Recent Reads: Flunked by Jen Calonita

Source: Netgalley and Sourcebooks Jabberwocky in exchange for an honest review. This in no way alters my opinion or review.

Flunked by Jen Calonita
Series: Fairy Tale Reform School #1
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Publication Date:  March 3, 2015

 

Format: Ebook


Rating:
 


Goodreads Synopsis: 

Would you send a villain to do a hero's job? An exciting new twisted fairy tale series from award-winning author Jen Calonita.

Full of regret, Cinderella's wicked stepmother, Flora, has founded the Fairy Tale Reform School with the mission of turning the wicked and criminally mischievous into upstanding members of Enchantasia.

Impish, sassy 12-year-old Gilly has a history of petty theft and she's not too sorry about it. When she lifts a hair clip, she gets tossed in reform school-for at least three months. But when she meets fellow students Jax and Kayla, she learns there's more to this school than its sweet mission. There's a battle brewing and she starts to wonder: can a villain really change?

Review: 
I have loved this cover since the very first time I saw it and I hate to admit it, but I do judge a book by its cover. Luckily this time I was right and I really enjoyed Flunked.  This book takes the re-telling of fairy tales and adds in flare but making the former villains head of a reform school that teaches young might-be villains the ways of good, thus reforming them for Enchantasia. 

Wonderfully, you get to see villains and princesses from fairy tales we know and love and have them be the background to a new hero - Gillian. Gillian is one of the many daughters of the Cobbler and she hates the royals - they take everything and live wonderful lives while her family barely feeds themselves. When she gets thrown into reform school, she never images that she will actually reform.

Gilly is quite the main character, she loves others but looks out for her own, she is strong-willed, but also somewhat willing to change and so she grows a lot in this book. Because of her character I flew through this read, the plot was very well done and fun to read but I liked Gilly, and I liked the person she started out as and the one she becomes. It was a wonderful first book in a series and I can't wait to pick up the next one.