Wings are the only thing that’ll get her accepted… Lina has always been an outcast, but when she meets a real life fairy Prince, she starts to dream of more. Her desires are cut short when she catches the eye of creatures much more dark and deadly. To earn her wings, she has to survive. Has she got what it takes-Golden Wings is a retelling of Thumbelina and is part of the Untold Tales series … Thumbelina and is part of the Untold Tales series of fairy tale retellings.
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Largely a faithful retelling of Thumbelina, this version throws in a few unexpected twists that take it down a darker path. The engaging story telling makes for a quick read that had potential for a much richer novel. It feels like there is a second unrealized story lurking under the surface that never really got developed. Fairies are seen as valuable and they are hated, but neither is explained. There seems to be the beginnings of a revolution brewing, but it is never explored. The Prince is introduced early on, but remains an enigma. Is he really as he appears, or are the whispers in the street true? As a result, the happy ending is less satisfying than it should be.
One of the biggest departures from the original is that Greenwood took the story out of the forest and placed it into a city. This works surprisingly well and the characters translate effectively. In doing so she also removed Thumbelina’s adoptive parents and turned her into a street urchin scraping by to survive, yet from the beginning, she is the naive, trusting, sheltered ingenue from the traditional story. Granted it is a pet peeve of mine when authors created a capable background for a character and then fail to utilize it. She should have had some situational awareness!
This is the second book in the Untold Tales series. All are freestanding and can be read in any order.
The story begins with homeless Lina going about her day doing quick jobs for little pay or little food. Luckily(?) for her she is small and everyone thinks she’s a child. When they don’t think she’s a child they think she’s a fairy, but she doesn’t have wings! This town she’s in seems to be run by fairies, or at least fairies are the ones with power. She begins having an average day for her – she’s hungry and has to find a job. She eventually runs into a man, who is actually a fairy, but Lina’s a suspicious sort so she won’t go anywhere with him. His name is Trent and he gives her a magical butterfly to protect her and enable her to contact him if she needs help. Yeah. She calls the butterfly Flitter, and he’s my favorite character in this story.
The next day begins the same way, only it turns into the worst day ever! She’s knocked out, kidnapped, about to be forced to marry a horrible man only to barely escape with Flitter’s help. From there she’s found by a nice enough woman who takes her in, feeds her and gives her a few jobs around the house… But as we learned from Into The Woods (if you saw the show or the movie) that ‘Nice is Different Than Good’. Apparently that’s also in Desperate Housewives but I’ve never seen that. Anyway, Lina goes from the frying pan into one heckuva fire.
I am completely unfamiliar with the old Thumbelina tale, so I have no idea if this tale is darker than all the ones that came before. I’d like to point out that my Kindle said it should take an hour and a half to read this. Well, I know I’m a slow reader and had a few stops in the process of reading this, but it took forever to get through it because it wasn’t very enjoyable. I almost stopped reading it several times between chapters 4 to sixteen. Lina went from a self sufficient, smart girl to a naïve, kind of stupid one. I really like Ms. Greenwood’s stories and I’ve pre-ordered almost all of them including this one. Not only did I not like this story, I thought the ending was rushed and didn’t let us get to know Trent or the ‘new’ Lina.
What fantastic story. It is a quick read but it is extremely intriguing. I loved Lena and she seems to easily get out of trouble. She has a very sweet and caring personality that is felt throughout the story. The story are well written and the characters throughout the story are well developed. The descriptions are vivid and they are easy to be pictured. This is definitely a fun read and very much worth reading.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The author gave us a retelling of Thumbelina that is very true to the original, with our heroine being a feister, more down-to-earth, independent scrapper. That difference makes Lina a more sympathetic character from my point of view and one I was cheering on the whole way.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
One of the earliest memories I have is the memory of a fight I had with a teacher. I had many of them when I was 6, because I knew everything better. And I know the fight was about the translation of the name Thumbelina and which one was right. (And I still think Duimelijntje sounds better!) Strangely enough that’s about everything I remember from Thumbelina. It’s one of those fairytales I don’t know that well. Strange, isn’t it?
And maybe therefore I enjoyed this story so much! For once I didn’t know all the key points in the plot, I had nothing to hold onto, nothing to wait for. I just started reading and soaked in the story. And from start to finish this story was exciting, dangerous and incredibly dark. I think this is one of the darkest fairytales I read by Greenwood. And although I love romance, I was also kinda happy that for once it took a backseat. This was about Lina, about her fighting for her freedom and discovering her true self. And she didn’t need a pretty prince for that.
Even though this is only a relatively short story, Greenwood really managed to set the atmosphere within the first chapter. I could smell the city. I could feel Lina’s hunger. I had a very clear impression of her daily life and the circumstances she lived in. And the same happened with all the locations Lina visited. Even though we saw most of them only briefly, they were vivid and even though I don’t see video’s while reading I had a clear image of those locations and situations.
And to make it all even better: I loved the characters in this story. I would have loved to see a little more of the Prince (yes, yes, I’m contradicting myself now), but I loved how colorful and unique all the other characters were. I loved how they were capable of looking nice and sweet and how they were then capable of being monsters, each in their own way. And I most of all loved Lina. She was such a sweet, slightly naive, but most of all brave girl! It was easy to feel for her and to root for her.
I think I’m gonna brush up on my knowledge of Thumbelina, though. Seems like I will enjoy the original tale of this story too!
Lina is a homeless girl, trying to find her way. She is one her way to the place she was staying. She runs into a fairy named Trent. He manages to get Lina to talk. He gets her to promise she will meet him in the same spot. He leaves her a gift that will keep her safe. Lina wakes the next day, decides she has to go and try to get food. She doesn’t want to wait incase he really doesn’t show.
While Lina is going to find food, she thinks someone is following her. After she hears a noise she knows she didn’t make, she knows. She tries to run, but the people get her. They kidnap her and take to another location. The woman wants her for her son. With the help of Flitter her gift and a strange, she is able to get away. Things get even worse for her as the it goes on.
This was a good story, it was fun, easy read. I enjoyed getting lost in the story for a while. There are some things I didn’t include as I don’t want to ruin for others. I do recommend reading this.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Little interesting retelling of Thumbelina. The story is not so much changed, except of few details. Few darker threads was added. Characters seems nice. It was a good read
Since I don’t read Danish, I’m only familiar with English translations of the original. Unlike most fairytales, this was one of the few that I would say are not very dark at all. Sure Thumbelina gets kidnapped often and everyone wants to marry her regardless of her thoughts on the matter, but that’s about as bad as the original gets unless the translations I’ve read leave a lot out. This version, however, took a surprisingly dark and thrilling turn. The overall story was riveting and I couldn’t put the book down. Most of the beats from the original were present, though in a bit of a different manner to keep things entertaining. If I were evaluating it solely on these points, I would give the book 5 stars. However, the romance side of things fell a bit flat. I don’t feel like Trent was in the story enough to even manage to give an authentic romantic vibe for me, especially since the love at first sight trope was not used. The romance part is much better than the original, but it was still a bit disappointing, so I would say that part is only worth 2.5 to 3 stars, so I averaged it and gave an overall 4 stars to this book. I would be willing reread this, but I’m not sure if I will.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review, but my opinions are my own.
This is a short, interesting fast paced story. The main character is very intriguing and gets herself in to rather a lot of difficult situations.
Well written and enjoyable.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Lina was homeless and in order to eat she had to work on her way home one night she ran into a fairy and he told her what he was trying to do so that everyone could have equality in their city. All Lina knew was that life was definitely not fair and she was alone in the world. He told her he would be back the next day the things he said sounded so sincere that she believed him and wanted to help. But it seemed that humans wanted to kidnap her and she figured because she was so short compared to normal size humans and she didn’t know the first time but they all were looking for a fairy for something or another. Lina was having a very bad day when she met a man who claimed he wanted to make her a star his name was Beetle and he was dressed very nice but when he touched her she got the creeps and couldn’t wait to get away from him. Finally, she was sitting near a doorway resting because she was cold she met a woman named Nib she thought was nice and didn’t mean her harm but things are not always what they seem. But Trent had left his magical butterfly there with her to help protect her. Lina is in for lots of surprises before she meets up with Thelma and meets up with Trent again. Great storyline and the characters were very interesting. Suspenseful romantic urban fantasy. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Beautiful Fairy Rags to riches story. I found this well written and very enjoyable, this story had me empathizing with Lina from the get go, I was worried for her safety in the ruins she lived in. Recommended Reading.