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[katara]

Title: Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen (Villains #1)
Author: Serena Valentino
Format: Epub
Rating: 2.5/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: March 14, 2018 to March 16, 2018
Book Summary: The tale of the young princess and her evil stepmother, the Wicked Queen, is widely known. Despite a few variations from telling to telling, the story remains the same—the Queen was jealous of the girl’s beauty, and this jealousy culminated in the Queen’s attempt on the sweet, naive girl’s life.

Another tale far less often spoken of is the one that explains what caused the Queen to become so contemptuously vile. Still, some have attempted to guess at the reason. Perhaps the Queen’s true nature was that of a wicked hag and her beautiful, regal appearance a disguise used to fool the King. Others claim that the Queen might have hated the girl for her resemblance to the King’s first wife. Mostly, the Queen is painted as a morally abhorrent woman who never loved another being during the course of her miserable life.

In fact, the theories about exactly what cause the Queen’s obsessive vanity and jealous rage are too numerous to catalog. This book recounts a version of the story that has remained untold until now. It is a tragic tale of love and loss, and it contains a bit of magic. It is a tale of the Wicked Queen…
Book Review: Are you a fan of Snow White and the Seven Drawfs or Once Upon A Time?

Always wanted to know what made the Queen the way she was?

Then this book may just be for you!

In a land far away, we find our villainess-to-be as the daughter of a mirrormaker. During the course of her life, her father was abusive to her, belittling her for being the reason behind the death of her mother. One day, a king comes by and admires her beauty but the young queen believes he is just merely lying to her with flattery. When her father dies, the king marries the Queen. For a wedding gift, he gives her the mirror her father made before his death but the mirror unsettles the queen immensely. There is just something about it. Then the King dies and the Queen begins to change. She starts to become depressive and hates any sort of happiness. Then the mirror and hags push her toward the darkness until it has pretty much swallowed up.

This book is depressing and sad. Here I thought I would find a woman like the evil queen named Regina from Once Upon A Time. Instead, I find one that was the complete opposite of her. She lacked character, backbone, and confidence. I understand that abuse can do things to a person and I can understand that this is a character that feels that any sort of flattery is a lie, but I was hoping that there would be something - anything - that would bridge her to the queen of the movie. It just wasn't there.

The premise of this story was rather interesting. I love Disney movies and this one was a favorite of my Mom's. She has always loved the Evil Queen since as far as I can remember. Unfortunately this story did little justice to the beginnings of the queen. While the orginial story dealt with obsessive vanity, this one dealt with the abuse and lack of any self-esteem.

As for the story itself, the premise was interesting and one I think I would have enjoyed more if there had been a bit more character development with the queen. There was no name given to her and her character really didn't feel like it connected to the character of the Disney's Snow White, more like this character simply stepped in from the shadows and took over. I was thoroughly disappointed in this book.

Will this deter me from reading the rest of the books from the series? No I am planning on reading the others soon.

[ 177 ]

[katara]

Title: Harley Quinn (2016-) #39
Author: Frank Tieri (Illustrator), Alex Sinclair, Amanda Conner (Illustrator), Iñaki Miranda (Illustrator)
Format: Epub
Rating: 3/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: March 16, 2018
Book Summary: “ANGRY BIRD” part three! So far, Harley’s been able to take everything the Penguin threw at her in their war to keep him out of New York City—but he’s been holding one of Gotham City’s vilest villains in reserve! How will Harley keep her cool when the Penguin unleashes that frosty fiend, Mr. Freeze?
Book Review: This issue picks up right where the last issue has finished leaving off.

The Penguin has pretty much gained control over Coney Island and his goons are set on making sure that everyone bows down to Penguin. As each villain begins to take up a section of Coney Island, Killer Croc has set his eyes on the aquarium area. Unfortunately another villain has also made his stake there as well. But Croc isn't going to let King Shark take over a territory and he makes sure that King Shark isn't going to be a problem. Of course, all of this is mainly isn't shown but the blood pretty much gives a clue that King Shark did not come out of it okay.

As for Penguin, he is currently dining at Condiment King's. Here his two big goons are outside enjoying a dining of hot dogs when one of the Tweedles comes out to see them. He admits that they are his favorite but he is ends up being on their menu as well.

And Harley. Well, she is still doing what she does best -kicking ass. She still seems to have no idea whatsoever of the trouble that the Penguin seems to be causing but then again her hands have been tied with the endless array of villains. All this makes Harley exhausted to the point she ends up collapsing in the arms of Red Tool.

Of course, a Harley story isn't a Harley story without another villain showing up at the very end!


With all these villains running around Coney Island, you would think that Harley has been told or even heard of them taking over. Yet there seems to be no mention of this whatsoever with her. It is like Harley has pretty much burned all the bridges to her home. I'm not sure what to think about this because this seems to be so out of character from the Harley I have seen in the past. She has always been there for her friends and her gang and now she doesn't seem worried or even to care. I understand that she wants to have time to mourn her loss but Harley doesn't seem to be one of those to mourn too long. So what exactly is going on with her?

My thoughts are I am still very much on the fence with this series. I am trying very hard to stay positive when it comes to this series and the changing of the guard but there is a part of me that feels like that Harley isn't going to be the Harley that drew me into this series. Does this mean I will give up on the series? I'm hoping not. I am still hanging on to it and I am hoping that there will always be a change that will prove to me that this series is worth continuing.