Loyal: Little Red Riding Hood retelling

 I received a free copy of Loyal by Kristina J Jordan via Storyorigin in exchange for an honest review.

It’s an interesting take on Little Red Riding Hood, although the beginning did have me question if it was a little red riding hood retelling (the silkworms and introduction to the characters threw me off).

Gunther is my favorite character because any guy who is willing to drop all of his duties to help you on your quest to find your mother despite you saying no and rescuing you from wolves is a keeper. My only major complaints are that a) there wasn’t a lot of build up to the romance and hardly any romantic tension especially since she was pretending that she despised him because he wasn’t hers. Which leads me to point b, I wished it had indicated that the person she saw was a girl because I thought Gunther was a closeted gay. In my defence, Katherine always talked about men after being all I saw Gunther with someone he can never be mine. He will always be loyal to Prince Frederick and forgive me if I spelled it wrong).

Also most of the names were very similar so the author would mix up the characters names (ex. Avella would become Althea and vice versa). That coupled with the fact it jumped around a lot led to a very fun, crazy, confusing ride.

Highly recommend for those looking for a different Red Riding Hood retelling.

4.25 out of 5 stars for all the moments between Gunther and Katherine.

Daughter of the Sky Alison Blasdell

 I received a free copy of Daughter of the Sky by Alison Blasdell in exchange for an honest review.

This book was not for me. I wanted to try reading it because it sounded like Outlander, but more my speed and who doesn't love a book that has King Henry VIII in it with an illegitimate daughter?

Yeah, it was not what I thought it was because I was also under the impression that this was the first book and upon finding out it was not, well, I had hoped most of the issues had been resolved in the first book. It flip flopped between the past and present too much that I could not get a firm grasp on who the characters were, and Jen collapses way too many times in this book.

The pacing felt rushed and clunky in places to the point I skimmed the book and started skipping huge sections of it. It had potential, but it reminded me why I don't read books with historical aspects in it.

My one positive about this book was I loved the dogs.