A Pennymaker Tale Young Snowden “Snow” Reynaldi is brilliant, beautiful, and alone. Though he’s shy, weird, and tolerated by the NorCal University students because he’s a renowned whiz at chess and helps put the school on the map, that doesn’t keep him from dreaming of the object of his desires: Riley Prince, championship quarterback. When Riley needs a physics tutor, Snow jumps at the chance, … tutor, Snow jumps at the chance, and their relationship heats up–but Riley has to come out of the jock closet to get anywhere. Meanwhile, Snow’s one true friend and mentor, Professor Kingsley, marries a woman who secretly wants the chess tournament glory and money for herself. Soon after, the professor collapses and Snow finds himself underwater–literally. In a car!
Seven frat brothers from Grimm College rescue Snow just in time for his life to get even worse, and Snow discovers the one relationship he always wanted slipping away. With evil looming at every turn, Snow must survive if only to prove he’s the fairest of them all and regain the trust of his handsome prince.
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Another quirky fairy tale in the Pennymaker Tales, ala Snow White.
Snowden is a master at chess. But that is about the only thing in his life he has mastered. His best conversations are with himself. Snow has a huge crush on the college’s football star Riley, which is something he has many conversations about. He is also beautiful, which turns the heads of men and women.
Riley, football player, also gorgeous, also turns heads. He’s good at hiding his true self till Snow comes along.
This had all the elements of a good fairy tale. Evilness, goodness, godparent(s), several wanna be dwarves, a Prince Charming and a charming hero.
The story was a little uneven. At times times it didn’t flow well and had some Inconsistencies. But like the first book it is a fairy tale so believability is in the eyes and heart of the reader.
Nice love story, bit of angst, great characters and the requisite happy ending made it a light read. I liked it.
I am loving the twists on the fairytale. Snow is a great chess player, the best. Riley the football player has captured his heart but he is straight with a beautiful girlfriend. There is some drama, suspense and near deaths, Greek brotherhoods, a wise old lady, a wicked woman and of course Mr Pennymaker. Snow and Riley will have their lives tested and will come out the winners. I enjoyed the story.
Snow is a grandmaster at chess, he’s secretly crushing on Riley who is a star quarterback of the football team. Little does Snow know that Riley is gay and has a crush on him too. This was a quick read for me. But I definitely enjoyed the story! I really like the fairytale serial Tara Lain is writing and cannot wait for the next one. I am voluntarily leaving a review form an ARC that I received. My reviews are solely based on my thoughts and opinions.
I am really enjoying these fairy tale retellings from a modern and m/m perspective. It’s a fun idea and well executed in the ones I’ve read thus far. This one is a retelling of Snow White using the jock/nerd trope and the virgin trope with some interesting twists on the Evil Queen, the seven dwarfs and fairy godmothers.
Snow is a chess Grandmaster and a genius who is gay an extremely beautiful, often being compared favorably to women (the fairest of them all.) Riley Prince is the star quarterback, extremely good looking and, as it turns out, gay and with a thing for Snow. Riley needs a physics tutor and the storyline is set in motion.
I was immediately taken with the story and I read it all in one sitting. It’s a quick, light read and quite entertaining. We know the villain from the outset in classic fairy tale manner. In this case she appears pretty much out of nowhere and it’s a pretty big flaw in the storyline that she somehow gets hired as the Assistant Dean of Students and convinces an otherwise intelligent and caring man to marry her in less than a week. That kind of takes away from the story for me, especially since the author initially plays up the relationship between the professor and Snow. Also a bit hard to believe that Anitra could get the administrative job at the college.
The relationship crisis is interestingly set in motion. There are a number of flaws to it as it plays out that I wish had been cleaned up but ultimately the conclusion is satisfying. I wish the seven frat brothers played a more integral role in the story and I wish we got more of Mr. Pennymaker and earlier. Though Mrs. Wishus was an interesting character.
The homophobia aspect of the storyline involving the football team members didn’t work for me at all. Not that there were homophobic players, but rather that they would blatantly endanger their championship season and that their coach wouldn’t have had their heads after the first incident. I did really like the character of Danny…kind of a Jiminy Cricket character.
All in all it was a quick, fun, light read that makes an interesting twist on a classic fairy tale.