Fairy Tale Survival Rule #32: If you find yourself at the mercy of a wicked witch, sing a romantic ballad and wait for your Prince Charming to save the day.
Yeah, no thanks. Dorthea is completely princed out. Sure being the crown princess of Emerald has its perks—like Glenda Original ball gowns and Hans Christian Louboutin heels. But a forced marriage to the brooding prince Kato is so not what Dorthea had in mind for her enchanted future.
Talk about unhappily ever after.
Trying to fix her prince problem by wishing on a (cursed) star royally backfires, leaving the kingdom in chaos and her parents stuck in some place called “Kansas.” Now it’s up to Dorthea and her pixed off prince to find the mysterious Wizard of Oz and undo the curse…before it releases the wickedest witch of all and spells The End for the world of Story. – Goodreads
Seriously, I almost peed my pants cracking up at this one. What. The. Spell. I can’t even. I was pixed off that I finished it in one night.
Some of my favorite things from the book:
“It’s like that bedtime story ‘If You Give A Princess Some Tea, She’ll Ask For A Cookie to Go With It'”
“The first few bars from Wrong Direction’s hit song, “My Spell’s What Makes You Beautiful,” came on from somewhere close by.”
Basically, the puns and plays on real life and fairytales. Also, not only does Dorthea have a freaking hand bag the size of a novel that can contain a storage unit, her freaking ballgown is self-adjusting so she can park it at the buffet all night. What the spell.
So, it’s hilarious. We’ve covered that. Funniness aside, I didn’t think that the writing was anything awe-inspiring or poetic. But you know what? It was cute and funny and I was happy with that. That being said, it was occasionally TOO cute and clever—it was almost a little bit too much at times. Once you get used to that style it flows better, though.
The character building was decent—I liked how Dorthea was completely unlikeable at the beginning and morphed throughout the story. The other characters fell pretty flat in the character development department, though.
The worldbuilding was rushed but fun. There are different storybook lands—King Midas, Oz, etc—and the characters are retold and brought to life, which made it interesting.
Overall, it was an enjoyable, easy, quick read. If you like fairytale retellings, you’ll like this. I rated it a 3/5.
Big thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for giving me a free copy of this ARC to check out in exchange for an honest review. Spelled will be released on June 2nd.
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