Lisa’s Comments (group member since Aug 16, 2014)

Lisa’s comments from the Once Upon a Time... group.

Heidi, hoping all goes well with your family surgery and recovery.

I finished Enchanted Thursday night and loved it! Ally, it does intertwine tons of other fairy tales, which is one thing that makes it interesting. It isn't a book that requires a lot of deep thinking, such as Tiger Lily, or the Snow Child, but it was completely enjoyable with well developed characters and an interesting plot. I definitely want to read more of the tales in this series.

Here in Maryland, it actually seems easier to get actual books via interstate loan than ebooks. Those seem to only be available within each individual county. BTW I started reading Enchanted and although I didn't have much time to actually read yet, I am totally enjoying it. Any book that has me smiling after the first page is a winner.

No, Heidi, you were right to begin with according to the dictionary. lol Intra means within borders and inter means crossing borders. Sometimes the English language is so very confusing.

Oops! Hate when I do that. Honestly, though, I think that is what the library system calls itself, which makes it even funnier.

Yes, the inter-state library loan system in Maryland is called Marina. With this system, we can request a book from any of the other counties in the state when we can't find the book in our own county. It usually takes about a week for the book to arrive at my home library. I had checked to see if Enchanted was available here as soon as it looked like that was the one we would be reading, so I was able to get it the beginning of the month. I too have been fortunate to have wonderful libraries in the places I have lived. Surprisingly enough, I have found that the smaller areas that I have lived seem to have the better library systems. When I lived in Dayton, Ohio (a big city) it was the small library in my local neighborhood that had the best selection of what I wanted at the time (children's books for my daughters). I lived in Kingwood, WV which was very rural, but had a wonderful fiction selection and catered to the community readers. All we had to do was make a request and the book was usually gotten for us! The area that I live in now isn't really metropolitan, but does have a wonderful library system. There are six libraries in the county (all within a 30 minute drive from me since I'm centralized) but all I need to do is look up a book on the library system from my computer at home, request the book and it will be sent to the branch closest to me, which takes me about 10 minutes to get to. The libraries also have reading clubs for adults and teenagers, as well as tons of children's activities. We are truly blessed.

Rachmi, I believe The Frog Prince and The Princess and the Frog are probably the same original fairy tale, but there are so many retellings and different versions that it is very interesting to read. Honestly, though, it is one of my favorite fairy tales anyway. I do have a great county library system, but this one I had to get from our inter-state borrowing system, which I really appreciate having the ability to access and use.

I put it on hold at the library and am picking it up today. Looking forward to this one!

Rachmi, you pretty much summed up my thoughts about this book exactly!

Puppitypup, I definitely agree with your thoughts about Garrett feeling threatened by Faina. He was completely jealous of her, even when he thought she wasn't real.

I just read Ally's review! Absolutely perfect.

I just looked back at my comments and can't believe that I used the wrong "there, their, they're" when I was talking about their relationship! Guess that shows how tired I was when I posted the comment. lol I'm not sure about the significance of the swan either, but my personal thoughts are that Faina resembled a swan - beautiful, exotic, somewhat elusive, appearing to be weak, but in truth very strong. I felt that Garrett hated seeing her kill it because in his eyes the swan was special just like Faina. Heidi, yes definitely not my favorite. I've struggled through a few we have read, but never been bored before.

OK Finished it last night and none of the final third of the book surprised me. This one only rated two stars for me. I found it to be boring, which is sad, because I was really expecting to love the tale.

I'm on page 285 right now, and I do agree with puppitypup about the rekindling of Mabel and Jack's relationship. I have been married almost 36 years, and there lack of communicating with each other was just so very infuriating to me in the beginning of the book. Unfortunately, I still find them to be boring characters, unlike the Bensons, each of whom have very different traits. I was very disappointed though, (view spoiler)[ when Garret knowingly killed Faina's fox. It was done in anger and spitefulness, due to the fact he didn't believe Faina was real. (hide spoiler)]

Not knowing where the story will go is a very good thing to my way of thinking! That is very encouraging. I agree that the customs and expectations were very different back then, but I still feel that rather than trying to escape the outer pressures, such as her belief that family were talking about her behind her back; I think that she was trying to escape her own feelings of inadequacy. It is impossible to run away from our inner feelings. We must somehow learn to cope with them, and isolating yourself away from everyone and every thing is not a great way to do it.

I think I am on chapter 18 and it is getting better. I didn't mean to sound heartless about Mabel. I know that grief is never ending, but life goes on and you have to make the best of it. She was the one that chose and pushed for the move to Alaska, but she seemed to be refusing to accept the lifestyle. I was really upset at her husband too, though, since by coddling her he was just making things worse.

I'm glad you are enjoying it so far, Ally. This one is somewhat difficult for me. I don't dislike it, but it also isn't one that has "grabbed" me. I have found myself just leaving it sitting for several days, then I'll pick it up and read a few more chapters. One thing is for certain - this book has totally made it clear why I could never live in Alaska. Their odd seasons of either perpetual darkness, or perpetual light would make me crazy. Unlike Ally, my sympathy wasn't stirred. Instead, I honestly just wanted to kind of slap Mabel.

Picking it up from the library today.

I wondered the same thing, Heidi, but didn't allow it to spoil my enjoyment of the overall tale. I think I really kind of suspected what was going on all along.

OK now to comment on Red Queen. I finished it Saturday and I really enjoyed the book. As I can't remember how to do the spoilers and don't want to look it up right now (being lazy and have time constraints) some of my comments will be cryptic. I agree with Rachmi's spoiler about chapter 5 to some extant. However, considering the emotional upheaval, I can understand her actions. We all do things that we normally wouldn't do when we really aren't thinking straight. I actually enjoyed the fact that throughout the entire book, I was never sure who Mare should really trust. As for the character of Kilhorn, I didn't like him from the very first introduction of the character, and my opinion did not change throughout the book. I did love the surprise at the very end of the book, and it makes me look forward to future books that I am sure will be in this series.