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Jan 01, 2011

Cait rated it:

I really love retold fairy tales, but I also have what I think should not be a terribly picky rule: a clever concept is not a substitute for a story. A disappointingly large number of so-called "fractured fairy tales" fail this simple test, and the cover art and blurb for this book were not very promising, to the point where I would not have picked it up at all if I hadn't been rather impressed with this author's book Goblin Quest, which had a clever concept and a very good story. T More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Mar 21, 2010

Chris rated it:

One of the more recent cultural phenomenon is the rise of the Disney princesses. Everywhere you look, you see young girls wearing Disney Princess gear. On Halloween, young girls dress up as Belle, Aurora, Cinderella, and Snow White. Even Mulan has been declared an honorary princess (how, I don't know. Can someone explain it to me?). Some women have expressed concerned about young girls being, well, girly, and lacking good role models. The Disney princesses, in other words, seem to be a tam More...

10 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 30, 2008

Diana rated it:

Entertaining romp featuring Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella who team up to rescue the prince who has been kidnapped putting a crimp in Cinderella's happily ever after. I really liked that it combined the dark bloody original fairy tales with the Disney versions for a unique take on the subject. Not as funny (to me, it's subjective for goodness sakes) as John Moore's laugh out loud fairy tale inspired books it is still a read I would recommend. Love the kick-ass heroines but could hav More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2011

Riccarla rated it:

It would be easy to write this off as fairytale princesses as Charlie's Angels. But Jim C. Hines does an amazing job of telling the story behind the story and making you believe that maybe his version is the true one.

We meet Princess Danielle Whiteshore nee de Glas (also known as Cinderella). She has the strange ability to communicate with animals. As she adjusts to being a princess, she is attacked by her stepsister, Charlotte, and saved by the Queen's servant, Talia. In short o More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 04, 2009

Nan rated it:

(I don't know if anyone would consider this a spoilery review, so please be warned . . .)

Danielle is the princess formerly known as Cinderwench. Predictibly, she's having a hard time settling into her new role in life, despite the fact that she genuinely loves her husband. She has a hard time establishing a relationship with her servants, as she finds it difficult to tell them what to do and to allow them to do their own work. She doesn't enjoy learning the protocol she needs to k More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 16, 2011

KevinB rated it:

This is a fun book. A quick read filled with action, magic and humor.

The story starts with Cinderella, 'real' name Danielle de Glas, mere months after the classic fairy tale ends, at a time she should be busy living happily ever after. Instead Danielle's husband, Prince Armand, gets kidnapped by her stepsisters. Aided by Talia (also known as Sleeping Beauty), whose fairy blessings grant her some mean fighting skills and Snow (White of course), a sorceress using mirror magic, Danielle More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 22, 2009

Steven rated it:

This is not a goblin book like Jim's three other books, Goblin Quest, Goblin Hero, and Goblin War. You may have been clued in by the three kick-ass women on the cover.

Remember that scene in Shrek 3? The kick ass one with Led Zeppelin in the background?

Okay, imagine that - except funnier, with more plot, and fully realized characters. And more actual fairy tale stuff. This book is what that one scene wants to be when it grows up. The women are fully realized people, t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 24, 2009

CJ - You Carry On As If I Don't Love You rated it:

Very good first book in a new series. If you like fantasy, fables and fairytales, legends and magic and you enjoy interesting takes on the classics- you'll appreciate this book.

You have Talia (Sleeping Beauty) a master warrior, Snow (Snow White though her real name is Ermilina) a skilled sorceress and Danielle - otherwise known as Cinderella.

A husband gets kidnapped, a son is to be born and a vengeful duo of stepsisters as well as some very not-nice faeries are all front More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 11, 2009

Jen rated it:

This book is thoroughly charming. My socks have been completely charmed off my feet, so it's good that I have blankets and a dog to keep my toes warm.

I am so, so glad that I purchased this book. It is clever, has a good plot, has fun use of magic and fighting, and had I not been feeling like death warmed over, may have made me laugh until I cried. As it was, it made me smile really big a couple of times, which is a huge reaction right now.

I had this book highly recomme More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2009

Eric rated it:

Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty unite to form a kick-ass superhero team. Imagine a mash-up of the Brothers Grimm and the Powerpuff Girls. This is mostly Cinderella's story (she rescues her abducted prince), but things pick up noticeably when Snow White summons her seven little friends. The dwarves bring the pain and help the Powerpuff Princesses tear down Fairytown. Hi ho!

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 08, 2008

Kurt rated it:

I found The Stepsister Scheme to be a real delight. This is the first book in a new series from Jim Hines and I'm looking forward to future volumes. You may be familiar with Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, but you haven't seen them kick butt like this before. The book has Jim's great sense of humor, but there are dark elements to this story as well.

We get a story where the women aren't waiting to be rescued. Quite the contrary, it's the men who better watch out this tim More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 25, 2009

Lauren rated it:

I found this book by reading Alma Alexander's lj blog, where she recommended it. It was definitely a fun read, and the world needs more adventuring princesses! It was interesting to see different versions of the three princesses used, rather than just the typical Grimm's/Disney/Marchen versions that most people are accustomed to.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 25, 2009

Kevin rated it:

This was a terrific book, a fractured fairy tale that any lover of strong Heroines should love.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 09, 2009

Kristen rated it:

I picked this book up randomly. I won't lie: I thought the cover art was pretty. What is not to love about three gorgeous girls looking ready to kick some butt?

The Stepsister Scheme is definitely a book meant to be taken with a grain of salt. The only thing that popped for me was the author's take on the fairytale classics we've come to know and love. The real stories of Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty are far from those Disney put to animated film. They are even just dif More...

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Dec 03, 2011

Leah rated it:

http://sosaysthewhale.wordpress.com/2011...

Fairy tales & retellings seem to be in right now. There’s been an influx in the number of books, movies, and television shows dealing with fairy tale characters and I fully support this movement. I think it’s awesome and I’m really loving retellings with new takes on familiar stories.

I first came across this book at work a few months ago and it immediately caught my eye. Admittedly, I’m usually not one for an all-female cast of ch More...

0 comments like

Sep 27, 2011

Andrea rated it:

If Danielle (a.k.a. Cinderella) thought she would live happily ever after when her prince whisked her off on horseback to the castle, the idea is quickly dispelled when her vile stepsister shows up and tries to kill her. Not only that, but her stepsister has some surprising new powers and informs Danielle that her husband has been kidnapped.

With help from Talia (a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty), who is a skilled martial artist thanks to her fairy gifts, and Snow White, a master of mirror mag More...

0 comments like

Aug 04, 2011

Jill rated it:

This series popped up on my Borders 'you might also like' email, and though the cover didn't look like something I would usually pick up, the description seemed amusing. The Goodreads reviewer who mentioned that scene from the Shrek movies where the princesses go on attack as a preview of the series probably did more to make me buy it than did the 'charlie's angels' blurb on the cover. That and learning it was based on the darker, earlier tellings of the fairy tales and not the cleaned up cute More...

0 comments like

May 31, 2011

Ann rated it:

**Possible general spoilers**

I generally bypass the sci-fi fantasy aisles at book stores, but these were (quite literally) forced into my arms when I left a friend's house, accompanied by the admonishment not to call until I'd read them. My hopes were not terribly high, so to say Jim Hines exceeded them seems a weak compliment. However, I did find the whole series (this is followed by The Mermaid's Madness and Red Hood's Revenge) to be extremely enjoyable and absorbing. The story is More...

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Jan 16, 2011

Lindsay rated it:

This book was tons of fun! This is the best pure fantasy adventure I've read in a long time. It's also fairly unabashed girl power. I really enjoyed it.

In this world, fairy tales are true, more or less. Danielle de Glas did sneak off to the ball dressed in glass slippers she received from the tree over her mother's grave. She did not arrive there in a transformed pumpkin. Her comrades in arms are Ermillina “Call me Snow” Curtana, and Talia “ask about the fairies again and I'll kill y More...

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Oct 28, 2010

Chibineko rated it:

"Once upon a time there were three little princesses who ended up with three very different men. Their lives each went off into very different endings, each warped into a fairy tale. But I took them away from all that and now they work for me. Ah? My name is Queen Beatrice."

When Danielle (think Cinderella) discovers that her husband has gone missing, she doesn't quite know what to do- just that she's willing to do anything to get him back. Thanks to her quiet servant Talia, More...

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Sep 29, 2010

Hobart rated it:

There are really only so many reactions a father can have when, thanks to his young daughter, his home and life are invaded by the Disney Princesses. Through DVDs, toys, costumes, books, clothing these characters can thoroughly infiltrate a family's collective consciousness. A dad can run to such things as home improvement projects, sports, denial, or attempts to turn their daughter into a Tom-boy; but once these girls take the beachhead of your home, they don't give an inch of it back for years More...

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Jul 31, 2010

Kim rated it:

I am a huge fan of fairy tale retellings, from the light and amusing to the dark and twisted. I especially like when the heroines of the tales lose their traditionally passive nature, so Jim C. Hines's tale of kickass princesses was right up my alley. The characters were engaging and easy to relate to, the plot was intriguing and fast-paced, and the novel seamlessly blended fairy tale elements both light and dark.

Danielle de Glas grew up a virtual slave in her stepmother's household, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 02, 2010

Brownbetty rated it:

I wanted to like this book. Hines is one of a few authors whose internet presence doesn't come across as an egotistical gasbag, and you cannot imagine how this predisposes me to liking him. But this book!

First, obviously, lots of people do like this book, since it has sequels, and his editors presumably know their business, but I could not. I made it through the first two chapters only by mentally writing increasingly hysterical editorial directions to Hines, at which point I gave More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 12, 2010

Paul rated it:

Jim Hines' The Stepsister Scheme is the first in a series of two (and at least a third in the pipeline books) that reimagine Fairy Tale princesses as more proactive heroines that are in no need of rescuing.

Or, to put it more flippantly, Disney Princesses meet Charlie's Angels.

The Stepsister Scheme introduces us to Danielle Whiteshore, Cinderella herself, newly married to Prince Armand (aka Prince Charming). Her new happy life as a Princess (and expecting a baby, no less More...

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Oct 20, 2009

Anita rated it:

wow! What a fun read! Ok, so the cover is really cheesy and normally I wouldn't read something that looked like the cover of a graphic novel, or comic book, but as you know, I'm a sucker for all things fairy tale, and my good friend Shauna liked it so I decided to give it a go. I totally loved it. I really am giving it 4.5 stars.
The story begins with Danielle (aka Cinderella) just after the honeymoon has ended. She wakes up one morning to find that her husband, Prince Armand has been More...

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Oct 04, 2009

Lexie rated it:

I'm pretty sure I say this a lot, but Fairy Tales--and fairy tale reinventions--fascinate me. From the days of Happily Ever After on HBO to the wonderful, dark Vertigo title Fables--if its about a fairy tale I will give it a chance. This isn't to say I enjoyed them all (I'm not a fan of Shelly Duvall's Fairy Tale Theatre, wasn't even as a child), but I will give them a chance. I'm a late comer to The Stepsister Scheme, which came out earlier this year and until the upcoming sequel knew very litt More...

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Jul 15, 2009

Rebecca rated it:

I'm very fond of fairy-tale-based books, but they have to be more than a straight re-telling. Since, let's face it, I know how the story comes out. Plus, I like a little subversiveness. The Stepsister Scheme does that, plus goes into what happens after 'they lived happily ever after'. Danielle is essentially a cinderella case -- she lived with her stepmother and stepsisters, with only rats and birds for friends, until she sneaks away to attend a ball, clad in a magical dress that was a gift More...

1 comment like

Jun 01, 2009

Filamena rated it:

If you’re anything like me, (what are the chances of that, really?) than you weren’t satisfied when they told you at the end of a fairy tale ‘and they all lived happily ever after.’

No fucking way. There’s no way a family like Cinderella’s would be satisfied with her running off to the castle to be a princess. What about Sleeping Beauty’s family, now a hundred years out of date with the rest of the world? You’re telling me a child as pretty as Snow White goes out into the woods unmolest More...

0 comments like

Apr 27, 2009

Nicole rated it:

So, this book drew my attention based on the cover and the title long before I knew anything about the premise. And I’m glad it did! It’s a really fun, rather cute book.

The premise in question is that the fairy tales are true, but the grapevine has tweaked the details a bit. For instance, the reason Cinderella wore glass slippers to the ball is because her father was a glass maker - but her name was never “Ella.” And she didn’t ride to the ball in an enchanted pumpkin, never mind the More...

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Feb 08, 2009

Amy rated it:

I'd stumbled across Jim C. Hines when I went looking for funny/humorous fantasy books, which is harder than it seems at times. The past couple of years, everyone's been trying to be the next Tolkien, and while I can appreciate at good Epic Novel/Series, when you want "funny", Epic doesn't cut it. But Jim Hines' Goblin series came highly recommended wherever I looked. I've managed to get the first two, and happily read and giggled my way through them. When I saw The Stepsister Scheme in More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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