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Review: A Splintered Land (Heartsong)

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Deborah Grace White  is quite possibly my favorite modern author. She did an amazing job with her enchanting series of fairy tale retellings in  The Singer Tales , but I think I like her original fantasy romance stories even better. I was blown away by the magic, romance, and worldbuilding in her amazing mermaid tetralogy, The Vazula Chronicles . Since then she's done an excellent job of writing even more original romance stories about curious heroines living in controversial worlds. Her contribution to the Sacrificed Hearts series  takes place in the same magically enriched world as The Singer Tales as does her newest trilogy, Heartsong . To celebrate the completion of Heartsong, she offered an irresistible promotion to read the first book, A Splintered Land , for free. To her readers' delight,  A Splintered Land  contains many of the same elements that I loved from her other books. Marieke (pronounced muh-REE-kuh) is a recent graduate of the Academy of Song, a school that th
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The Winx Club Reboot Released Its First Teaser!

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The upcoming reboot of Winx Club  has gone through countless delays in favor of bland live-action adaptations  and original animated shows , but a teaser has been released at last for this highly anticipated ninth season. It has been known for a long time amongst fans that the series has fully transitioned to CGI, which has never looked as good to me as the original 2D animation . However, the art form has come a long way since then. Rainbow S.p.A.  has improved its technique over the years to add more magic to its computer animation. The new season looks like an attempt to retell the same story the show released in 2004 with updated animation for modern audiences. There are positive and negative ramifications to this. While they aren't trying to change everything for the worse like Fate: The Winx Saga , it's still at risk of going in the same direction as Disney's live-action remakes , which change so little that it's better to just watch the original again. The teaser
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Review: To Shatter a Slipper

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Three is the magic number for this review. To Shatter a Slipper  by Abigail Manning  is the third book I've read from the Shattered Tales series  and the third "Cinderella" retelling  I  read from this author . Despite retelling the same fairy tale  so many times, she still manages to find a new twist that makes the book feel fresh and original. This book has a similar plot to Disney's Cinderella III: A Twist in Time  in which the infamous glass slipper fits another girl who must work together with Ella to reclaim her happy ending. It fits the theme of the Shattered Tales series because the "Cinderella" story is literally shattered when the glass slipper doesn't fit Ella, and it's an unexpected perspective swap that acknowledges and celebrates Cinderella's kind and gentle nature . Kirsi has no interest in marrying a prince. She's more concerned with the restrictions her father placed on her relationship with Caden, a servant at the palace. Ju
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Fall 2024 Is the Anime Season of Romance!

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This hasn't been the best year in terms of new anime. The past two seasons had a dearth of princesses after the Winter 2024 isekai explosion . Not only that, but the Spring 2024 season was severely lacking in romance. Get your tissue boxes ready because the new Fall 2024 season is here to change all that. Nearly half this season's anime shows have a romantic arc of some sort, which is a great follow-up to the shocking love confession in last week's episode of Wonderful Precure . Two anime shows from this season that stand for having romantic princess-oriented plotlines are Nina the Starry Bride and The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor . These are the types of shows that I never get tired of. Although they follow some stereotypical anime tropes, they are the only way to relive some of the original Disney Princess archetypes  that have been lost to time in Western animation . Nina the Starry Bride is the newest take on the female-oriented rags-to-riches doppelgang
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Review: Marian and the Elf

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Marian and the Elf  is the second book in the Elves & Legends series by Anabelle Raven . The books in this series are loose fairy tale retellings set in a high fantasy world of humans and elves with magical powers. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, Ella and the Elf , so I decided to give this one a try. Although I don't usually enjoy Robin Hood-inspired stories as much as princess ones, this book had both! This version of Marian is a rebel princess who becomes a pirate in an attempt to escape her cruel father. Generational trauma is something that this book shares with its prequel and will likely be an ongoing theme throughout this series. Another continuing theme is prejudice. Both books tell love stories between a human and an elf in a world where the two races are at odds with each other. This one is more action-packed than the gentle Ella's story, so it appeals to a more adventuresome audience. Although Marian and the Elf  is inspired by the Robin Hood legends, there
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Review: The Cursed Beauty

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I recently had the exciting opportunity to review an ARC of The Cursed Beauty , the newest fairy tale adaptation by Valia Lind . This book is part of her Skazka Fairy Tales series , which is about a Russian-inspired fantasy world with a heavy focus on romance. As the first full-length novel I've read that takes place in this world, I found it refreshingly sweet. The Cursed Beauty  is a retelling of "Sleeping Beauty"  that places more focus on the love story than the magical elements of the fairy tale. It's a straightforward romance about a princess and her bodyguard and the class differences that stand in their way. I liked that the book didn't use unrealistic feminist standards  and gave an accurate representation of how this type of relationship could have played out. The Cursed Beauty  starts out exactly like "Sleeping Beauty." Princess Alyona was cursed by an evil fairy at her birthing ceremony to fall into a death-like sleep that would affect the w
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Review: Time Princess - Alice: Ideal Wonderland

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The Time Princess app  recently added a new type of visual novel that has gotten a lot of pushback from players. Traveler's Notes stories are quite possibly the most unanimously disliked new feature in the game. These stories contain fewer clothing items and no companion relics, which have enhanced the player experience in Time Princess since it began. Although I played the first Traveler's Notes visual novel, I didn't bother writing about it because there was nothing in it that piqued my interest. The new one, Alice: Ideal Wonderland, is inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland , a story that is often considered a fairy tale and sometimes even a Disney Princess  story. Although it isn't one of my favorite fairy tales, the Once Upon a Time in Wonderland series  that it inspired in 2013 is one of my favorite television shows of all time. There are so many different ways to interpret this story that there's usually something in it for everyone. Like many A
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Review: The Wolf Gate

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I don't read a lot of retellings of "Little Red Riding Hood"  because they usually change the wolf character into a werewolf  and eliminate the theme of trusting strangers (which is why I wrote my own version ). However, since I enjoyed The Rose Gate   by Hanna Sandvig  because of the unique modern-day setting and fae worldbuilding, I decided to check out its prequel, The Wolf Gate . This book contains the expected werewolves, but it also does a good job of conveying the theme of trust and stands out from other fairy tale adaptations due to its modern high school setting. It reminded me of Twilight  due to its teenage target audience, so I think I would have enjoyed it more if I read it at a younger age. The last thing Audrey expects after getting chased in the woods is to be rescued by her ex-boyfriend who abandoned her at prom. Nor is she expecting to learn that he is a werewolf from the fae world and that he abandoned her due to his magical responsibilities. However, t
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Do Princess Stories Need to Be Historically Accurate?

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Over the past several years , I have reviewed various princess media . The majority of the shows, books, and movies I've discussed have been rooted in fantasy with a few exceptions . Historically, princesses were the daughters of real-life monarchs and other leaders , but most of their appeal is rooted in legends, myths, and fairy tales . Sometimes, the lines between fantasy and reality can become blurred when using real historical figures as protagonists. In the case of media like Anastasia , Reign , or Six , audiences understand that the primary function of these presentations is to entertain them while throwing in some historical nuggets to do their own research on later if they so choose. It has recently come to my attention that there is a stigma revolving around Disney's Pocahontas , a movie I greatly enjoyed as a child, due to its numerous historical inaccuracies. Is it inherently immoral to enjoy a piece of historical fiction that colors the character's lives in a
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Review: The Soulless Slipper

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 One good "Cinderella" retelling deserves another. The Soulless Slipper  is the second of three "Cinderella" adaptations by Abigail Manning . They say you shouldn't tell the same story twice, but when you can do so in such a unique and masterful way, then why not? The Soulless Slipper  is part of Abigail Manning's Fairmyth Chronicles , which seamlessly combines classic fairy tales with famous Greek myths. This book gives the story of Hades and Persephone a romantic fairy tale flair. When I was in a creative writing class years ago, I wrote a short story that retold this myth with the twist that Persephone was secretly in love with Hades and ate the pomegranate seeds of her own free will so she could stay with him. The Soulless Slipper  reinforces my girlish romantic fantasies and takes them a step further by weaving in the elegance and majesty of "Cinderella." Priscilla has been forced to spend most of her life toiling away in the fields for her
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LoliRock Revisited

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It's been ten years since LoliRock  first took the stage on Netflix, and rumors of a potential third season  inspired me to watch the show again as I did with Winx Club , which recently previewed its upcoming reboot in Italy . LoliRock is a French  Magical Girl show about a lost princess  who must master her new powers while trying to liberate a mysterious faraway kingdom. It hits all the right plot notes to fit the Magical Girl algorithm, but poor writing prevents it from being a memorable entry in the genre. One thing that makes LoliRock unique is its focus on music. The three main characters aren't only magical princesses from other worlds but members of a hit rock band that performs full-length music videos at the end of each episode. Unfortunately, the overly synthesized sound of these songs is not very appealing to me, and I ended up skipping over them during my rewatch. The main character in LoliRock is Iris, a beautiful girl who loves to sing that was raised by her aun
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World Princess Week Concludes with a New Disney Princess Anthem!

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Yesterday was the last day of World Princess Week . The week itself was mostly uneventful. Instead of celebrating squarely within the rigid August 25th-31st timeline, Disney had pop-up events throughout the month in anticipation of it. However, they topped the week off with a grand finale in mind by drawing attention to a short YouTube series that may have otherwise fallen under the radar. The series, aptly titled after the new Disney Princess brand campaign, is called "Create Your World: Making a Disney Song." As you may have guessed, the title of the new song is "Create Your World." The web series released a 10-minute webisode once a week for six weeks leading up to the final performance in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland on the last day of World Princess Week. I was not particularly invested in this web series when it started, so I "binged" all six webisodes on the final day. They portray an enthusiastic performer named Riley group
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Happy World Princess Week!

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We are two days into World Princess Week , the annual celebration of the Disney Princess brand , which takes place from August 25th to 31st this year. The beloved brand has moved on from its Ultimate Princess Celebration campaign  to begin a new marketing campaign called "Create Your World." The campaign kicked off at the beginning of the month with a commercial entitled  "The Magic Within"  in which little girls imagine Disney characters and symbols popping into their ordinary lives so they can live the modern princess life . This particular brand campaign seems more consumer-based than "Live Your Story,"  which encourages incorporating princess traits like kindness and bravery in everyday life. "Create Your World" sounds like an invitation to buy lots of Disney merchandise and turn your home into a castle , which is on brand with modern  Disney's questionable decisions that favor corporate greed over good storytelling. Although World Princ
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Review: Mermaid Magic

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It's been a bit of a wait, but Rainbow SpA  has delivered on their promise of an original animated mermaid show ! From the creators of Winx Club ,  Mermaid Magic  premiered on Netflix a few days ago with ten fun-filled episodes. Although the show didn't have quite as much underwater content as I was hoping for, it's a solid new Magical Girl series with beautiful animation and a female-empowering plot. I was thrilled to dive into the world of Merlinda, Sasha, and Nerissa and learn about their incredible powers on their journey to save Mertropia (originally called Mertropolis) pirates, witches, and toxic waste. The first season ended on a satisfying note with the potential for new adventures in future seasons. Merlinda is the sheltered princess of Mertropia who leaps into action when she overhears a conversation about her father using up his life force to protect the kingdom. If she can travel to the dangerous surface world through a magic portal and recover five Neptune Pea
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