Review of Cloaked by Alex Flinn

Release Date: Feb. 8, 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 256 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 3 stars
Source: E-book from the Library

Goodreads Summary: I'm not your average hero. I actually wasn't your average anything. Just a poor guy working an after-school job at a South Beach shoe repair shop to help his mom make ends meet. But a little magic changed it all.

It all started with a curse. And a frognapping. And one hot-looking princess, who asked me to lead a rescue mission.

There wasn't a fairy godmother or any of that. And even though I fell in love along the way, what happened to me is unlike any fairy tale I've ever heard. Before I knew it, I was spying with a flock of enchanted swans, talking (yes, talking!) to a fox named Todd, and nearly trampled by giants in the Everglades.

Don't believe me? I didn't believe it either. But you'll see. Because I knew it all was true, the second I got cloaked.

Review:  I like fairytale retellings, and Alex Flinn does it well. I read both Beastly and A Kiss in Time and liked them both so I had really high hopes for Cloaked. While I don’t think it’s as much fun as those other two books, it’s a decent read.

Flinn draws inspiration from several fairy tales, some well known and some not so popular. It is fun to see how she weaves them into the story and she actually sparked my interest to get to know some of these fairy tales a little better.

The story is predictable and cute, but I took it as a light read among my stacks of dystopia related books and it worked just fine. Another thing I liked was that the story is set in South Florida (South Beach, Key Biscayne and the Florida Keys) so it’s nice to read about some beautiful places that I am familiar with.

If you are looking for a book that’s going to keep you reading into the wee hours of the morning or a romance that will leave you breathless, this is not it. This is a quick, fun and silly read. If you go in with these expectations, I think you will like it.

Content: Clean read.