The Blair Book Project
Hello! I'm Janus. I am a 3D Graphics Artist by profession, and a proud Book Addict - i mean Enthusiast, and Blogger. I'm very much into Young Adult and Fantasy genre but I open myself to reading other genres from time to time. I run a blog launched as The Blair Book Project on Blogger, where I post entries such as my book reviews and other book related articles. I obviously got the name of this blog for the movie "The Blair Witch Project," why the name you may ask? I have no idea! I just thought it had a good ring to it. Ha! Ha! I post reviews twice a week and I regularly participate in book memes and features that readers and blogger all over the globe share their book interests (i.e. In My Malibox, Top Ten Tuesdays, etc). I have 230 GFC Followers. My blog has over 37,000 pageviews history and have roughly 200 page views per day. I have written over 267 reviews since my span of blogging. I am also an avid Instagram user, with over 350 followers, where I post pictures mostly of books I'm currently reading, books I got for review, galleys, purchased from bookstores, etc. (Statistics as of March 2013). My book reviews are not exactly "reviews" in a sense because I simply just type down what I feel about the book. What I write is solely my opinion and should not be taken as a definite basis of how the book is to be judged entirely. We all have different likes and dislikes so please do understand that although I'm very optimistic about the books I read, there will be negative comments towards those that I don't find suiting for my taste. BLOG URL: http://theblairbookproject.blogspot.com/ GOODREADS ACCOUNT: http://goodreads.com/janusvielle AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AFAGLA0UYBOMH?ie=UTF8&ref_=ya_56 INSTAGRAM: @janusvielle
“You’ll still be beautifully yourself when that pretty kitten has grown up to be a nice-enough cat and the wildflower has faded.”
I am one to never pass up a chance to read a fairy tale retelling. So it comes to no surprise that I just had to read The Stepsister’s Tale. A Cinderella story told in the eyes of the “wicked” stepsister? This should be interesting.
The Stepsister’s Tale indeed have quite an intriguing opening; how expectations of high society could push a person to deceive and live in denial.
Jane was a receptive character, it’s not hard to feel compassion for someone who refuses to stick to what is expected of her or what society dictates, and choose to do what it takes to take care of her family. I wouldn’t say the same for Jane’s younger sister, Maude, and her mother though. They felt a bit insignificant unless needed, but I can see that there really isn’t much for their characters to do in the story.
Cinderella – or rather, Isabella in this book – was such a spoiled brat! I’ve always come to love and pity our little heroine in the other stories but I had a sudden change of heart with this one. Goodness! I don’t think I have the patience to watch children such as her.
While I find the beginning of the book to my liking, I felt a little skeptical with the middle of the book. It seemed to have gone through a redundant strain of events with not much excitement. Although I understand the need to show the harshness of Jane and her family’s situation, I have to admit it was kind of boring.
I like the interesting twist to the classic fairy tale. I also highly appreciate the fact that another person was set to be the villain in the story – that was new! However, I feel like it was a little short on closure over some details. For one, whatever happened to the King’s lands? Given the scarcity of food for the village where Jane and her family lived, did the people get the chance to thrive again? What of the fairies rumored to be hiding in the woods? Did they truly exist or was that simply a figment of the imagination?
Although I must say I am happy over how Jane’s story has ended, there were several parts left unrequited, which I would have respected a lot more if given some conclusive answers.
*Thank you, Harlequin Teen and Netgalley for granting my request to view The Stepsister’s Tale.
For more of my reviews, please visit my blog:
The Blair Book Project @ www.theblairbookproject.blogspot.com
