Kiss That Frog: A Modern Fairy Tale

by Cate Rowan                                              

Review by Kristal

Book Blurb: In this romantic fairy tale remix, a cynical Los Angeles artist reluctantly pet-sits for her young niece’s frog and discovers magic in the terrarium–in the form of a sexy enchanted prince.

 Here’s what I thought:  I love adding quickies to my electronic library. They’re perfect reading material when waiting at a doctor’s office, riding in the car on a short trip, or during a time-crunched lunch break at the day job. Kiss That Frog is a quickie that mixes genres with a splash of Regency in a modern retelling of the fairy tale of The Frog Prince.

Now, I’m a huge fan of fairy tales. The classics are generally dark with a particular tone and rhythm that is immediately recognizable as a fairy tale, even if they don’t begin with the words, Once upon a time. In Kiss That Frog, I really liked the cadence of the author’s voice, which carried a definite fairy tale beat. However, the story isn’t dark and foreboding at all. Rather, it was cute and lively and made me laugh out loud at times.

The down side was that there really wasn’t much conflict between the characters, and for me, fairy tales are about all about conflict. In this story, after the frog is revealed as the prince, the heroine takes him clothes shopping. I would’ve preferred if the author had thrust the characters into battle with the witchy duchess who cursed the prince in the first place. Sadly, that fight never comes.

Since this story is a romance, I expected a sweet HEA but felt a little cheated that the “romance” happened off the page and the wrap-up was more about kittens than deepening the characters as a couple.

Overall, I found Kiss That Frog enjoyable because of its easy flow, light-heartedness, and the author’s imagination in taking a classic and making it her own.

Genre:  Novelette

Length:  12,000 words/ 45 pages/ 2504KB

Book Format:  Digital

Publisher & Imprint:  Self-published

Blush Quotient: Ivory

SG rating:  3

Grab your copy:   Amazon

Author Scoop: Cate Rowan is an award-winning author of fantasy romance in magical worlds. To learn more about her, visit www.CateRowan.com

 A free e-copy of this work was provided by the author via Net Galley for an honest review. No other compensation was offered or received.