A Whole New World by Liz Braswell

Title: A Whole New World: A Twisted Tale (Twisted Tales #1) 

Author: Liz Braswell

Publisher: 1 September 2015 by Disney Group Books

Pages: 384 pages

How I Read It: ARC ebook

Genre: fantasy, young adult, fairytale retellings, Disney

My Rating: 1 cup

Synopsis:

What if Aladdin had never found the lamp? This first book in the A Twisted Tale line will explore a dark and daring version of Disney's Aladdin. When Jafar steals the Genie's lamp, he uses his first two wishes to become sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Agrabah lives in fear, waiting for his third and final wish.To stop the power-mad ruler, Aladdin and the deposed princess Jasmine must unite the people of Agrabah in rebellion. But soon their fight for freedom threatens to tear the kingdom apart in a costly civil war. What happens next? A Street Rat becomes a leader. A princess becomes a revolutionary. And readers will never look at the story of Aladdin in the same way again.

My Thoughts

Sitting down to write this review, it's difficult to come up with some positives to start with. Admittedly, there is a lot of action throughout and the plot moves along at a good pace. It's comforting, in some respects, to revisit familiar characters ... and that's about where it ends. 

The first quarter of this book is the movie, literally - just about word for word. That in itself is predictable and disappointing, unless of course, you would love a written version of the movie. I, however, found it rather boring. The problem then is, even when you get past that first 25% there really is no improvement - it's not engaging and really rather juvenile. Yes, it is 'young adult' but this really is just 'young' .... very young. For example, one interaction between Aladdin and Jasmine went along the lines of:

"We were catching up. Jealous?"

Maybe it is geared to a young audience, however this supposed 'twisted', 'dark' tale would not fit - even if I found it to be more 'off white' than dark. Instead it's filled with 'goofy' terminology where the plot is stated as:

"how about we not give Mr. Revengey-pants here ideas"

Were Disney prescriptive in how this was to be written? Was this meant to be a simple fan fiction retelling for Disney fans? Or did the author just fail to deliver? For apart from its immaturity, Braswell's characters were lacking depth, were very much one dimensional and stereotypical heroes and villains. 

"From naive, lonely princess to winner of hearts and minds in less than a month."

When the story was no longer just the movie - verbatim - it still wasn't engaging, with juvenile writing and the characters leaving a lot to be desired, overall, it was just plain yawn worthy. This is very disappointing as the whole concept of twisting it, making it darker was enticing but sadly fell flat - very, very flat. 

"Jasmine surveyed the scene around the room and found that she didn't even have the energy to cry. Death, mess, sadness, confusion all around. Not a good place to start."

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Collector of Dying Breaths by M.J. Rose

Title:  The Collector of Dying Breaths (Reincarnationist #6)

Author: M.J. Rose

Publisher:  April 8 2014 Atria Books

ISBN: 1451621531 (ISBN13: 9781451621532)

Pages:  384 pages

How I Read It: eARC

Genre: historical fiction, mystery, suspense, fantasy, romance
Find it at Goodreads

 

Synopsis:

A lush and imaginative novel that crisscrosses time as a perfumer and a mythologist search for the fine line between potion and poison, poison and passion…and past and present.

Florence, Italy—1533: An orphan named René le Florentin is plucked from poverty to become Catherine de Medici’s perfumer. Traveling with the young duchessina from Italy to France, René brings with him a cache of secret documents from the monastery where he was trained: recipes for exotic fragrances and potent medicines—and a formula for an alchemic process said to have the potential to reanimate the dead. In France, René becomes not only the greatest perfumer in the country but the most dangerous, creating deadly poisons for his Queen to use against her rivals. But while mixing herbs and essences under the light of flickering candles, Rene doesn’t begin to imagine the tragic and personal consequences for which his lethal potions will be responsible.

Paris, France—The Present: A renowned mythologist, Jac L’Etoile, is trying to recover from personal heartache by throwing herself into her work, learns of the 16th century perfumer who may have been working on an elixir that would unlock the secret to immortality. She becomes obsessed with René le Florentin’s work—particularly when she discovers the dying breathes he had collected during his lifetime. Jac’s efforts put her in the path of her estranged lover, Griffin North, a linguist who has already begun translating René le Florentin’s mysterious formula. Together they confront an eccentric heiress in possession of a world-class art collection. A woman who has her own dark purpose for the elixir… a purpose for which she believes the ends will justify her deadly means. This mesmerizing gothic tale of passion and obsession crisscrosses time, zigzagging from the violent days of Catherine de Medici’s court to twenty-first century France. Fiery and lush, set against deep, wild forests and dimly lit chateaus, The Collector of Dying Breaths illuminates the true path to immortality: the legacies we leave behind.

Our thoughts:

We have enjoyed and admired this author, reading some of her previous novels and even giving one five stars – but with this particular tale – where did it all go wrong? Working with so much rich historical data the potential was huge and we can only speculate that perhaps, with this being book six in the series, this tale had run its course. Using aromatherapy ourselves and fascinated by reincarnation

“You won’t ever find peace until you accept there’s more than just the here and now. Souls live on.” 

we eagerly embraced this sequel. But like her main character, we have to question, “what had happened, or was Jac’s (MJ Rose) imagination running wild”!

Unfortunately, this book failed to work for us in several aspects. There were many inconsistencies throughout the book which we found frustrating – from simple geographical errors (a character was said to live in Bath and yet they travelled to Wales); to disjointed time jumps within the story without any explanation of the intervening years; to whiplash quick changes of a character’s perspective and emotions, again without any supporting explanation within the story.

As Rose writes, “She didn’t have to understand in order to accept other realms and constructs.” Indeed, in order to engage in this book one must abandon all understanding, because several of the happenings within the story are simply too convenient and far-fetched to possibly be believed – spontaneous discoveries, invisible forces, easily justified murder, perfectly falling tree branches – to the point that even the author notes “the coincidence of it seemed impossible” – yes, it certainly did!

The genre of this work seems unclear. It lacks a cohesive overall story and feels more like a jumble of individual character tales as they each traverse their own independent journey. At times it reads like a textbook with the level of detail that is given, and at others it veers into a religious dissertation. It never seems to find one definitive and unifying voice that pulls the tale together.

Finally, Jac, the main character, and her constant focus on her own emotions became tiresome and annoying over time. She is weak and misguided, feeling “what choice did she have?” when in fact she did have choices she simply chose to ignore, and even went along with amoral acts such as thievery and suspected murder without any question or protest.

We wanted to love this book. We truly did. We approached it with great anticipation given our positive experiences from the author’s previous novels. We were sadly disappointed.

Our Rating: