Book Review: Snow and Poison by Melissa de la Cruz

Snow & Poison by Melissa de la Cruz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a Snow White retelling that was okay. I liked how the story was-it was entertaining and enjoyable. But when it came to the execution, it was a couple of chapters too long. I did care about the characters, which was good, but when it came to the retelling, it was alright, nothing to run home and tell Mama about.

I did like the relationship Snow White, or Sophie had with her stepmother. I was honestly waiting for the stepmother to hate Snow White and go evil, but instead, she was always helping Sophie, and even helped her when the things she thought she did were evil was actually helping her. Which was both shocking and really good in a good way. I really like that dynamic, and her father is kind of helping her, but at the same time, he really doesn't help her at all. How he died was sad, but it helped the both of them get stronger, in my opinion.

Prince Philip...eh, he was okay. He wasn't the kind of dude I would hang out with, but I can see why Sophie fell in love with him. Placing the story in Bavaria was pretty interesting, and it set the tone of how the story would be told. I think I would like to see more of Bavaria, but then I realized as I kept reading...I didn't give one flying flip about Spain. I don't know why, maybe it was King Ferdinand doing all this horrible stuff to break Philip and Sophie up. Maybe it's because of how Sophie had to escape from his men-I don't know, but I felt like close to the ending it felt flat.

I did like the children in the book and how they all grew to love Sophie when she taught them how to read. All of them were so cute and adorable, and I'm glad that Sophie and Philip adopted them.

All in all, this was an okay retelling of Snow White. Nothing to come home and tell mama about, tbh.

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Book Review: Return to the Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz

Return to the Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have to say, this book is better than the first book, which is weird for me because normally the second book don't do well than the first. But when I started reading this book, I was instantly hooked all the way to the last page. So the Descendants of the Disney Villains (Maleficent, Cruella de Vil, the Evil Queen, and Jafar) Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos, are quite happy in Auradon-going to Auradon Prep, playing for the Auradon Knights, making friends, even dating King Ben-but of course, did you think their happiness was going to last?

Even when they started to get weird messages about going back to the Isle of the Lost?

At first, they thought it was their parents sending them that message-but Maleficent's a small lizard, sleeping away in a little glass, and Cruella, Evil Quen and Jafar? Nowhere to be found. Then Carlos found the DarkNet, where there was a photo of the four of them, calling them the 'AntiHeros' and have a red X over their faces including over King Ben. So the four of them decided to go back to Isle of the Lost, but after the dance.

But it took some planning, especially when Jay had an interview with Jordan and tricked her into wishing he had the keys to the royal limo (like why Jay why) but once they went to the dance for the Auradon Knights and had to fake that they're sick, they went to the limo to go back to the Isle of the Lost.

They were stopped by King Ben that was coming back from Camelot because they were having a dragon problem and thought the dragon was Maleficent, but towards the end it wasn't. He was wondering why they have the limo and how Carlos can drive a car, but once Mal explaned what was going on, he let them go back to the Isle.

When they went back to the Isle of the Lost, they started looking for their parents. Jafar left Iago at the Junk Shop, but Jay did try and steal Anthony Tremaine's watch, but slipped it in his pocket, Mal went back to Bargain Castle only to find her things left untouched, so she took a backpack and packed it with her things, the Evil Queen left her heart box, and Cruella left her fur coats.

So where were they?

Underground. Looking for their talismans-The Golden Coba, the Ring of Envy, the Dragon’s Egg and Fruit of Venom.

So once they met the AntiHeros Club, they went to find the four talismans before their parents do. And they did, even though they had some obstacles, but they passed them. Then at the end, it turns out the purple dragon wasn’t Maleficent, but was Mad Maddy’s grandmother, Mim, and they stopped her before she destroyed anyone else. And then they returned to the Auradon, and everything was back to normal….for now.

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Book Review: Isle of the Lost (Descendants, #1) by Melissa de la Cruz

The Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book on a trip to Florida and I finished it while on the road coming back home-and OMG I love it. This book is the prequel to the movie Descendants on Disney Channel and the show Wicked World, and I honestly fell in love with it. The children of famous Disney Villians-Maleficent, Jafar, Evil Queen, and Cruella de Vil-are looking for the Dragon's Eye, Maleficent's magic staff, that is at the Forbidden Fortress, in the middle of nowhere at the Isle of the Lost. Mal wants to find the Dragon's Eye so she can make Evie, the new girl in school, fall asleep for a thousand years, even though at her Howling party at Carlos's house when she locked her in the closet....the problem is, it didn't work since Mal touched it and was knocked out for a moment, but then she woke up from it.

Jay, Jafar's son, wants to steal the Dragon's Eye from Mal because....because...oh good lord, I forgot why he wanted to steal the Dragon's Eye from Mal....maybe to make his father happy or something like that???

Evie went along with her new friend Carlos because of his machine that made a hole in the dome, and Carlos went along because of his machine. But at the end of their adventures, all of the villans were disappointed in them because none of them got the Dragon's Eye, including Maleficent when Mal can back and she had the staff in her hand.

How did she get it back, you ask?

That evil, evil raven pet of hers, Diablo, grabbed it (oh, did I mention that Diablo came back to life???) and brought it to her.

This book also share a little bit of Aurdon (I cannot spell that place), especially Prince Ben, the son of Beast and Belle, and his little problem with some of the characters on his island, his girlfriend Princess Audrey, and his weird dream of Mal and frolicking in a garden with her. Then at the end of the book, he has an idea after feeling sorry for the kids of the Isle of the Lost....

I loved it and now I'm planning to get the second book real soon and maybe try and catch the movie.

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Mini Book Haul

Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm

The Isle of the Lost: A Descendants Novel by Melissa de la Cruz