The Fairy's Tale: A Novel For People Who Don't Trust Fairy Tales (The Pathways Tree Series, book 1) 

By F. D. Lee

Blurb: 
Bea is a lowly cabbage fairy, but she dreams of being an official Fairy Godmother. So when she is finally given a chance to prove her worth, Bea is determined to make a success of it. Besides, how hard can a Happy Ever After story be? Every girl wants to be rescued by a handsome man, don’t they?

Apparently not.

Bea's heroine doesn't want to be in her story, and her hero is much more interested in the ugly sister. The same ugly sister who is trying to overthrow the Kingdom.

Suddenly, Bea must confront the fact that her characters are as real as she is - and just like her, they are determined to go their own way. The problem is, if Bea fails to finish the story, she faces a fate much worse than being put to sleep for a hundred years. 

Now Bea must figure out what Happy Ever After really means - and whose Happy Ever After she's prepared to fight for...

Review: 
This book started of with the main character Bea watching plots as a job, she was secretly changing them to what she thought was better without thinking about the consequences of being caught. The plots are the main story line of a book, they are what cause the characters and others to believe. The more belief there is within the world the less likely the mirrors will break. But it isn't just that simple, there are antis who don't believe in the plots and are determined to make them go wrong so there is no happily ever after within the stories which cause the mirrors to break, or at least what we have been told.

But Bea's life is changing when she is called in for a meeting after handing her latest plot back. I'm not going to go into too much detail about the meeting because it slightly spoils the main part of the book which was really interesting to read.

The start of the book was quite slow in my opinion, and felt quite basic. By basic I mean I felt that the writing style was for a younger audience and wasn't too advanced, this book is aimed at young adults I believe but it feels more early teens. This wasn't such a bad thing it was just not my usual writing style I read.

Once the start had been fully described and more depth of the characters had been discovered I felt that I was more connected to the book. But I did take a break before I got to this part. I read the first 33% but I just felt like I wasn't enjoying it as much as I could have been and I was feeling myself going into a reading slump. But I started again when I was struggling to find something to read, I didn't bother going back to the start as I remembered everything that had happened and I eventually finished it the morning I wrote this review after 9 hours of travelling on a train.

The main part of the book was excellent and Bea and her friends had been developed a lot, I started to understand why they were doing the actions that they were doing, mainly it was just down to their personalities and their past experiences.

The story itself was quite interesting, to have someone watch over these fairy tales and have an insight of how they work is quite good whether this would actually happen I'm not sure, but it was something different and very believable, which made it enjoyable to read. The twists that were included was amazing I wasn't really expecting them to happen but it made the whole book a better read in general.

I felt sorry for Bea as she wasn't certain that she was doing the right thing at time, so was asking her friends for help and advice but never followed it. Which is exactly what I do. But at times I do listen when I am seriously stuck. So Bea was my most relatable character, I'm not too sure she was my favourite though as I'm currently on the border with her and Melly. I'll decide at the end of this review who my favourite character was.

Some of the characters in this book I wasn't a fan of especially Seven and Maria Sophia, I found both of these to be selfish, stubborn and really annoying! At times I did like Seven but my overall opinion of him is that I don't like him. He was helpful at times and allowed Bea to have an insight of a different opinion on the mirrors but he seemed to push his beliefs and opinions on others.

The ending of the book was also another twist. Not something I was actually expecting but it was a well deserved ending, in a way the more I think about the ending the more it actually fits in with the style of book.

I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series which should be very shortly.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes twists, fairy tales, love stories and sly characters.

Favourite Characters: Melly

Read: 12/10/18 - 12/11/18

4 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie

Check out Sammie's review of book 2: The Academy.