I liked the concept behind the book. I even enjoyed the fact that every fairy tale I've ever heard off was stuffed into this book.

However the writing style lacked something, that ability to make a reader forget the world around them and fall completely into the story. For a book about stories, it really disappointed me. ( )

3½ stars. This was an enjoyable take on the well-known fairy tales, ranging from Jack & the Beanstalk to Cinderella to Sleeping Beauty. Katherine Kellgren did a wonderful job with the narration. ( )

Wonderful story told by an accomplished narrator who made the story come alive. ( )

Now here’s a fresh and excellent take on fairy tale shenanigans. Sunday Woodcutter, 7th daughter of a 7th daughter meets a frog at a fairy well and starts to tell a story… Wonderful weaving together of a whole host of tales in new and unexpected ways. Engrossing and lively. ( )

This was a confusing, nonsensical read. In fact, if this book were a person, I'd probably diagnose it with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Clearly something prion-like was having a great time gnawing away on the characters, the plot, the backstory, entire essential scenes, the world-building...even the writing. (Though I did like the line, "They say that secrets live at the bottom of a wine bottle. Mama had made it there the night before, slow glass by slow glass[...]")

I finished this in hopes of finding some clarity. Instead, I got a vaguely sensible conclusion and an Acknowledgments filled with so much name-dropping, I started wondering if the author had written this entire book just so she could publish two pages' worth of cryptic references to Kim Jong-Il, John Scalzi, Orson Scott Card, Andre Norton, Sherrilyn Kenyon (and the boys), fancy editors who accepted her stories in other publications, the people of Cincinnati, and various workshops, writing clubs, contests, and random Starbucks. (All of which, clearly, anyone who is Anyone should know.) ( )