New Book: Cloaked by Alex Flinn

  

Cloaked by Alex Flinn was released last week and I let it slip through the cracks, alas. This is Flinn's third fairy tale inspired novel after Beastly and A Kiss in Time.I put all three cover images up top which also reminds us that the movie based on Flinn's novel, Beastly, will be in theatres next month. It's losing visibility with the media blitz surrounding Red Riding Hood but Beastly is the first big fairy tale related film release for 2011.

Book description from the publisher:

I’m not your average hero. I actually wasn’t your average anything. Just a poor guy working an after-school job at a South Beach shoe repair shop to help his mom make ends meet. But a little magic changed it all.

It all started with the curse. And the frognapping. And one hot-looking princess, who asked me to lead a rescue mission.

There wasn’t a fairy godmother or any of that. And even though I fell in love along the way, what happened to me is unlike any fairy tale I’ve ever heard. Before I knew it, I was spying with a flock of enchanted swans, talking (yes, talking!) to a fox named Todd, and nearly trampled by giants in the Everglades.

Don’t believe me? I didn’t believe it either. But you’ll see. Because I knew it all was true, the second I got CLOAKED.

Unlike the her previous two novels, which were predominantly Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty interpretations respectively, Cloaked borrows from several fairy tales. Alex's afterword provides a guide to the most influential tales. They are:

The Frog Prince

The Elves and the Shoemaker

The Six Swans

The Golden Bird (sometimes better known with Russian Firebird)

The Valiant Tailor

The Salad (often titled Donkey Cabbages) (This is where the cloaking elements come from.)

The Fisherman and His Wife

And Alex, thank her, gives a shout out to SurLaLune in the afterward as a place to read more about these tales and others. Thank you, Alex!

Finally, here's a book trailer, too: