TeaStitchRead

Fills in Full Moon square

For some of you, this will be utter catnip (or book nip): a retelling of fairy tales (slightly more on the Grimm side of things than the Disney version) with paranormal twists. For this book, it is a retelling of Cinderella with werewolves. (FYI, there was an excerpt from book two at the end of the book and it is a retelling of Snow White with vampires).

Loupe (our Cinderella) was the abused step-daughter whose job was to skin, treat, and package up the wolf skins for her step-family. She was bitten by a cursed werewolf during a work day. Prince Etienne (the hero) is a natural werewolf who was "blessed" (although the blessing was a curse) by a witch after he saved her from thieves. He is losing his inner wolf and needs to be re-bitten/mated with either a natural or a cursed werewolf before the end of the next full moon. Loupe and Etienne are the damn cutest couple, especially when they are playing with wolf pups and discussing political beliefs (such as how much violence should a ruler use to protect his/her kingdom). Etienne really sees Loupe as a partner in his ruling of the kingdom in the future. Etienne's parents, the current king and queen of the kingdom, (also natural werewolves) were great too, especially with helping their son in breaking the curse.

The prologue set up the premise of the entire series, and didn't make much sense in how this book fell into that premise. It did help explaining the relationships between the different blood princes so when Prince Kirill (hero of book 2) shows up to talk with Etienne, you know who he is and how well (or not) they got along.

There was just a little too much weakness in Loupe when it came to her step-family. It wasn't until the prince and the kingdom were in peril that she found/connected with her inner wolf. And then she really only went after the one step-sister. Etienne used his brains and diplomacy to get rid of the other step-sister, so Loupe didn't stand up to her at all. There was a finality in the last battle that I did like, so the step-family was not going to randomly show up in later books.

Overall a solid start to the series. 3.5 stars. I'll continue with the series in the future.