Book Review and Author Interview.

Title: The Fairy Tale Trap.

Author: Emily Casey.

Genre: Retelling, Fairy Tale, Action/Adventure, Humorous.

Plot: Teenage military brat Ivy Thorn has moved again. She and her mom have spent most of her life moving – doing the same routine over and over again; settling down, sending out roots and then ripping them up again to relocate. Ivy really feels the stress of this latest move. Her first night in their new house, she searches for her picture of her father. When she can’t find it, she decides to call it a day and goes into the bathroom to brush her hair. A face not her own peers back out of the mirror at her and the next thing Ivy knows, she’s no longer in the bathroom.

Now stuck in a fairy tale – Beauty and the Beast no less – Ivy, with her sarcastic outlook on life, has to find a way around various annoying {or sometimes helpful but mostly annoying} spells, an enchanted forest, an idiotic prince, roses with sharp thorns, and a pixie with a bizarre sense of humor in order to get back home. When making a crucial decision backfires horribly, Ivy realizes she’s in over her head. With no idea how she got into the fairy tale in the first place, how is she to get back out?

Likes/Dislikes: Mrs. Casey has taken a creative spin to the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast and run with it as only she could. Giving her heroine a sarcastic tough-girl character with a soft center paired up with Beauty, the usual heroine of the tale now demoted to sidekick, was a new twist on the tale. The addition of Prince Ferguson is a hilarious one! I highly enjoyed the lively banter between Ivy and the obnoxious pixie. All in all, a very enjoyable book. Highly recommended for teens and up.

Rating: PG-12 and up for content and reading level.

Date Report Written: January 30, 2012.

I received this book free from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed in the above review are my own.

Author Interview!

Welcome, Mrs. Casey, to my library! How are you this fine winter day? It’s winter? I live in Florida, so I’ve got the back doors open. It’s about 72 degrees!

Do tell us a little about your latest writing project! I’m finishing up Cinderella and Zombies (which is new territory for me) and I should start the sequel to The Fairy Tale Trap later this month!

What made you want to become a writer? I guess the most honest answer is that I love writing stories. But I didn’t realize it until I read a book on writing. It had some writing exercises and I wanted to try them all! After that, I couldn’t wait to plan my first novel.

How do you get inspiration for your stories? It’s different every time. With The Fairy Tale Trap, I had the character first, then threw her into something she’d struggle with, but that I wanted to write about. Fairy Tales were a natural choice (because Ivy doesn’t do ball gowns and she definitely would never kiss a frog).

Are your characters inspired by real-life people, your imagination, or a mix of both? A mix of both. Ivy is her own character, but some of the details from her life were taken from personal experiences and friends’ experiences.

Which area would you say you’re strongest in as a writer? {Plot, dialog, description, action, characterization, showing vs. telling, etc.} It changes with every book. I think Ivy is a really strong character with a great voice. But sometimes the plot will just take off and I struggle to keep the characters center-stage.

Which area are you weaker in? It’s difficult to show the reader WHY a character does what she does. I know as a writer (most of the time) but sometimes I forget that my characters are strangers to the reader on page 1.

What do you do when you hit writer’s block? Write by hand. Poof! It’s gone.

Do you have a favorite spot to write? The library. My inner nerd takes over and the words fly onto the screen.

Do you work best in peace and quiet or surrounded with background noise and action? I like it quiet. My brain can work at a problem from several angles if it’s not distracted.

What kind of music {if any} do you prefer to listen to while writing? Before I sit down to write first-draft material, I do housework while listening to a playlist of Muse, Enya, and the How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack. Weird combination, I know.

How do you decide which story to work on next? Whichever one I’m most excited to write. Burnout isn’t fun. Neither is working on a book that you don’t love.

Which genre do you prefer to work with? Young adult fantasy, all the way. I love the magic and writing from inside the head of someone who doesn’t care about rules.

Who has influenced your writing the most? I answer this question differently every time. Honestly, I think it’s just a mixture of everything I’ve read, of all the writing classes I’ve taken, and my own personality. The “mental compost” that J.K. Rowling talks about is pretty accurate.

Who are your favorite authors? Shannon Hale, Patricia Briggs, J.K. Rowling, Gail Carriger, and Maria V. Snyder to name a few.

I understand you’re a stay-at-home mother of two young children, how do you balance writing and motherhood? Nap time is sacred writing time. If I don’t do it when the kids are asleep, I have no excuse for missing my word count goal.

What is your advice for other aspiring authors out there? Practice. A lot.

Where can my readers go to find out more about your books? I just put up a new page on my blog called Will You Like My Books? It goes through some of the pros and cons of my stories so readers can decide whether the books are for them.

And for a random question, what is your favorite color? Purple.

Thank you, Mrs. Casey, for taking a few minutes of your valuable time to share with us about your books. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Mrs. Casey's book, you can do so here at Amazon.com. To read the next review in The Fairy Tale Trap blog tour, check out Coranne's blog tomorrow. To read an excerpt from this book, check out Wednesday's post. To watch the epic movie trailer for this book, click Play. *grins*