Serena Valentino is best known for weaving tales that combine mythos and guile with her work on the comic book series GloomCookie and Nightmares & Fairy Tales, and her best selling Disney Villain Novels which have earned her critical acclaim for her unique style of storytelling, bringing her readers into exquisitely frightening worlds filled with terror, beauty and extraordinary female protagonists.
Her Disney Villain novel series would be best enjoyed if read in this order: Fairest of All: The Story of the Wicked Queen, The Beast Within: The Story of Belle’s Prince, Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch, Mistress of All Evil: A Tale of the Dark Fairy. Mother Knows Best: A Tale of the Old Witch and The Odd Sisters: A Villains Book to be released in Summer 2019. Book 7 will be out Summer 2020, Book 8 summer of 2021, and Book 9 Summer of 2022.
Serena lives in New Orleans with her dog Gozer, and a very tiny kitty named Momma.
A lot of the time, my "reviews" are less of a review per se and more a collection of notes that I write for myself so that I can remember what happens in each story, along with what I liked, disliked, had questions about, favorite parts, etc. I have a TBI and otherwise my memory will not serve me. Others may not find them helpful, just as a disclaimer
Tangled: Mother Knows Best- Wow, this opened up a lot of backstory for Gothel.
It's so interesting to watch her transformation from the girl to the woman. Of course, she wasn't a very likable woman, but her death happened before her "sisters" (Primrose and Hazel) could be brought back to life, and I'm anxious to see how Circe helps this situation. As well as Ms. T- What happens to her?
Speaking of Circe, the Odd Sisters told Gothel that Circe died when Malifecent burned down the fiar world (book 4), but that she didn't mean to and that they never told her she killed Circe. They were looking into necromancy to try and bring Circe back. No news after that, though we know Circe, or some form of her, is alive. Also, at the end of this book, Circe tells Snow White that she isn't the real Circe- I am curious as to how this is going to play out.
Snow White: Fairest of All- This book was my introduction to this style of backstory for famous (or infamous) Disney characters. I enjoyed it, but at the same time, Queen Grimhilde was a very complicated character. Flawed, and it was almost difficult not to get frustrated with her. I wanted her to be different, do different, even though I knew how it ended for her on that cliff. That being said, the fact that she and Snow are able to have a relationship postmortem via the mirror is an ending I hadn't expected. In this book, we meet the Odd Sisters- who seem really vile for the way they spoke to child aged Snow White. Their voices are annoying too, but I think that's on character for them.
The Odd Sisters- I'm so glad that this book starts out with a recap of the Odd Sister's doing's in the last 5 books. I'm also so, so glad that I didn't skip this book in favor of the ones who are longer listens for the money. It filled in SO MANY holes, things that I had been wondering.
So many plot twists, so many simultaneous story lines all working in tandem. I am so deep in this series that I don't even like pausing it to live real life. I can't wait to see what happens next with my favorite Disney characters!
The Little Mermaid: Poor Unfortunate Soul- This story was complicated, and Ursula was a complicated character. I wanted to feel bad for her, but it was almost like there was a rushed ending of her going mad with power. The way her human father died was truly heartbreaking.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.