The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter Narrator: Caitlin Kelly
Series: Forest of Good and Evil #1
Published by Harlequin Audio on 2019-06-25
Length: 20 hours and 30 minutes
Reviewing Audiobook from Audible
Rating:
WELCOME TO THE FOREST OF GOOD AND EVIL.
A DREAM COME TRUE…AND A LIVING NIGHTMARE.Far, far away, in the realm of Enchantia, creatures of legend still exist, magic is the norm and fairy tales are real. Except, fairy tales aren’t based on myths and legends of the past—they are prophecies of the future.
Raised in the mortal realm, Everly Morrow has no idea she’s a real-life fairy-tale princess—until she manifests an ability to commune with mirrors.
Look. See… What will one peek hurt?
Soon, a horrifying truth is revealed. She is fated to be Snow White’s greatest enemy, the Evil Queen.
With powers beyond her imagination or control, Everly returns to the land of her birth. There, she meets Roth Charmaine, the supposed Prince Charming. Their attraction is undeniable, but their relationship is doomed. As the prophecy unfolds, Everly faces one betrayal after another, and giving in to her dark side proves more tempting every day. Can she resist, or will she become the queen—and villain—she was born to be?
The battle between good and evil is on.
The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter has been on my radar since it first hit shelves in 2019. I love fairy tale retellings, and I especially love the anti-hero stories, you know the stories about the villain. That is one-hundred percent this story! The Evil Queen twists everything you thought you knew about Snow White and turns it on its head.
Everly Morrow thought she was a normal teen with normal teen problems: a smart kid, socially outcast, hanging on til graduation. What she didn’t expect was to be magical or to not even be from the human realm, but from Enchantia, a realm where fairy tales are real and so are all the monsters that haunt them. After accidentally killing her mother, Everly finds herself navigating this strange world without any preparation. The only thing she knows to be true is she has to find her sister and not become the prophesied evil queen.
Then enters Prince Roth Charmaine. That’s right, Prince Charming in the flesh. Everly can’t seem to resist the pull he has over her, I can’t either 😉 However any relationship they have is doomed from the start by prophecy, or is it? I loved their interactions. Everly pushed Roth’s buttons, and he did the same right back. Their chemistry is undeniable from the moment they meet, but Everly doesn’t have time to focus on that. She has to save her sister.
I half-listened, half-read this one. As always, Caitlin Kelly’s narration is spot on! She is fantastic. I never have a problem figuring out which character is speaking at the time when Kelly narrates. Her subtle inflections and pitch changes bring the characters and story to life.
Overall I really enjoyed The Evil Queen. I love how the author twisted the original story and created a wholly new one. I can’t wait to read more of this series. I highly recommend this one to anyone that enjoys YA fantasy and retellings.
About Gena Showalter
Gena Showalter is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of a multitude of sub-genres within romance: paranormal, Fantasy, contemporary, and young adult. She’s also written standalone novels, novellas and anthologies, as well as co-authored a nonfiction guide about how to write a book in a year.
Gena lives in Oklahoma with her husband, two adult children who grew up way too fast, and menagerie of dogs and cats who enjoy farting while she works, walking across her keyboard during pivotal scenes and demanding pets at all hours of the day and night. Her novels have appeared in Cosmopolitan’s Red Hot Reads and Seventeen magazine. She’s been interviewed on Nightline and mentioned on Orange is the New Black—the very moment her family decided she might be a real writer after all.
Chances are good she’s hard at work on her next novel. Chances are even better that the book is a twisted tale featuring an alpha male with a dark side and the strong woman who (lovingly…sometimes) kneecaps him.
Leave a Reply