Reviewed by Toni…

Get ready for it….are you ready…..are….you….ready….

ANOTHER FAIRY TALE RETWIST!!!!!!!!!!!

Commence your manic wiggle dance!

Now, now, stop your sighing. This is a good once.

It’s a fairy tale retwist set in….SPACE (insert echoing baritone voice).

The fairy tale that is being retwisted is Snow White, the fairy tale I absolutely loathe. I could never relate or care about Snow White in any way. White struck me as annoying, needy, and spoiled. Yes, she was running away from the evil step-Queen and her life was in danger and all that nonsense. Did not care. I sided with the evil Queen in Snow White tales. And if you have been watching ABC’s “Once Upon a Time”, then all hail Regina!

With that prejudice in mind going to read this book, I have to hand it Wye major points in changing my allegiance. I was rooting for the princess/prince and hated the Queen. Yet I can’t stand the princess/prince.

If you cock your head that steep, you might break a vertebrae.

To fill the princess role, we have Bianca Ross. She is a hardworking, sheltered. code-savvy, heir of a lucrative company called Starline that made a space elevator on Mars. Looming over our princess is Victorian Ross; a highly intelligent,ruthless and cunning women.

The father is off, doing some sort of business I can’t remember. Victoria is free to make sure that Bianca is unable to  accept her role in the company. I can’t remember what it exactly was. I think it was a shareholder or manager of some aspect. Whatever it was, Bianca has been working diligently to prove her worth to Victoria and her father. Only to have both dismiss her efforts and keep her down. Victoria for her own evil reasons, the father  because he feels that Bianca is young.

Right here is where I side with Bianca. No matter how much her character annoys me, I completely relate to being kept from going forward in your career path. I support her intelligence and hard work. It’s just that she still embodies some “Snow White” characteristics that make me want to scratch at my eyeballs. Luckily when those characteristics come out to annoy me Wye adds in a great scene or trait that counter balances it. Bianca may be a naive, obnoxious female but she’s pretty damn brave and reasonable. So, kudos to that.

In comes our prince (who I kept imagining as a space cowboy or Lone Starr in some moments), Cesare, who is set out to save his own company, RedIce Mine, from being taken over by Starline. He sets out into the Mars elevator to present his case,only to lay his eyes on the lovely Bianca (immediately my mind goes to “Kiss Me Kate”).

I shake my fist at you lurve at first sight! How I detest you! Not even space is safe! Something about lurve at first sight pits our hero and heroine at a cross roads. Will the knowledge of their love doom them into making poor choices in the name of love? Will they mistake lurve for lust since they don’t bother getting to know one another at all? Or maybe in that slim chance, they were actually meant to be?

Once again. Wye, you have navigated this perilous boulder of lurve at first sight and have grant me reprieve from gouging my eye out. Bianca and Cesare were totally meant to be. And they are a couple I do not want to hang out with them all.

Once they meet, it makes sense. They start screwing each other with their eyes. Right from the moment their eyeballs connected, it was all about sexiness.

Honesty, I can appreciate that.

Once they figure out who’s who, there’s a cloud of distrust warring with lust so it makes for some great sexual tension. It also allows them a chance to get to know one another a little more. There’s still thoughts of sex poking through but it’s still a lot of more development in love than I would have expected in a Snow White story. They really remind me of those passive aggressive insanely good-looking couples at a party that stand apart but you know once they leave the party, it’s on! Plus, Bianca is smart which ups the jealousy meter.

When I was too annoyed to focus on their romance, I had a great time with the science in the story. Victoria’s diabolical plan is a pretty good one. There are issues of business monopoly and human rights that really give this story a lot of depth. How Victoria comes to her end, is pretty awesome.

The “dwarves” in the series are actually human mine workers..And their backstory is heartbreaking and sweet. I love the mine workers.

The people who grew up on Mars have taller, more slender bodies. Bianca is a Martian, Cesare is a human. That amuses me.

Despite my grumblings about Bianca and Cesare, I devoured this novel from start to finish. As far as I know, it’s the only Snow White in Space story I have come across. Instead of being cheesy or lame, it came across as original, refreshing, and thoroughly entertaining.

I believe this is the first of the series. Not sure how it will be expanded. I’m wondering of other fairy tale elements will be sprinkled across in space? Perhaps a “Beauty and the Beast” retelling? Just saying…

Length: Novel

Genre: Science Fiction romance

Primary Book Format: e-format

Publisher/Imprint: Amazon Digital Services, Inc

Blush Quotient: Memory loss

Smart Girls Rating:  4 stars

Can order it here: Amazon

Find out more info about the author and series here.

(Disclaimer: This book was purchased by reviewer to enjoy and review)