[Blog Tour] Scarlette: Review and Giveaway!

Monday, March 18, 2013










Title: Scarlette
Author: Davonna Juroe
Format: eBook, 326 pages
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fairy Tale
Publication Date: October 12, 2012
Publisher: BumbleB Media, Inc.

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 Description
What if Little Red Riding Hood was real?

Ninety years before the Brothers Grimm penned their version of Little Red Riding Hood, a historic, gruesome series of events shocked all of Europe. In 1765, an unidentified wolf-like animal ferociously mauled dozens of peasants in the Gévaudan region of France.

Whispered rumors of unnatural creatures blended with age-old superstition, causing mass hysteria, and a werewolf was blamed for the carnage. Alarmed, King Louis XV sent his best huntsmen to rid the province of the beastly scourge, but this legendary massacre had only just begun.

Scarlette, an 18-year-old peasant, lives under this dark threat, knowing the nightmarish monster lurks in the surrounding forest. A poor seamstress, she labors to make ends meet and is skeptical of supernatural gossip.

Until her grandmother survives an attack.

Scarlette learns her grandmother is infected by the bite of the animal. Desperate to save her, Scarlette begins to uncover the dark secrets of her village and finds there are those who wish to keep their pasts hidden. As time grows short, Scarlette is befriended by a local nobleman and a woodcutter who share an eerie history with the wolf.

To save her grandmother, Scarlette must unravel the mens' connection and solve a long-forgotten crime. But as she pieces together the clues, Scarlette finds herself torn between the two men, both of whom desire more than friendship and together hold the key to the cure.

Based on both the traditional Grimm and Charles Perrault versions of Little Red Riding Hood, this dark YA is set against the Beast of Gévaudan attacks, blending history with fairy tale and gothic romance. Unique to the genre, the novel revives the French fable of the girl-in-the-red-cloak with a new, shockingly real existence that blurs the line between folklore and reality

My Thoughts
I have to say that I am normally hesitant to read books that are either self published or published by an indie publisher. This is for many reasons, one of them being that editing is not at the same caliber at say Random House or HarperCollins. But when I saw that Scarlette was looking for reviewers, I read the synopsis and was very interested. I am always looking for new reads that retell fairy tales, and this one retells one of my favorites; Little Red Riding Hood. And I will say right now, I was impressed.

First of all I will say that this book is not perfect, I rarely find one. There were some character issues, and some plot issues but overall I really enjoyed this book. But before I get into some minor issues, I want to say what I liked about this book. It was extremely well written. The prose was beautiful and a pleasure to read overall. The descriptions and flow of the novel were written in a way that made it a pleasure to read. I really liked the twists and turns within the book, I will say that I did not see the revelation that was revealed about 60% of the way through the book. And I thought that it gave me a whole new perspective of the book.

For me there were just a few issues, one of them included some character issues. Now when i say issues, I mean they are very minor. Some of the minor characters I found to be a little flat and I found myself forgetting about them from time to time. another issue was that I found there were certain parts of the book that were a little slow, especially right before the reveal and at the very beginning. But other than those two issues, I really found this read to be entertaining and unique. It had a great story line and a very intriguing and interesting main character that added a lot of humility and empathy to this story.

A great read.



Giveaway Time! 

This is not your usual giveaway! The author was kind enough to make the eBook edition FREE on the last day of the tour! Isn't that amazing! So on March 23rd, 2013 go here, and download your own copy!

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1 comments

  1. Siobhan, thanks for being a part of the SCARLETTE tour! :) Just wanted to let you know that a new short story from the woodcutter, Francois', perspective is being released in the free new edition this weekend via Amazon. Thanks again! :)

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