Review by Alex- Fairy Tale

Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog

A captivating and witty dark fantasy that will have girls lusting after it.

Morgan Sparks has always known that she and her boyfriend, Cam, are made for each other. But when Cam's cousin Pip comes to stay with the family, Cam seems depressed. Finally Cam confesses to Morgan what's going on: Cam is a fairy. The night he was born, fairies came down and switched him with a healthy human boy. Nobody expected Cam to live, and nobody expected his biological brother, heir to the fairy throne, to die. But both things happened, and now the fairies want Cam back to take his rightful place as Fairy King.

Even as Cam physically changes, becoming more miserable each day, he and Morgan pledge to fool the fairies and stay together forever. But by the time Cam has to decide once and for all what to do, Morgan's no longer sure what's best for everyone, or whether her and Cam's love can weather an uncertain future.

Fairy Tale, another book featuring fairies/faeries, puts yet another different spin on the lore of fairies. While some faerie books can be quite dark, such as Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr, Fairy Tale takes a lighter take.

Another thing that sets Fairy Tale apart, is that the heroine and narrator isn't actually a fairy. On the contrary, it's her boyfriend who discovers he's a fairy. I love that. To see the world of fairy from a human's eye. Although Morgan... is she really human? Morgan is a psychic- don't know how she is, but she is. She also has some sort of fairy sight. I wish Morgan's powers were explained a little more, because, well, I didn't completely understand how she could have such powers.

While starting the book, I was surprised at how superficial and self-obsessed Morgan is. It's not really a bad thing- but it's certainly different than what I was expecting. Often, characters can be naive and loving, not caring for themselves as much as the sakes of others. You know you can think of characters like that. Morgan isn't really like that. Instead, she's a normal, average teenage girl. Mostly thinking of herself or ones close to her, having self doubts, feeling depressed and down on herself. She's not edited into some selfless, wonderful Disney character.

That isn't to say I didn't have my problems with Morgan though. At times I wanted to whack her on the head. I didn't like how she could pronounce her undying love to Cam, and then have thoughts on Pip. I liked the fairy aspects of Cam. How he kept shrinking while he was becoming more and more fairy. It mirrored his feelings- becoming more and more depressed.

Another thing I quite enjoyed, were all the culture references, like music such as Enya. It makes it more realistic and current. Instead of being some age old fairy tale, it's modern. And with that, it's a modern and different ending. I couldn't figure out how it would end. I'd lean to one ending, then find myself thinking maybe it was another. It's not a typical happily-ever-after ending, but I think it's very suitable.

Overall, Fairy Tale puts a very nice spin on the fairy idea, with lots of fun characters and details. Wonderful, smooth writing too.