Review: The Rose Bride – A Fairy Tale Retelling and a Greek Goddess

Posted August 17, 2015 in Reading, Review / 2 Comments

Review: The Rose Bride – A Fairy Tale Retelling and a Greek GoddessThe Rose Bride by Nancy Holder
Series: Once Upon A Time
Publisher: Simon Pulse (2007)
Paperback (245 pages)
Rating:
Also in this series: Snow, Water Song, Sunlight and Shadow
Reading Challenges: 2015 Birthday Month, 2015 Color Coded, 2015 Fairytale Retelling, 2015 Mythology, 2015 Re-Reading, Read 2015

Synopsis

When Rose’s mother dies, her only comfort is the exquisite rose garden her mother left behind. The purple blossoms serve as an assurance of her mother’s love. But Rose is dealt a second blow when her father dies and his greedy widow, Ombrine, and her daughter, Desirée, move in and take over the manor in true Cinderella fashion.
Fate has been cruel to Ombrine and Desirée, too. So despite their harsh ways, Rose has compassion. But these feelings are bitterly tested when, in a rage, Ombrine tears out the garden. Rose nearly gives up all hope—until a chance meeting with the king. Happiness might be within her reach, but first she must prevail over Ombrine. And then she must determine if she has the courage to love.

Find the book: Goodreads

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{SQT} I’m Back from Camp!

Posted August 14, 2015 in Faith, Reading / 0 Comments

Seven Quick Takes

Seven Quick Takes is a weekly link-up hosted by This Ain’t The Lyceum.

~1~

I have returned from summer camp. I was there for just over six weeks as a counselor. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun, most of the time. I have a lot of pictures that I would love to share with all of you but I haven’t had a chance to get the editing done yet. That is one of my goals for the coming week.

~2~

The camp that I was working at was a Catholic summer camp for my diocese. We started each week of campers out with Mass on Sunday, had Eucharistic Adoration and Mass on Wednesday as well as the opportunity for Reconciliation/Confession, and had a short prayer service before sending them home on Friday.

~3~

My favorite weeks of camp were the girl weeks. We had two of them. One with 7th-8th grade girls and one with 5th-6th grade girls. Those were the weeks that I had the most fun and felt like I was impacting the lives of the girls in my small group.

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Review: The Night Dance – Fairy Tale Set in Arthurian England

Posted August 13, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments

Review: The Night Dance – Fairy Tale Set in Arthurian EnglandThe Night Dance by Suzanne Weyn
Series: Once Upon A Time
Publisher: Simon Pulse (2005)
Paperback (193 pages)
Rating:
Also by this author: Water Song
Also in this series: Snow, Water Song, Sunlight and Shadow
Reading Challenges: 2015 Birthday Month, 2015 Fairytale Retelling, 2015 Re-Reading, Read 2015

Synopsis

Under the stars, in a secret world…
Rowena, the youngest of twelve sisters, loves to slip out of the castle at night and dance in a magical forest. Soon she convinces her sisters to join her. When Sir Ethan notices that his daughters’ slippers look tattered every morning, he is certain they’ve been sneaking out. So he posts a challenge to all the suitors in the kingdom: The first man to discover where his daughters have been is free to marry the one he chooses.
Meanwhile a handsome young knight named Bedivere is involved in a challenge of his own: to return the powerful sword, Excalibur, to a mysterious lake. While looking for the lake, Bedivere meets the beautiful Rowena and falls for her. Bedivere knows that accepting Sir Ethan’s challenge is the only opportunity for him to be with Rowena forever. But this puts both Bedivere and Rowena in a dangerous situation…one in which they risk their lives for a chance at love.

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Review: The Wrath and the Dawn – People Aren’t Always Exactly As They Seem

Posted August 12, 2015 in Reading, Review / 2 Comments

Review: The Wrath and the Dawn – People Aren’t Always Exactly As They SeemThe Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
Series: The Wrath and the Dawn #1
(2015)
Hardcover (388 pages)
Rating:
Also by this author: The Rose and the Dagger
Also in this series: The Rose and the Dagger
Reading Challenges: 2015 Fairytale Retelling, Read 2015

Synopsis

A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights.
Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.
She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.

Find the book: Goodreads

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