Ariele Sieling

A Thank you to BookSirens and the Author for allowing me to read this. This is my honest and unbiased review*

Hello Fellow Readers,

I am a huge fan of retellings, So when I saw that this book I knew I wanted to read this, when I saw it was the first book in a series I grew excited. I've never read a science fiction retelling of Cinderella before, and while not my favorite fairy tale by far I still enjoy the twists I read when a author takes a hold of Cinderella's story.

Sieling's Cinderella is pretty different, in Midnight wings her name is El, and is a mechanic dreaming of becoming a jet pilot. El's stepmother, Patricia, and step-siblings, Lonnie and Bree are pretty horrid to El, as to be expected. Patricia is in fact very cruel and you will immediately hate her. The city and social structure of Rove is pretty interesting, I won't go into too much detail but they live on a ship traveling through space.

El and Ri's (Prince Charming) relationship is a bit fast, but with a page length of 128 pages it's hard to really develop or do slow burn. Also, because the short page length the ending did feel rushed. I felt like Sieling was setting up the story where it could go in different directions but ultimately just went for the fastest conclusion.

This book has a lot of surprisingly emotional layers to it, that was only hindered by the short length. Did I like? Yes, but I could have absolutely loved it had it only developed a bit more. We have a main female character dreaming about flying a jet, while also being a mechanic (I personally love any female characters where the author has them in a STEM career or hobby. I will read next book in the series where Jack and the beanstalk will be Sieling's next focus.

Overall, an interesting take on a old classic.… (meer)

A Thank you to Booksirens and the author for allowing me to read this book. This is my honest and unbiased review*

Hello Fellow Readers,

Since I liked Ariele Sieling's first book in the Rove City series, Midnight Wings, I decided to dive straight into the second book in the series. I was excited because it's based off of Jack and the beanstalk, which is not a retelling you really read to often. I was hoping to like this one more than Midnight Wings but it just didn't have the same magic the first book had. While this one had science fiction elements it also straddled the fantasy line as well.

In The Stalk you are not on Rove City but the planet Jord where Jack is a digger who feds the stalk everyday, until she is chosen to go up the stalk, only problem is that anyone who goes up the stalk kills themselves the next day. Jack doesn't want this to happen, so she does everything she can to fight against it. the idea behind the stalk is interesting and the horror that gets uncovered was interesting as well, but honestly I saw the twist a mile away.

I will say that unlike Midnight Wings this book did not end as abruptly, and didn't leave me yearning for more closure. It didn't appear to have a rushed ending, and was surprisingly action packed at the end. I did enjoy the book, and I will be reading the next in the series.

Overall, not as great as the first book, but still an interesting take on Jack and the Beanstalk.… (meer)