“Once Upon a Christmas” is a collection of five novellas by Toni Shiloh, Andrea Boyd, Mikal Dawn, Angela Ruth Strong, and Jaycee Weaver. Each novella is a modern twist on a fairy tale: Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Mulan, Cinderella, and the Little Mermaid. I found each story in this book really entertaining. All of these authors did an amazing job of making it easy to tell which fairy tale they were retelling. I thought they all were very creative. I have to say I especially liked that they all took place during Christmas time. I am a big fan of Christmas and I loved the cover which is why I wanted to read this book. I have not read any novellas or novels by these authors before so I was also excited to find new authors that I would want to read more books by. Even if you are not a fan of fairy tales I still think you would love these stories.
Review of “Nine” by Rachelle Dekker
This is the first novel I have read by Rachelle Dekker and I have to say honestly that I did not know exactly what to expect from it. I thought that the story blurb on the back of the book sounded extremely interesting which is why I decided to read it. The book starts out with a doctor named Olivia and a teenage girl named Lucy running from several men that were chasing them. However, you are not yet told a lot of information as to why they are being chased or where they are being chased from. Because of this vague and somewhat confusing, but intriguing beginning, I have to say I was really afraid that I was not going to like the book. I was also nervous that she was going to do what another author I read once did which is keep me confused the entire book. However, instead of leaving me confused, Rachelle allows you to slowly learn about what is going on as the main characters, Zoe and Lucy, learn about things with the caveat that you also get to learn more than they do. With this extra information does come some unknowns in and of itself though because one of the characters, Agent Seeley, is acting/talking one way around Lucy and Zoe but another way entirely around the other agents he works with. If you are looking for a good suspense novel with a lot of twists and turns that feels like you are putting a puzzle together right along with the main characters then look no further because this is the book you are looking for.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy in order to give an honest review.