Here There Be Books (BL)

Originally posted at Here There Be Books (goes live 7/9/13).This got off to a good start! I really liked the first few chapters. I liked the world, I liked the characters, I liked the fairy tale stuff sprinkled throughout. And then! It took a turn. Sunday and the frog fell in love, the world exploded, and idk what was going on. I mean, okay, in fairy tales it's not too unusual for people to fall in love in three days (even if one of those people is a frog). I could understand that! But then it turned out that EVERYONE was magical and EVERYONE had a special gift and MAGICAL DESTINY and, based on the previous mostly-normal chapters...I don't think the forshadowing/hints about that were strong enough to support the 180* I felt I went through in that single chapter. It was like slow buildup, slow buildup-- BAM! MAGICAL EVERYTHING AND THINGS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME! And it was really weird!Eventually, though, I got over that too. And then I started to enjoy the book again! Here's what I liked:The romance. It was a little melodramatic and WOE IS ME but that got balanced out by the adorableness of the prince trying to win back Sunday. The creepy faeries. So cool! More creepy faeries, please. I love it when magical creatures go slightly askew from how you'd usually think of them-- so, for instance, in Enchanted the fairy godmothers are, uh. Not cuddly and plump and nice. Creepy! Yay!The mixing in of different faerie tales. For example, here's some of what I figured out: Jack the Giant Killer, those shoes that dance you to death, the shoe house, the swan princess, and the frog prince (of course). So cool! Especially since it was all, like the faeries, just a little bit dark and creepy.Sunday's sisters are amazing! I want to read books from their POVs, too-- especially Thursday, who is a pirate queen. Luckily, I have Hero, the companion book which is coming out in October. It's Saturday's book! Saturday the Amazon woodcutter warrior lady. Yay!All in all, Enchanted was a wonderful fairy tale retelling/re-imagining/whatever! I mean, yeah, I had a few issues with the pacing in the beginning, there. But the rest of it was so good that I don't really mind about that. If you, like me, are a fan of fairy tales, you HAVE to read Enchanted. It's creepy, it's slightly gothic, a fabulously magical plot, great characters and enough romance to satisfy anyone.