartreuse, whose dreams of coming into her magic were dashed, if she hadn't been so nasty to her younger sister.

Instead of a bat as our heroine's friend, we get a green snake named Pippa.

Grassina has to face monsters before and after her magic awakens. We who have already read Once Upon a Curse know why Grassina finding the Swamp Fairy might or might not have been a good thing.

Wonderful conclusion to a wonderful tale.

And really, there's no such thing as perfect moment, except the one that you are in...

A quick amusing read.
I recognise the fairy tales and enjoy the authors take on the whole magical gifts thing. Not to mention fairies.

I mean, can you imagine living in this sort of world?
All the royalty is enchanted to be superficially perfect, lacking any substantial practical skills they actually learned.

Annie is adorable practical princess. And, speaking personally, I think her gift is way more useful and amazing.

Very enjoyable.

It's a trip to the past to find out the exact wording of the curse that falls upon the daughters of Emma's line should they touch a flower once they reach sixteen. If you've read 'A Sound of Thunder' by Ray Bradbury, don't worry. Emma, Edric, and Lily don't have to be THAT scrupulous about not changing the past. On the other hand, do enjoy Emma learning how much history can be forgotten or distorted over the centuries. The tournament scene back in the present day is quite exciting, and not for the usual reasons. I did not expect the resolution.

Not a bad little reworked version of Sleeping Beauty. When the first-born princess is cursed with the classic Sleeping Beauty curse, her parents ask the fairies to prevent any such thing happening to the second-born-- so she becomes immune to and reflective of magic. When her sister's curse strikes, extremely sensible Annabelle is the only one in the castle left awake, so she sets out to find her sister's true love and bring him back to do the kissing. Accompanied by a guardsman who was out of the castle when the magic struck, Annabelle collects a fair number of princes, also running into versions of Hansel and Gretel, the enchanted Bear Prince, Rapunzel, the Princess and the Pea, etc. Despite a few plot twists, all ends happily and appreciatedly.

It's funny, and reasonably original. I must be getting old, because the idea of people finding their true loves at 16 and under doesn't wear well on me, though. However, I don't think I'm fair to this book because it reminds me rather too much of the outstanding Hamster Princess version by Ursula Vernon (Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible) , and suffers by comparison.

Liked this one. Too long ago to recall much about it, though.

Surprisingly touching. I like it.

Page 136. That's when I finally was interested! Meandering little tale. I only kept reading it because I didn't have time to find anything else.

Extremely muddled, with a tendency to meander along-- for the first 5 chapters. Then it picks up and becomes a quirky little adventure, perfect for 10-and-up. But, why-oh-why, must it be expected that receiving one's first kiss at an (guess-timated) age of 12 is normal? It shouldn't be!

Serafina is a happy 14-year-old whose greatest wish is to one day marry Alek, her handsome and wonderful boyfriend. However, that dream may prove impossible. When Serafina receives a letter from a great aunt she didn't know she had, she goes to visit the woman and soon finds herself caught up in terrible magic. She has now become the next Baba Yaga, cursed to truthfully answer questions (only one per person, the first question they ask her). Each question physically ages her, and she has no control over what sorts of questions she answers or the kind of answers she gives. Can she somehow find a way to break the curse and return to her old life with Alek?

This is another one of my old conference ARCs that I never got around to reading. Better late than never.

This wasn't bad, I guess, but it also wasn't particularly great. Serafina and Alek were a cloyingly sweet and perfect couple, so I actually preferred it once Serafina was under the Baba Yaga curse and cut off from him and the rest of her family. Maks the cat and the talking skulls that protected Serafina and her house were more enjoyable characters.

My knowledge of Baba Yaga is limited to vague memories of one or more picture books my mom read to me when I was little. I remember the house with chicken legs and that's pretty much it. It was interesting watching Serafina figure out the details and limitations of her Baba Yaga abilities, and there were a few great moments, like when Maks managed to trick a visitor into asking a useless question. The people who visited Serafina had all kinds of motivations, and sometimes the answers she was required to give made her happy while other times they horrified her.

Unfortunately, Serafina had very limited control over everything going on around her. There were only a couple times when she (or Maks) herded her visitors into asking particular types of questions - instead, she relied more heavily on just leaving when the questions she was being asked worried or upset her, or when she was being asked too many questions and was worried that she was aging too much. She made a few friends here and there, and that helped, but the story was designed so that, in the end, it was others who had adventures and brought the results to her door. For example, Alek had many adventures, all of which happened off-page and were explained to Serafina in a brief summary near the end of the book. It was disappointing.

I noticed one major error near the end of the book that I hope was fixed prior to publication. Someone asked Serafina a question and, although they'd never previously asked Baba Yaga a question, she didn't answer in her Baba Yaga voice. It happened during a pretty important part so, again, hopefully it was caught and fixed.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

An enjoyable read with a few funny part here and there. I didn't read the first book but, it wasn't hard to put the pieces together on what happen.

As for the romance it not rush, Emma and Eadric seem to be close as friends. Throughout the story they took their time to get to know each other.

There not really any thing new about a treasure hunt finding ingredients to turn Haywood back in to human with a few fairly tale reference throw in. It is a fun read and I will keep my eyes out for the next book in the series.

OMG this was so cute. I loved the Disney movie The Princess and The Frog, so when I saw this I had to give it a go. I enjoyed reading the tale of Princess Emeralda or better known as Emma. Emma who is not your typical princess and who is always clumsy. One day she is told that she is now engaged to a prince that loves himself more than he loves others. Not wishing to marry a vain prince Emma decides run away to her favourite place by the swamp. In the swamp she meets a talking toad. This toad claims to be the lost prince Eadric. He tells her that he has been cursed by an old witch and that he needs a princess to kiss him to return back into a frog. So Emma kisses him and then promptly turns in a frog herself. With the help from a flurry of various animals. Emma and Eadric go on a adventure to find a way to turn them both back into humans.

This story has everything a classic fairy-tale should have, witches, fairies and lots of magic. I adored the writing style and the humour of this adorable tale.

This was adorable, it was like a mish mash of fairytales all rolled into one main story about Sleeping Beauty. I did not expect all the "extras" in the stories, hansle and Gretel, princess and the pea, frog prince, beauty and the beast .. I just couldn't .. it was so cute and fun to read and I actually might continue in the series. And the way they told this was spellbinding I was so caught up in the magic.

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Tales of the Frog Princess series. I borrowed this audiobook through Audible Escapes.

Audiobook Quality (4/5): The audiobook was decently done, no complaints. The narrator was easy to listen to and did character voices well.

Story (3/5): This is a very simple story intended for a younger audience, I did not enjoy it much, it was just too simple for me. It's a typical fairy tale with a bit of a twist. The plot is very basic and it is written at a low reading level and predictable. It's not a bad story, I just didn't find it all that interesting. The premise of the story is that Princess Emma wants to get out of marrying Prince Jorge so she kisses a frog in the swamp who says he’s a prince. Instead Emma herself is turned into a frog and her and the frog (Eadric) now both have to figure out how to be turned human again.

Characters (2/5): The characters were okay I guess. They are very over characterized and very one dimensional. I thought Emma’s humored tolerance of Eadric’s ridiculousness was silly and patronizing. Eadric was a pretty lame character and because of his denseness was unable to form any type of equal partnership with Emma. All the characters in here were childish and somewhat annoying.

Setting (3/5): This whole story is set in a very typical type of fairy tale world. You got your basic castle, spooky forest, etc. Nothing special here.

Writing Style (2/5): The whole story is written in a very simple and straight-forward style. It comes across as an over-characterized fairy tale, yes there is a twist but it was more silly than ironic. I just didn’t enjoy this. Looking back at my reviews I have also read “The Wide-Awake Princess” and felt the same way about that book. I might have enjoyed Baker’s writing style when I was five or six years old, but now I just find it predictable, bland and boring. These are definitely not stories that carry over well to adults.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this is a cute and very simple princess story that is better suited for younger readers than adults. Everything is very simple, very predictable, and pretty darn boring. I didn’t enjoy the characters or the setting, but technically there’s nothing wrong with the story. There just wasn’t much here that appealed to me despite my love of fairy tale retellings. I have come to the solid conclusion that I just don’t enjoy ED Baker’s writing style and will be looking elsewhere for more fairy retellings to read.

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