I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Spelled by Betsy Schow Published by Sourcebooks Fire on June 2, 2015
Pages: 352
Source: the publisher
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Fairy Tale Survival Rule #32: If you find yourself at the mercy of a wicked witch, sing a romantic ballad and wait for your Prince Charming to save the day.
Yeah, no thanks. Dorthea is completely princed out. Sure being the crown princess of Emerald has its perks—like Glenda Original ball gowns and Hans Christian Louboutin heels. But a forced marriage to the brooding prince Kato is so not what Dorthea had in mind for her enchanted future.
Talk about unhappily ever after.
Trying to fix her prince problem by wishing on a (cursed) star royally backfires, leaving the kingdom in chaos and her parents stuck in some place called "Kansas." Now it's up to Dorthea and her pixed off prince to find the mysterious Wizard of Oz and undo the curse...before it releases the wickedest witch of all and spells The End for the world of Story.
There are no words to describe how much I enjoyed Spelled! No, seriously.. I have no idea how to even BEGIN writing this review because I just want to be like, This book was epic! Go buy it!” But since I have to say a little bit more than that, I’ll try. But don’t judge if I just break down into crazy fangirling!
I stumbled upon Spelled one day when I was searching through Edelweiss for new reads to add to my TBR. I spotted Spelled and immediately fell in love with the cover. It was gorgeous and that, coupled with the title, caught my attention. And then I read the synopsis and holy crap…!!!!!!!!!! So then I went on a mission to acquire it for review. And when I was approved for it on NetGalley, I cried tears of joy. I’ve mentioned this numerous times, but for those who don’t know, I’m a HUGE Retelling Addict. Retellings of any kind – Greek/Roman God mythology, Fairy Tale retellings, Classic retellings, etc – are my Book Drug of Choice. So, right off the bat, this book was everything I love about reading. And even with that, it still exceeded my expectations!
In the beginning, Dorthea is such a spoiled brat – snobby and self-absorbed. She’s a princess, she thinks she has her Happily Ever After written in stone and she has money, clothes and servants. The only down-side is a curse that foretells the destruction of the world at her hands. Then, when she finds out her parents have arranged for her to marry someone she DOESN’T want to marry, she breaks a major rule from the Definitive Fairy-Tale Survival Guide (Yes, this is a thing. A thing I love, by the way!) and makes life worse than she ever could have imagined (or, as Dorthea would say, “All spell broke loose”). But she goes through this incredible journey and she matures so much. It was awesome to see how different she was by the end of the book! You really end of rooting for her by the middle/end.
Kato was frustrating in the beginning. Dorthea misjudged him, but he was still super rude to her in return. I know he had his reasons, which were later explained, but still. However, I loved his “transformation” and all the fuzzball/fuzz bucket jokes! They had my absolutely cracking up!! I can’t say much more without spoilers, but I’ll put it to you this way: If you’ve read A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, just picture Kato as an epic mix of Tamlin and Lucien and you’ll know what I’m talking about ;D
For the most part, Rexi was hilarious. Once in awhile, she was more rude than funny. And the middle/end was… I wanna say it was shocking, but in a way, I also saw it coming. I don’t know if that makes sense because I’m kind of contradicting myself but it’s the best way I can explain it. But if I look at her character from beginning to end, I really did like her and I love how her story ended.
The “pixified” (thanks to Stacie for that word, hehe!) curse words were hilarious, as were all the pixified play-on-words. I found myself laughing out loud at the majority of them. It kept the book light and fun, despite some of the darker, crazier things that happened.
The ending was insane and the book ended on a super crazy ridiculous cliff-hanger. So obviously if there isn’t a book two, I’ll have a Beginning-of-the-book Dorthea-style hissy fit! Like, I’m crossing every cross-able body part that we get a book two. And just in general, I’m very excited to see what this author comes up with next! She’s for sure going on my auto-buy author list!!! Near the very top!!!!
Overall, this book was epic beyond words – seriously, I had so much trouble finding the right words for this review, it’s not even funny. This review in no way does this book justice. But I hope, for the most part, my epic fangirl feels translated well and you go by this book ASAP. Cause if you love fairy tales, classics and retellings, then you MUST get your hands on this book. Like right now.