Review: Doon (Doon #1) by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon

Pub. Date: August 20^th, 2013

Publisher: Zondervan

Hardcover

368 pages

I was sincerely excited for this book. I loved the Alice in Wonderland, Princess Bride kind of feel I got from the synopsis. But Doon is more Twilight melodrama, than Alice in Wonderland fantasy world building – which isn’t a bad thing; it just wasn’t what I was expecting. The writing was solid and consistent, but as a reader, I was left looking for more fantasy from this ‘fantasy’.

Discontent with her life at home, Veronica wonders if she’s going crazy when she starts randomly seeing a strange Scottish boy telling her to come to Doon. Jumping at her best friend McKenna’s invitation to spend the summer in Scotland at her recently inherited Aunt Gracie’s home, the girls soon find a set of rings and Gracie’s old diary, telling the story of a hidden land over a bridge called Doon. At the mention of Doon Veronica knows the boy she has been seeing is real, and feels compelled to find Doon and him. McKenna on the other hand is not convinced Doon really exists. Finding and crossing the bridge to Doon is easy compared to getting both of Doon’s Princes, Jamie and Duncan, to believe they are in Doon with good intentions. Prince Jamie – Veronica’s dream boy – is especially hard to convince because he suspects they were sent by Doon’s evil witch to destroy his land. The girls know there’s a reason they found Doon, and they need to figure it out before the witch destroys them all.

Review: How Zoe Made Her Dreams (mostly) Come True by Sarah Strohmeyer

Pub. Date: April 23rd, 2013
Published by Balzer & Bray/ Harperteen
Edition: Paperback
320 pages

Imagine your most ideal summer job. For Zoe, ideal equals Fairyland Kingdom theme park (not to be confused with rival theme park 'the Mouse'), where she gets to live, work and breathe Fairytales. One big perk of the job is the annual competition for the $25,000 Dream & Do grant. Of course winning the money, which both her and her cousin are desperately in need of, will not come easy. The grant winners are usually those who play Prince's and Princess' - characters that neither Zoe nor Jess were picked to play.

The ideal job quickly turns sour when Zoe is cast as the assistant/slave to "The Queen"(aka the boss), and her small spoiled rotten Bishon Frise, Tinker Bell. Instead of dancing on floats, and having a fairytale wedding everyday like the Princess', Zoe is up before the sun, walking Tinker Bell, and doing her best not to break one of The Queen's hundred rules. When Tinker Bell escapes into the Forbidden Forest, and Zoe has to breaks all the rules to get her back, she finds not only the dog, but a Prince Charming who's identity is worth risking the grant money to uncover.