Book Review: Mother Knows Best by Serena Valentino

Pages: 400
Released: August 7, 2018
Publisher: Disney
Received: Finished copy from publisher
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

These books are wacky. I've now read three of these Disney Villain origin stories (Ursula, The Queen from Snow White) and I'm noticing a pretty consistent pattern. Basically:

Intriguing plot. I get hooked by these stories. I want to know what happens next. I wouldn't say they're well-plotted stories, since they're actually pretty ridiculous. But I can't help enjoying them.

So-so writing. The writing is pretty stilted. The dialogue is sometimes painful. I feel like I'm reading fan fiction.

Sympathetic villain. The origin stories turn the villains into saccharine sweet victims of horrible circumstances. It's a little much, but it's also pretty effective. I liked Gothel, I wanted her to win, and my heart broke for her every time her situation got worse and worse.

Side characters. There's usually at least one side character that's, if not fully developed, they're written in such a way that I care for them and enjoy reading about them.

Background story.  Serena Valentino has created three new characters that appear in each of these books. They're interesting, a little annoying, and I feel like I want to dislike them but can't help being intrigued by their side story. I want to trust them and like them, and I do, but then they go and do something that makes me question how good and trustworthy they actually are. I just want to know! We get glimpses into what they're up to and I just want to shake them and get them to tell me what's going on already (which is usually how the main villain character feels about them, too).

Bottom line?

I like these books. I roll my eyes and feel ridiculous and then I gobble them up. I'll keep reading this series.

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Book Review: Poor Unfortunate Soul by Serena Valentino

Pages: 208
Publisher: Disney
Released: July 26, 2016
Received: Finished copy from publisher
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

This is a really tiny book with a whole lot of plot packed into it. There's really four stories here: Ursula's past, Ursula's present (the movie), the strange sisters, and the princess. This was good since all the stories were mostly interesting, but also bad because all the stories suffered from "not enough."

Ursula's past was acceptable. I'll buy what the author is selling here, even if it did seem a little far fetched. But, fairy tale, so, yeah, I can accept far fetched in this context.

Ursula's present was entirely underwhelming. Mostly it's just word for word taken from the movie, it's barely there, and when it does go off script it's not very good. Triton is made into a super evil man whose complete cruelty led entirely to Ursula's villainous ways. Even taking into account that this is from Ursula's perspective, this still didn't feel right. This didn't ring true to any of the characters and it lacked the psychological depth and character development needed in a reverse perspective story.

But those other two storylines? To me, those made the book worth reading. There were a lot of references to the first two books in the series, but I didn't get them because 1) I read the first book years and years ago so I don't remember much of anything, and 2) I never read the second book. It was a little annoying not knowing exactly what was being referred to, but it didn't affect my ability to follow the story.

Even still, these side characters were more interesting and I cared more about them than I did about Ursula. The three sisters were annoying, but I didn't get the sense you were supposed to think they weren't annoying. The cat, the princess, the prince, and the nanny were all likable and I wish the book spent more time on them.

Also, there's a big cliffhanger at the end. 

Bottom line

The books in this series seem to be pretty consistent. They're kind of all over the place and written poorly, but despite that, they're also engaging and, overall, I enjoy them. I would definitely check these books out of the library and will continue to follow the series.

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Cover Review: Fairest of All

Cover Crazy is a weekly meme hosted by Tawni at The Book Worms where a beautiful cover is featured each week for all of us to admire. I am going to use my Cover Crazy posts as an opportunity to review a book cover I love or review any cover (even the ones I don't love) from a book I've read. This week's Cover Crazy is for:

Fairest of All by Serena Valentino

Isn't this cover striking? I'm a huge Disney fan, so I'm already biased in favor of a cover like this. Disney did such a wonderful job in drawing the Queen, making her look beautiful, evil, powerful, and terrifying all at once.

I love the swoop of her eye brow and her hooded eye. There really aren't many colors on this cover, but the colors that are here are gorgeous and help draw my eye across her whole face.

At first glance it may seem like this cover doesn't say much about the story, but it actually does sum up the book perfectly. Simply put, the story is about the Queen. We learn about her past and how it helped shape the woman we have come to know as the evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. There are a lot of events, but the core of the book is about the Queen: What she went through, what she thought about it, and how it affected her. It makes perfect sense then to have her face as the sole occupant on the cover.

You can't really tell from the picture, but on the real book the title is black like the background and the text is raised. This gives it a mysterious, spooky, and almost luxurious vibe, which is fitting for a character such as the Queen.

Added bonus? If you take off the dust jacket, the hardcover has another picture on it:

How cool is that? And it's so fitting that the beautiful face is on the jacket for all the world to see, but hiding underneath is her ugly crone's face reflecting the face of her ultimate personality.

The book is beautifully constructed, but the story inside did not quite live up to the magnificent cover. I'll have my review up for the book a little later.

What do you think about this cover?
Do you like it? Dislike it?
Does it make you want to read the book?
Interested in covers?
Be sure to check out another Cover Crazy post by Gina from My Precious.

Click here for more cover reviews!

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