Monday, April 30, 2012

Review: A Bite's Tale by Veronica Blade

by Veronica Blade
Release Date: February 9, 2012
2012 Crush Publishing
Ebook Edition; 166 Pages
ASIN: B006U0DCO0
ISBN: 978-0-979-88696-6
Genre: Young Adult / Paranormal
Source: Review Copy from Bewitching Book Tours

4 / 5 Stars

Summary
A Cinderella who spends her nights as a wolf. A prince with a taste for blood.

Seventeen year old Cydney struggles against her werewolf nature, trying to keep everyone around her safe. No way will she risk exposing the beast at the prince’s ball, no matter how her two cousins try to persuade her. Even as she attempts to get on with her life, Cydney can’t forget the boy she loved three summers ago — or what she did to him after losing control.

Turned into a vampire to save his life, the prince refuses to live up to his royal duties. He just wants to find the girl he loved and lost...the werewolf girl who bit him. But his father, the king, commands him to attend a ball where he must choose a wife. Can he find his Cinderella before he's forced to marry another? He doesn’t even have her real name, much less a glass slipper.

My Thoughts
A Bite's Tale was an intriguing novella about 160 pages in length, an inventive supernatural re-telling of the Cinderella fairytale.  After reading Something Witchy This Way Comes by this author, I had no problem tackling this novella as I was extremely curious to see what she would do with one of my favourite fairy tales and I was definitely not disappointed.  If anything, I thought the story was a bit too short.

The story began with a sweet and nostalgic story between two teenagers who had been secretly meeting for three years and were using the alternative names "Cinderella" and "Jack" in order to keep their identities a secret.  When things between them became more serious, Cydney's werewolf nature suddenly decided to morph and unfortunately for her, she had to leave the area immediately.  But she had spent the past three years living with regrets and recriminations and felt that the time has come to face her fears and her previous actions and return to the place where it all began.  I adored Cydney's personality and character and thought how sad it was she had to go through life always being looked at and feared because of her wolf personality.  Even her Aunt, representing the evil stepmother but who was not really evil, displayed her fear of her on more than one occasion through her actions and her words.  I couldn't imagine going through life always having those you love being fearful of you and how you might react.

Prince Remy is also a favourite as we read about the lengths to which he goes to find Cydney after the events three years before.  It's actually pretty sweet to see that someone can carry that kind of loyalty, despite the weight and responsibility he shoulders, and the determination to follow through on what his heart is telling him.  I think it is nice to see teenage characters who are mature and are not always in the midst of some kind of angst, for a change.

Verdict
A Bite's Tale was a fascinating and fun re-telling of the Cinderella fairytale with plenty of intrigue, action, and character development despite its short length.   There is quite a bit of potential in the world of Cydney and Remy however, and it will be interesting to see if there will be a more fleshed-out novel following this novella as the only real complaint I had was that it was much too short.  For a clever, witty, and fun read, I would highly recommend A Bite's Tale to anyone who loves those fairytale twists.


About the Author:
Veronica Blade lives in Southern California with her husband and whichever of their kids — or someone else’s kid — decides to drop in. By day she runs the family business, but each night she slips away to spin her tales. She writes stories about young adults to relive her own childhood and to live vicariously through her characters. Except her heroes and heroines lead far more interesting lives — and they are always way hotter.

You can visit Veronica Blade on FaceBook, check out her website at www.VeronicaBlade.com or follow her on Twitter @VeronicaBlade. She loves hearing from readers!

Twitter: @VeronicaBlade
Website: VeronicaBlade.com


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