This book was a funny and absurdist take on the usual fairy tale.
I wish I'd liked it more, but the writing style was not my favourite and I couldn't get invested.
It did remind me of Terry Pratchett, so I think the book has potential and there is definitely a readership for it. Just not for me.

I love a good retelling and new takes on old tales - this book is a great one for sure. The humor & reimagining of some of the most universally loved fairy tale characters was excellent, and Linwood's true stroke of brilliance was putting together the group of scorned women. That being said, the book felt a bit choppy, and it ended abruptly. Outside of those concerns, I'd recommend Charming to anyone who enjoys a fairytale retelling with twists.

Very good fun, and funny as well.

Charming follows the story of a prince turned selfish, puffed-up conman and his imp servant, Roland as they waltz their way across kingdoms, “save” damsels in distress, and make off with their treasure and hearts. Three princesses and former victims team up to hunt him down, and magical hijinks ensue.

Overall, this was quite funny. It moved quickly, and the dialogue and voice were often hilarious. Very dry, witty fairy tail humor. 10/10 on that front.

My one qualm is that Roland is the protagonist of this book, but the book doesn’t seem to know it. From him, we get the most vulnerability via stream-of-consciousness honesty, even when he’s whining about something mundane. He’s drawn one of the shortest sticks out of the lot, and I suppose I expected him to have a bit more of a heart underneath it all. (Although, maybe that’s counter to who he truly is? Hmmm.)

This gets a little trickier when the heroes of the story are not always emotionally accessible or have their emotional beats clipped a bit short. I’d have liked a bit more insight into the leading women. They’re fascinating, but the story held us at a bit of a narrative distance in places I’d have liked to dig deeper.

Overall, it reads like a well-spun fairytale. Clever and fun to read.

I genuinely try not to give books 1 star. With that being said, this book deserves 1 star. The 1 star is for the premise and the premise only.

For a book that meant to be a feminist retelling of “Prince Charming” with the wit and humor of Shrek, it did NOT deliver. The princesses were all the most boring and flat characters compared to Charming himself. Sure he’s the antagonist but shouldn’t the protagonists actually have personalities?

I received an EARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley!

The cover is so pretty! I love it!

The story is fun and very much a Young Adult (YA) book, the story is a bit repetitive and some of the characters could use a little bit of help, but overall a quick and fun read. I feel this book has a lot of potential to be great, it just needs a little bit “more”.

Within the first few pages of Charming by Jade Linwood describes a character as “being short and oddly shaped, he is what you might call ‘pre-crouched’ “, a description that I had to look at twice and wasn’t quite sure what to make of it at the time. I wasn’t sure whether Linwood was describing a character with a physical disability or a non-human character. Deciding to give Linwood the benefit of the doubt, I continued reading. The character in question is Roland, Prince Charming’s partner in crime and while I came across no other descriptions that worried me, I did notice that Linwood seemed to take every opportunity to insult Roland. From how he smells, to what he’s wearing, and even his choice of food, the reader is told about how awful and smelly he is.

Still, I kept going, thinking that this was just a writing technique, albeit a bad one, to draw a comparison to Prince Charming who is of course, completely the opposite. From looking at other reviews I believe that some of this was supposed to be a type of humour, personally I’ve never been one for humour that has to knock someone down to be funny, but that’s just me. The more I read I was fairly certain that Charming was never going to rise above a three-star rating for me. That was until I got to the third princess’ story, Rapunzel, or as she’s called in Charming, Doctor Emilia Rapunzel.

As Emilia tells her story she recounts the moments that she and the other orphans are standing waiting to be inspected by a visitor, and that’s when Lindwood drops “crippled” into the dialogue several times. You might be thinking, they’re just uneducated children, they don’t know any better. No, but the author writing the book does and there are several ways that the children could have described the disabled orphans without using a slur. Even worse, one of the disabled authors is called “Twisty”. I was gobsmacked at that one.

I expected Roland to be revealed to be a Dwarf at some point, however, when we get to Snow White’s story (Marie Blanche’s story) Dwarves are mentioned throughout without any belittling comments or mention of their short statures. In fact, Linwood speaks of them in quite high regard throughout which suggests that Roland’s description was indeed about a physical disability.

The entire book is also written from an omnipotent perspective speaking to the writer directly just like a narrator from a children’s animated movie. From the way Linwood describes characters as either ugly or perfect, it feels as if she took a lot of inspiration from Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame and not in a good way.

As I was not enjoying the style of writing, and did not want to find out what other derogatory descriptions or slurs awaited I chose to DNF at 62%.

A completely unique approach to the fairytales we all know and love, with the different tales overlapping and the characters meeting to share their stories of how they were deceived by the rogue Prince Charming. I absolutely loved the concept and how Charming was woven into all of the fairytales as a dashing prince turned thief. Having Bella, Marie and Emilia tell their stories gave an inspired understanding of their past and also their determination to track down the deceiver who stole from them. I particularly enjoyed Marie’s narrative and her relationship with the dwarves - plus the Fox Queen sounded so cool!

These three strangers band together to track down and bring to justice the crafty Prince Charming who is on the run from most of the world, including his own kingdom. They may be unlikely friends but they come to understand and respect each other, creating a lasting connection we begin to see at the close of the story. The ending was a little unexpected and perhaps a little disappointing but I enjoyed the magic and adventure throughout and would recommend this for anyone looking for a world of fairytales turned on its head.

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

“𝕋𝕠 𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕤𝕖 𝕡𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕤 𝕨𝕙𝕠 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕪 𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕔𝕦𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕞𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕧𝕖𝕤..”

Last week I have read ‘Charming’, written by Jade Linwood. A funny and adventurous book about, yes indeed, Prince Charming. Although maybe not as charming as you always might have thought he would be.

In this book Charming most definitely knows how to use and maybe even misuse his charms, but when some of his victims decide to take revenge the story gets an interesting turn!

The book description says “Brave, resourceful, deceitful, double-crossing, charming” and it definitely is. And I loved every bit of it 🥰 I really loved reading a different POV on Prince Charming and loved that there was the perfect amount of girlpower in this story. I thought the input of the different fairytale characters was genius, especially the one in the end 💛 I didn’t see that one coming.

I read this book as an arc and it didn’t release yet, so you’ll have to wait a while but it is definitely worth it. The book releases on the 18th of July this year. Mark your calendars! 🗓️

♥️ “𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥.” - Rapunzel
♥️ “𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩, 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘴.” - Rapunzel
♥️ “𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩, 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘴.” - Nell

#princecharming #differentpov #fairytales #fairytalecharacters #rapunzel #snow #rumple #charming #jadelinwood #arc #comingoutsoon

3.5/5 Stars

TL;DR - A delightful and unexpected mish-mash of fairy tales in the vein of The Princess Bride, Ella Enchanted, and Shrek. Full of magic, mystery, and wonderfully capable women, this book is an adventure with many twists and turns, full of interesting and clever characters who are never quite who - or what - they seem. Overall a fun and, dare I say, charming tale.

Big thanks to Rebellion/Solaris and NetGalley for providing the ARC for this book in exchange for an honest review!

‘Charming’ by Jade Linwood is a book of fairy tales within fairy tales, taking the familiar classics and transforming them into something new and unexpected like so many pumpkins before a ball. It follows four main POVS - the titular Prince Charming, Marie Blanche (Snow White), Bella (Sleeping Beauty), and Doctor Rapunzel (self-explanatory) - as their paths intersect and mayhem ensues. Charming is a con man, using his guiles and the talent of his manservant, Roland, to win the hearts of fair (and rich) maidens all across the vaguely-European countryside, before summarily making off with as much of their treasury as he can carry, never to be seen again. But, eventually, our three heroines meet and realize they’ve all been conned by the same man, and team up to bring him to justice.

I’m honestly wary of fairy tale re-tellings these days (they’re a dime a dozen and more often than not are poorly-written, copy-paste clones of each other) and while the premise was promising, I really didn’t have high hopes. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book (for the most part, more on that below).

The writing is incredibly (ahem) charming, and there was a lot of very clever humor throughout. It reminds me of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams in terms of sharp wit and some lines where I genuinely laughed out loud. Beyond that, the writing is just plain good, the descriptions evocative, and the dialog realistic with a good flow to it. It’s very much a fairy tale through and through, and I mean that as a compliment.

Each of the three heroines are very different from each other, and from their original versions, but they are all capable and compelling characters. I think I enjoyed Doctor Rapunzel the most as a character, but I think Marie Blanche won in terms of abilities and motivations. Bella is the least appealing to me, but she still carried her weight and made for an interesting POV. I wouldn’t say any of them are especially deep in terms of character development, and there’s not a whole lot of emotional depth, but I still enjoyed following them as they chase their dastardly prince. Speaking of, Charming is much the same, if not a bit more shallow than the women, but he was also a delight to watch get himself into and (somehow) out of incredible situations.

The plot is structured in an interesting way, starting off with the stories of how Charming saved and then swindled each of the three main women, and then snowballing into their coming together and their plans to catch Charming. There are a lot of twists, a lot of surprise appearances by familiar fairy tale characters, and overall enough tension to carry interest and excitement to the end. There’s even a sword-fight that was very much the flavor of the famous duel from The Princess Bride (it wasn’t as good, but it was still good).

My main gripe, and the one that I docked the most star-points for, was the fact that after the whole book and everything we (and the leading ladies) have been through, there’s very little in the way of actual retribution and resolution. We hear Charming’s reasonings for everything he’s done, and they’re admirable and mostly understandable, but ultimately, it fell flat for me. And then there’s the fact that the ultimate resolution is only discussed and never shown. I really wanted a more emotional, in-depth look into Charming’s character and his past, and to see his redemption arc, or at least his punishment and atonement, but we got neither. It was there, it made sense, but it was overall unsatisfying.

Final Thoughts:

This was a fun book to spend an evening with, and I did enjoy it. However, the state of the ending and lack of concrete resolution ultimately soured the book for me. It gave a lot, but in the end, it didn’t give enough for me to consider shelling out for a physical copy. Shelving this under, “it was a’ight”.

This book was amazing. I am a sucker for a good fairytale retelling, and this was so much better than that. Yes, it was full of fairytale tropes, but the locations had enough individuality to feel like real places. And the characters were so well thought out. It was a perfectly balanced world, that just happened to have our stories in it.
I loved it, and have already begun enthusiastically recommending it to others.

I really enjoyed this book and read it in one day. If you love fairytale retellings with twists then this one is for you!
This was a light hearted and fun reimagined version of classic fairytales. It was a quick and fun read with a steady plot and plenty of humour!
I enjoyed the authors writing style and found it easy to follow. I did feel that there were parts of the story not as well developed as I’d like. I did also struggle with the characters development throughout the book as I felt that they lacked depth.
But overall I did enjoy this book and found it a fun fairytale retelling.

This is a campy fairy tail retelling mashup where Prince Charming is a con man. It reminds me of Flynn Ryder from Disney's Tangled if he never got his redemption arc.

This started out pretty funny and campy. I enjoy the idea of Prince Charming out there swindling princesses into marriage only to leave them jilted at the alter while he runs off with their fortunes.

However, I never felt like my interest ever moved past that initial concept. I found each princess had a very mediocre backstory, and I didn't care at all that they'd gotten duped. It would have been nice if the duping was even just a little funny, but not even that. So when they plotted their revenge, I was just very uninvested.

It wasn't bad persé, it unfortunately didn't catch my interest either.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this advanced copy.

<I> It makes a better story, especially if you’re trying to persuade teenage girls that having no life at all until a man comes along is a perfectly acceptable fate. </I>

I kinda feel like I was miss-sold this story. What I was expecting was a humours, feminist book where women who had been swindled by the ridiculously charismatic Prince Charming banded together and got some truly entertaining and well earned pay-back . What I got was some some-what long winded individual stories, three women who didn’t overly get on, and a Prince who was entirely too good at getting away.
Yes, Jade Linwood has recreated some well know fairytale characters in a completely unique and beautiful way. I really did enjoy the fairytale vibes, the imagery, lore, characters and world.
I just felt the pacing was a bit off, it didn’t flow brilliantly and it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

This was a fun spin-off of the classic fairytales we were indoctrinated into. I think this was a fun book - it was lighthearted, easy to read, quick paced, and didn't take itself too seriously -- although the latter also led to characters not feeling fully developed.

I thought it was great that we had "Prince Charming" as a scam-artist who these "damsels in distress" would blindly trust. We jump from Princess to Princess which is fun - but leaves me wishing that I was able to get more backstory for each princess. I would have enjoyed some more complexities and depth to the characters.

I saw another reviewer say, "good idea, poor execution" which I do relate to.

However, I do think this book is worth picking up and giving a chance if you want a light hearted read that pokes fun at classic fairytales and that you don't have to commit yourself very deeply.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book*

"Charming" is a meta fairy tale mash up about Prince Charming who saves all the princesses from Grimm fairy tales, makes their families trust him and then robs them with the help of his faithful servant Roland. But the women whose trust he has lost are fighting back: Doctor Rapunzel and others want to catch "Charming", but nothing is as it seems.

The two things I enjoyed the most about this were the fairy tale retellings (I'm a sucker for those) and how the women fight back. I kinda shipped "Charming" and Roland but it was not to be.

The main thing I did not enjoy about the book were some rather boring middle parts where the pacing didn't work out and the ending, which left too many questions unanswered...

3.5 stars

I really enjoyed the twist on a favorite fairytale! I would categorize it as YA fantasy, and the plot was well done and so entertaining!
This book was gifted to me by the publisher through NetGallery, all opinions and reviews are my own. #NetGallery

Charming by Jade Linwood is a delightful romantic novel that will capture your heart from the very beginning.

The chemistry between the MCs is undeniable, and Linwood does an excellent job of building their relationship gradually. As the story unfolds, we see the two characters grow closer and fall in love in a way that feels authentic and genuine.

Overall, Charming is a well-written, heartwarming romance novel that will leave you feeling satisfied and fulfilled. Linwood's writing is engaging and her characters are well-developed and relatable. If you're a fan of romance novels or fairy tales, I highly recommend giving Charming a read.

While I loved the concept of this book At times I struggled to connect with "Charming". I loved that he was a con man but he and the princesses felt a little flat, which i attribute to the narration style being. bit more distant than I'm used to. This might just be a matter of taste but overall this was a fun story and a new way of turning fairy tales on their heads. Thanks, Netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

I wanted to love this! I did love the first half! Loved the different viewpoints of the princesses and Charming and was excited to see how it all came together. Unfortunately the last half kind of unraveled for me and lost my interest. Didn’t hate it but it fell a bit flat. Still a fun story and and enjoyable read and I would definitely check out more from this author in the future!

Check out my video review on YouTube - link below!

This is such a fun, humorous, lighthearted twist on Prince Charming! I really loved the premise of this book and the way the princesses team up to get revenge on Prince Charming after he cons them. The world-building is great and I really loved the the faeries, dwarves, dragons, and all manner of fairytale creatures that were a part of the story.

However, the characters fall a bit flat for me. While I really enjoyed each princess's backstory and how they had been scammed by Charming, it was also a bit repetitive. I didn't feel like there was enough emotion and interaction between Charming and the characters to understand why they loved him so much and then felt so betrayed by him (despite the obvious thievery).

The ending of this also felt quite rushed. There was so much set up leading to the ending and then it was wrapped up so quickly and not very satisfactorily. I wanted to know more about why Charming was the way that he was. The answer given just wasn't compelling enough for me and it didn't really connect the dots.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!