UnEnchanted

Chanda Hahn

Dec 2011 · Chanda Hahn

About this ebook

Mina Grime is unlucky, unpopular and uncoordinated, that is 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 its 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.

Ratings and reviews

An interesting book, the protagonist annoyed me quite a bit but due to the situation I can understand some of her actions even though I don't agree with them. Hopefully Mina will have others she can rely on to assist her but as it stands now any & everything is possible. I look forward to reading the other books & finding out how all of this will end.

I started reading this short story because I wanted to try something new. An Unfortunate Fairy Tale sounded tragic but yet eventful and exciting. I like how this author incorporates the first fairy tale (an no I am going to spoil it by naming it) into her character’s lives. She starts off with one best friend and then tries to fit in by essentially being a “nobody”. Well, she soon finds out, that she is far from being a “nobody”. She is a Grimm which means that she has a lot of fairy tale catching up to do. While reading through this story, I found Mina to have some characteristics that I could relate to. She is shy and love sick of a boy who seems out of her league. That sounds a lot like me in high school. She is strong-willed but has a kind heart which helps her decide what must be done to save the people that she cares about. Overall, I very much enjoyed the story. It has a fantastic plot and I envy the creativity that was put into writing it. It did jump a bit quick for my liking; for instance, sometimes, I found myself having to go back and read the previous paragraph in order to understand some of the emotions that drive the story forward. I recommend this book to any of my club members who enjoy their fairy tales because it is certainly one that you will not regret!

This was a good idea that wasn't executed particularly well. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it, I just found myself getting really frustrated with the characters and the events. The lack of subtlety was also an issue. There was also a tendency to beat the reader over the head with the significance of a small act. However, that said, the premise of a curse running through a family because The Story demands it is a good one and it made for an interesting twist on the Fairy Tale Genre. The real problems come with the characters rather than the plot. Wilhelmina Grimes is a major pain in the proverbial. Yes, I get that the whole clumsy, socially inept shtick is there to juxtapose against who she really is and what she will have to become to beat The Story at it's own game. Unfortunately, this means that she comes across as alternately arrogant, rude, obnoxious and very, very needy. Not exactly personality traits that you want in your protagonist. Maybe the intention was to make her a strong, modern teenage girl but she comes across as the one you would actively avoid because she is toxic. There's a lot of peril thrown in, but most of it in places where it would make no sense for Mina to be written out of the story so it loses it's impetus and just seems to be a way to get her together with that holy grail of teenage girl existence BOYS. Yes, there is a lot of Mina mooning over boys. I get it puberty makes you dumb and those raging hormones make your preferred gender all but irresistible but it does start getting very old, very fast. So, why did I scrape up the 3 Stars for something I clearly have issues with large parts of? Quite simply the whole premise of the book is a strangely good one and the explanation behind how the Grimms came to be cursed and what that means for their descendants is really well thought through and explained. The balance between the Fae World and the Human World is excellently handled and there are some quite chilling moments when they intersect - I don't think these are necessarily where, or what, the author intended but more happy coincidences. At the time of reviewing this book there are another 4 in the series. Would I rush to read them? Sadly, no. Initially I did think that this could be a wonderfully immersive series but by the end of the first book I have lot patience with Mina completely and the thought of voluntarily subjecting myself to more of her shenanigans is a non-starter.

About the author

Chanda Hahn is a New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author of The Unfortunate Fairy Tale Series. She uses her experience as a children's pastor, children's librarian and bookseller to write compelling and popular fiction for teens. She was born in Seattle, WA, grew up in Nebraska and currently resides in Wisconsin with her husband and their twin children.

www.chandahahn.com