{Review} UNENCHANTED by Chanda Hahn [+Limited Time E-Book Bundle Deal!]

Love fairy tales and mythology?
Fans of mermaids, dragons, unicorns, and other mythical creatures?
Enjoy when a beloved classic tale is retold?
A Twist in the Tail Thursdays features all this and more!

O P E N I N G   H O O K:

  Today I saved Brody Carmichael's life! 
  Mina penned the jubilant words into her blue spiral notebook with her favorite ballpoint pen. She faithfully used the same pen when writing all of her entries in the hope that it would change her luck and she could write something good in her notebook--like today. Mina stared at the words written before her in her sloppy script and felt a pang of guilt. She started to close the notebook but paused in thought. It didn't feel right. It didn't seem...truthful. With a heavy hand and a heavy heart, she added in parentheses next to her previous entry:
  (Today was also the day I almost KILLED Brody Carmichael).
  Feeling slightly better about telling the truth, she closed her notebook, titled "Unaccomplishments and Epic Disasters," and tucked it in her dresser drawer with a sigh.
  Nothing in the world ever went right for fifteen-year-old Mina. She was always late for class, her homework usually looked as if it had spent the evening being a chew toy for a pit bull when she didn't even own a dog, her long-time crush didn't know she existed, and she frequently spilled chocolate milk on herself whenever she became nervous. Mina was certain it was because she was the magnet for all the bad, terrible, and so-so luck that existed in the world. So she kept a notebook hidden in her unorganized sock drawer to prove it.
  All of these events had turned her into a cynic, especially since yesterday morning had started out like any other event-filled, disastrous day.  

(Page 7 , US e-book edition)

 
"Not all Fairy Tales have happily ever afters.
Some just have afters."

I've had UNENCHANTED by Chanda Hahn sitting on my nook forever. Literally for-evvvvvv-er. Since...let me see...June 30, 2012! That's a long time to have it sitting there collecting virtual dust!

I'd downloaded it because it was free and because it was a fairy tale, but want to know a secret? Sometimes when things are free, I shy away from them. Why I continue to download them and let them sit, IDK. I've been burned one time too many. BUT I always circle back to this one. After all, it's a FAIRY TALE. Also, Chanda Hahn has hit the New York Times Best Sellers List, so a lot of people must enjoy her books!

When the final book in her series, FOREVER, launched earlier this month, I was scrolling through the Barnes and Noble Teen Books Under $5 and saw that Hahn had released a box set with her FIRST FOUR NOVELS for only $3.99! I stopped and did a double-take. With the exception of UNENCHANTED, which is free, the other three books cost $3.99 each. That is an AMAZING deal. Soooo I decided to read my copy of UNENCHANTED and see if I liked it enough to buy the box set?

And guess what?

I did!

So you'll be seeing reviews of more books in this series in the future! ^.~

You can buy the first four books in Chanda Hahn's
An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Quintetfor only $3.99.
WHAT AN AMAZING DEAL!!!!
I don't know how long this offer will last,
SO SNAG IT NOW!!!

The series centers around Mina Grime, a teenage girl down on her luck. Accidents always happen around her, and she never gets anything right. She's always tardy to school due to the most unbelievable circumstances that don't plague anyone else. When she goes on a school trip to Babushka's Bakery and accidentally drops her pencil, it leads to a huge accident that almost results in a fellow student, Brody's, death. Mina is swift enough to save Brody, so she is now a hero as much as she was the cause of everything, tarnishing her memories of that day. When she finds out that there was more going on at the bakery than what met the eye, she discovers a secret about herself, too. There's a reason things always seem to happen to her, a reason why trouble always finds her. She is Wilhelmina Grimm, a descendant of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, and there is a family curse that has killed many members of her family, including her father. If Mina can't break the curse and survive, her brother will be the next to die and the curse will continue. But Mina is only a fifteen-year-old girl. Is she strong enough to survive when so many older family members haven't been able to escape the curse?

When I first began reading UNENCHANTED, I was uncertain about how I felt about the book. It started off a little shaky, but quickly became engaging. I was eager to know what would happen to Mina and the other people in her life, and to see if she'll conquer her curse. The way UNENCHANTED ends makes you want the next book, FAIREST, right away, because all the spoilery things that happen!!! It's also interesting to see a love triangle starting to take part. I feel like Mina is very much into Brody right now, but might wind up ultimately with a different character altogether, a mysterious fae named Jared. There is definitely more going on to his story than what initially meets the eye, and apparently there is a side-story from his POV entitled JARED'S QUEST that comes between the first two books in the An Unfortunate Fairy Tale series. I definitely want to get into this guy's head!

What I really like about the series so far is the way all of the fairy tales are updated and modernized. To break the curse, Mina must survive all 200 Grimm Fairy Tales...and we all know how deadly some of them are!!! The stories twist themselves in new ways. They aren't necessarily out-and-out retellings, but certain elements have to be present in order to finish the story for the Grimmoire to mark it complete. For example, when Mina saves Brody at Babushka's Bakery, she completes her first tale, the story of Hansel and Gretel. At the beginning of book two, FAIREST, three of the Chicago Bears own a restaurant, and Mina's fries are too cold, her soda is too flat, her chair is too wobbly, and nothing is just right. I love the way small things like this are incorporated into our world and yet still retell the tale!

Offering UNENCHANTED for free was smart because Hahn made me want to read the next book in the series, and I'm sure after I'm finished reading FAIREST, I'll want to read the next book as well! I'm so glad that the final book, FOREVER, just released because I won't have to wait ages to see how everything ends. When I first saw the depth and scope of the curse, I thought the series would be one to go on forEVER because, come on, 200 fairy tales is A LOT. So I'm very excited that it's told in a manageable five books! Hahn has stated that there will be a couple of upcoming side stories from other character's perspectives, but with FOREVER, Mina's story is officially done. I'm excited to see what's in store for her as I continue the series!

~*~

C O V E R   D E S I G N:

The cover was the first thing to catch my eye! I'm always a sucker for covers with hooded cloaks.

Combined with the words UNENCHANTED: A Unfortunate Fairy Tale, well, I was sold!

  ~*~

C O N T E N T R A T I N G S

Content Ratings: highlight between ( ) for details

Romance:  PG ( kissing )

Language: PG ( nothing a pre-teen wouldn't say such as "crappy" )

Violence: G ( Mild battle climaxes, nothing graphically violent )

Other: --

Verdict: VERY CLEAN FOR TWEENS! ^_^

~*~

O F F I C I A L   I N F O:

Title: UNENCHANTED: An Unfortunate Fairy Tale
Author: Chanda Hahn

Release Date: Dec. 29, 2011

Publisher: Chanda Hahn
Received: Purchased for Free

SUMMARY:

Mina Grime is unlucky, unpopular and uncoordinated; until she saves her crush's life on a field trip, changing her High School status from loser to hero overnight. But with her new found fame brings misfortune in the form of an old family curse come to light. For Mina is descended from the Brothers Grimm and has inherited all of their unfinished fairy tale business. Which includes trying to outwit a powerful Story from making her it's next fairytale victim.

To break the fairy tale curse on her family and make these deadly occurrences stop, Mina must finish the tales until the very Grimm end.