A Kiss In Time by Alex Flinn

Hello readers! I've been a little behind in writing reviews, so I'm these next few ones are going to be brief so I can catch up :)

A Kiss in Time tells the story of Talia and Jack. Talia was warned by her parents never to touch a spindle, but she does (without knowing what it is) and falls into a deep sleep where she is only to be waken up by her true love. 300 years later, Jack is touring Europe and breaks off from his tour group. He comes across the hidden city of Euphrasia and finds a beautiful girl sleeping. He kisses her, and she wakes up, which is where the trouble starts. Talia's family is very upset with her for "ruining their kingdom" with her stupidity, so she begs Jack to take her with him to Florida.

I loved the modern day take on Sleeping Beauty, which was my favorite fairy tale when I was younger. Talia and Jack are both lovable characters, and the plot is interesting and fast paced. I loved reading Talia's take on Florida's culture and her awe of bathing suits and how people acted. I think the author did a great job of incorporating what someone would be thinking after waking up from a 300 year's sleep.

This book is definitely heavy on dialogue, and I think it's safe to say that it's a lot of "talk but no action". There is action, but it all goes by so fast and is hardly drawn out. I felt like the reading wasn't quite as advanced as I would like it to be (or at least not advanced enough for me). I think that I would have enjoyed this book a LOT if I had read it when I was like in 6th grade. I'm older now, and I still liked it, but I felt there was so much talking and it was so fast paced I didn't get to enjoy just one part of it before I was whisked away to another.

I enjoyed Beastly a lot, an A Kiss In Time was sadly not as enjoyable as Beastly. I would give this 3.5 out of 5 stars . I liked it, but not enough to read again. I would recommend it to readers who enjoyed Beastly, readers who like modern day fairy tales, or middle schoolers who want a fun romance story.

Beastly by Alex Flinn

Beastly is a modern-day re-telling of Beauty and the Beast. If you aren't familiar with the story, I will summarize it for you:

Kyle is rich and spoiled. He's good looking, and his father's a hot-shot, which let's him get away with pretty much anything. He invites an "ugly" girl to the dance, planning on standing her up, which is his mistake. The girl turns out to be a "witch" that casts a spell on him. She turns him into a beast to teach him a lesson about beauty. At the dance, Kyle had given the corsage he had bought for his date (who rejected it because it wasn't expensive or pretty enough for her) to the girl at the ticket booth. The witch recognizes this kindness, and then gives Kyle a chance to break the spell. She says that if he can get a girl to fall in love with him even with his appearance, and if he loves her back, and they kiss within 2 years, the spell will be broken.

My god, I loved this story. I love the story of Beauty and the Beast, and the morals of it. And I loved how the author was able to translate all of that into a modern-day retelling of this classic story. I disliked Kyle in the beginning, he was sooo full-of-it. But after a while, I really started to feel for him. I actually started to like him and want for the spell to be broken. I love it when authors can change your mind about a character! The writing was excellent, I think that Flinn captured the teenage mind of Kyle perfectly, and made him so real. I loved the morals, the characters, the writing, the plot, the romance, and the re-telling.

I wanted to read this book because I heard it was going to be turned into a movie, and I wanted to read the book first. I had read Cloaked by Alex Finn, and I really liked the whole modern-day fairy tale idea. Soo I decided to read Beastly. I would definitely recommend it if you plan to see the movie, or you like Beauty in the Beast, or you like fantasy, or romance. Basically, there's something in it for everyone!

The only thing that bothered me when I was reading this book was the cover. The book I had was the newly published one:

I don't know about you, but Kyle doesn't look very "beastly". In fact, I think that Alex P is still very attractive. And Linda isn't supposed to be conventionally beautiful, but I don't think Vanessa is really doing it for me because, let's all face it. She's pretty no matter what!

I plan on reviewing the movie Beastly once I see it, and compare it to how well I think it followed the story, which was better, etc. So stay tuned for that!

I would recommend Beastly to just about everyone, and I think it deserves 5 out of 5 stars !!!!!

Happy Reading!!!

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