A Grimm Legacy by Janna Jennings

A Grimm Legacy



 

Title: A Grimm Legacy

Author: Janna Jennings

Series: N/A

Publisher: Patchwork Press

Publication Date: October 29, 2013

Source: Netgalley

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

 

Goodreads Summary: Enchanted castles and charming princes thought to exist only in stories come to life in this classically twisted fairy tale that combines the timeless quality of generations old folktales with the challenges of the modern world.

The woods of Elorium appear ordinary to Andi Grace, until birds start talking and elves answer doors. Along with three others, Andi has been whisked out of her world and finds herself the reluctant guest of the perplexing millionaire, Mr. Jackson—a stranger willing to help get them home, but who’s keeping secrets of his own.

Discovering unexpected family connections to this fairy tale land, the group must rely on each other as they dodge evil fairies and battle giants, intent on keeping them in Elorium.

Faced with characters short on whimsy and bent towards treachery, Andi, Quinn, Fredrick and Dylan are forced into fairy tale roles to find the way home. But in Elorium, happily ever after is never guaranteed.

 

My Thoughts:

          Writing: I have no idea if I got an unedited copy or what, but the writing was terrible. I don't mean like a low level or something, no, it was totally and utterly confusing. Many words which should have been plural, or agreed with the rest of the sentence did not. Not only that, but often times it felt like an entire paragraph was missing from the story. And then, to go on top of all of that, the punctuation was off, and sometimes so was the formatting. This made it a very confusing read in itself, but then at the beginning of every chapter there would be a line from later on in the chapter as the first line of the chapter. For example:

 

                     Chapter 34

     "I'm a girl of many hidden talents. Keeping myself out of trouble is not one of them."

      Andi stepped into a quiet clearing. Overgrown grass and wild roses blanketed the area, running right up to the base of the tower and entwining themselves into the architecture.

 

And then a ton of the chapter until, low and behold:

 

        "Not willingly." Quinn clasped her hands together as she sat back. "But I couldn't imagine how you were going to find me. At first I didn't have any clue who took me. How could you?"

        "I'm a girl of many hidden talents." She gestured to her filthy, damp clothes. "Keeping myself out of trouble is not one of them."

 

And then just because I feel like adding it, bad grammar!

 

       "How am I always the one turned into a bird or stolen by giants?" Quinn scowled.

 

Oh, and here's some more! This is where it feels like a paragraph is missing or something:

 

        "I've been heavily involved in ensuring the kingdom's future." She laughed lightly, an acidic undercurrent to her words. "The realm doesn't run itself, after all."

         Andi didn't like where this was going.

         Prince Wilhelm had been spinning her around the dance floor for the last hour, while his mother tracked them with a concentrated look, and Andi was getting nervous. She hadn't seen Dylan or Quinn for sometime. Fredrick still kept within her line of vision, which was odd considering he'd been glued to Quinn all evening. It was getting late and Andi felt she should be making her Cinderella-exit soon. She never did get a chance to read the story in her grandmother's book. Without the mice and the fairy godmother, was the magic still going to wear off at midnight?

         When Fredrick surreptitiously shook his head at her, his face worried, her stomach dropped. Something was wrong.

 

WHAT????? Did that not confuse you? Because all those paragraphs were together in the book, but I felt like whole other paragraphs were missing. They don't even connect together!!

 

This is why I feel like I was given a rough draft of the novel, because when you go on Goodreads people don't even mention how horribly it was written!!!!!! Confusing much?

 

           What did I think? Well, besides the major issues with the writing, I think this story had a pretty good plot line. It was a really interesting idea. I do give Jennings props for that, I really do. However, it was jumpy, and I mean REALLY jumpy. For example the first four chapters were all about different people, talk about trying to remember character names when you only just met them and then get introduced to three other new characters. This made it so that throughout the book I kept getting confused about who exactly was talking. Yeah I mean I knew their names, but their background stories all sort of ran together!

        I also felt like Jennings was trying to hard to fit in so many stories. Sometimes it just became a little ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE fairytales, and fairytale novels. However, there was just something about this one that didn't work for me. It felt too mushed together, and kind of cheap.

 

Well, I think that's all I have to say about that. If anyone could shed light on the really weird writing please let me know.

 

Rating:

 Why two trees? I did enjoy the story line, just not the rest of the novel . . .