And The Winner Is....

Sorry we went a little AWOL!  But better late than never, right? ;) Anywho, hopefully we'll be back in the game during summer, and can chug along even later.

Without further ado, the winner of a copy of The Fairy Tale Trap is....

Rebecca!

Thanks to our wonderful contributor, and, of course, to Emily Casey for her donation!

Stay tuned, readers, for more lovely chic nerdiness coming your way!

Fast Facts on Author Emily Casey

Fast Facts is a series focusing on authors, artists, musicians--anyone who creates something we enjoy--by presenting YOU, the reader, with some quick, fun little facts you never knew about them, or even find out what kind of things our talented artists recommend.  Notes from the Nerdette is honored to present our very first edition of Fast Facts with author Emily Casey!

General Facts
Name: Emily Casey
Claim to Fame: Author of The Fairy Tale Trap

Books
Favorite Book of All-Time: Soulless by Gail Carriger
Favorite Book Series of All-Time: Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs
Favorite Childhood Book: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Last Book Read: The Sevenfold Spell by Tia Nevitt

Movies and Music
Favorite Movie: Ever After
Favorite Movie Series: Back to the Future
Favorite Music Artist: Muse
Writing Music: Muse, Taylor Swift, Enya, How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack

Writing (and when there is a lack thereof)
Writing Tips: First drafts need to be messy; Write every chance you get!
Non-Writing Pastimes: Gardening, Twitter, Running

The Fairy Tale Trap Blog Tour Giveaway!

Notes from the Nerdette is very proud to announce our very first contest--as well as our very first time as one of the legs of a blog tour for an author!  Thank you, Emily Casey, who is generously donating her eBook, a young adult fantasy novel entitled The Fairy Tale Trap, to the winner of our contest!

Basic contest rules:

1. In order to enter, simply fill out this form.
2. DO NOT send multiple copies of the form.  If you have made a mistake on the form, simply contact us at notesfromthenerdette (at) gmail (dot) com, and we will amend the problem for you.
3. If you do multiple entries (e.g., more promoting of the giveaway) after submitting the form, likewise simply email us and you will be given the multiple entries (provided, of course, you supply evidence for your entries).
4. The contest ends on FEBRUARY 2, 11:59 PST (exactly in two weeks' time).  All entries made or submitted after that time will not be included.
5. Contest winner will be selected purely at random by Random.org's random number service.
6. Contest winner will be announced on February 3.
7. If you are the winner of the contest, we will send you an email, but YOU MUST REPLY TO IT WITHIN ONE WEEK (the e-mail will be sent on February 3, and we must hear from you by February 10, 11:59 PST).  If we do not hear from you then, we will pick another winner.  The one-week reply rule applies to ALL winners chosen, whether the first, second, third, et cetera.
8. Affiliates with Notes from the Nerdette ARE allowed to enter, but will be given absolutely NO advantage.
9. If you choose to link our contest or promote it in any way, you MUST include a link.  WE WILL BE CHECKING.  If an entrant submits a link to their promotion and does not have the promotion up, that entry will be voided.

How To Get Multiple Entries:

1. Answer the question: "What is your favorite fairy tale/folk tale/myth?"
2. Dedicating an ENTIRE blog post to promoting Notes from the Nerdette (stating its mission and such, or even interviewing one of us contributors--worth five entries!)
3. Promoting Notes from the Nerdette or the giveaway in any way other than a whole blog post (linking, tweeting/retweeting, tumblring, facebooking, et cetera).  Please make sure that your link is not set to private and is visible to us.
4. Following @NerdetteNotes, @EmilyCaseysMuse, @IvyThornBooks or any of NftN's contributors' Twitter accounts.
5. Friending Emily Casey on Goodreads or liking her Facebook page--or even friending Ivy Thorn!
6. Commenting on an Emily Casey or The Fairy Tale Trap-related post that is on Notes from the Nerdette (two entries! and make your comment thoughtful! these posts, as of now, will be forthcoming)
7. Commenting on any non-Emily Casey or The Fairy Tale Trap-related post on Notes from the Nerdette. (make a thoughtful comment, please; one entry per comment but try not to totally spam posts ;) )
8. Following Notes from the Nerdette (see the sidebar on the side).
9. Any other form of promotion--just give us proof!

Good luck to all of you!  Any questions should be directed to admin Jacqueline at notesfromthenerdette (at) gmail (dot) com.

Want to keep following along on Emily's blog tour?  Head over to Angela Scott's Whimsy and Writing tomorrow!

Also, stay tuned: find out Emily Casey's pop culture recommendations tomorrow (she has really good taste!)!

*The Fairy Tale Trap by Emily Casey

Where I Got the Book From: Author gave me code to receive a free eBook via Smashwords

In Short: adventurous, funny, heartwarming

If you know me well, I have a penchant for retold fairytales.  Honestly, who doesn't?  The story telling formula of girl meets boy, one (or both) of whom is royalty, and girl and boy fall in love is so universal and speaks to everyone in some way--in fact, it is so ubiquitous and so close to the heart of every human being, that, after mankind got tired of compiling such stories in the nineteenth century, it started making its own spins on them, changing and tweaking or even adding onto them during the twentieth century and lasting well into the twenty-first century.  Hey, Disney made a whole franchise out of it.  So it seems fairy tale retelling is here to stay.

And a good thing, too.  If fairy tale retelling didn't exist, we wouldn't have a stash of soundtracks from Disney flicks (ssshhhh....).  Gail Carson Levine, Robin McKinley, and Shannon Hale wouldn't know what to write (well, okay--they're geniuses, and they've written non-fairy tale retellings before, so they'd still figure out something, but imagine a world with no Ella Enchanted or The Goose Girl!  Take that and sing it, John Lennon).  Drew Barrymore would have been out of work in 1997 when she could have been filming Ever After.  And don't even get me started on other writerly folks like Jessica Day George and Juliet Marillier.

But thankfully, there are fairy tale retellings.  And we will never tire of them.  So when I heard about Emily Casey's The Fairy Tale Trap, the premise of the book definitely appealed to me.  What fun!  A "Beauty and the Beast" (my second favorite fairytale--the first is "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" which is basically the same thing but with a polar bear and lots and lots of snow) retelling, but with a modern-day girl thrown into the story.

The heroine, Ivy Thorn, is a military brat just trying to settle into the home she and her mother have just moved into while waiting for her father to return home.  But moving is the least of Ivy's problems--when she's thrown into the tale of "Beauty and the Beast" against her will by a completely creepy and almost dictatorial pixie, things can only turn out to be more complicated.  A mysterious spell, the enchanted prince (enchanted meaning, of course, in beast form), and the eponymous pretty gal continue to haunt Ivy as she makes her way through the tale, seemingly for the pure enjoyment of the pixie who just loves to throw monkey wrenches into the story to make the situation all the more twisted for Ivy.

The Fairy Tale Trap could be easily described as a mixture of Enchanted (but set backwards, with a twenty-first century girl thrown into a fairytale) and Spirited Away, with its strong female lead who must use her strengths if she wants to return home.  (Both are fabulous movies, by the way, if you've never seen either.)  I'm usually very critical when authors of fiction write novels about characters thrown into odd situations, as quite often, writers fall into the "that-character-would-never-think-or-act-like-that" or "things-would-never-work-out-that-way" follies of literature.  However, Ms. Casey did a wonderful job portraying not only Ivy's emotions, but also how a young girl not too keen on fairy tales would react to being practically kidnapped and tossed into the plot of one.  Ivy is a character readers will root for, as she's strong, smart, and, dare I say it, snarky (we love snark!).  Ms. Casey is at the moment writing the follow-up to this novel, and I'm eager to find out what will become of dear Ivy!  (As a side note: hooray for a person-of-color starring in a fantasy novel, much less a fairy tale retelling!  As a POC myself, I find it pretty rare to find them in YA--so kudos to Ms. Casey for making Ivy one!)

Red Flags: This was a very clean book--a bit of blood mentioned once, and a few (rather comical) scenes regarding bodily functions (maybe not a good idea to eat while reading those! ;) ), but otherwise completely clean.

Grading
Plot: 10/10
Characters: 9/10
Writing: 8/10
Originality: 10/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Overall: 47/50

Tidbits
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Middle Grade Fiction, Fantasy
Fun Links:

• Official Emily Casey website and blog
• Book trailer for The Fairy Tale Trap
• Sample pages from the first chapter