The Evil Queen

The Forest of Good and Evil, Book 1

By: Gena Showalter

Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly

Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

WELCOME TO THE FOREST OF GOOD AND EVIL.

A DREAM COME TRUE.... AND A LIVING NIGHTMARE.

Far, far away, in the realm of Enchantia, creatures of legend still exist, magic is the norm and fairy tales are real. Except, fairy tales aren’t based on myths and legends of the past - they are prophecies of the future.

Raised in the mortal realm, Everly Morrow has no idea she’s a real-life fairy-tale princess - until she manifests an ability to commune with mirrors.

Look. See.... What will one peek hurt?

Soon, a horrifying truth is revealed. She is fated to be Snow White’s greatest enemy, the Evil Queen.

With powers beyond her imagination or control, Everly returns to the land of her birth. There, she meets Roth Charmaine, the supposed Prince Charming. Their attraction is undeniable, but their relationship is doomed. As the prophecy unfolds, Everly faces one betrayal after another, and giving in to her dark side proves more tempting every day. Can she resist, or will she become the queen - and villain - she was born to be?

The battle between good and evil is on. 

©2019 Stella Cameron (P)2019 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

Is she or isn’t she?

I was pleasantly surprised by this version of Snow White. Gena Showalter alluded to various versions of the tale including the original penned by the Brothers Grimm which is a darker take on the story which most of us are familiar. I believe she used this version as her
inspiration as Evil Queen is dark, but it is so much more. It has depth and the characters are fluid, just when one thinks they know what to expect... everything shifts!

Everly and her twin sister, Hartley, were raised in the Mortal Realm. Unbeknownst to them, their mother, Aubrey, was a fairy Tale princess from Enchantra (? Spelling). They were told the truth when the threat over their lives was finally gone. Each had their own magic, but Everly’s was more powerful. When her sister was taken, Everly vowed she would save her. So she found a way to get to the realm of Enchantra. That’s when the story gets even more exciting - familiar but not.

Caitlin Kelly is a fantastic narrator. I recently listened to the Cruel Prince series which she performed. Excellent. Her voices and accents are fantastic and plentiful. Even her male voices are good where I find many narrators fall short - opposite gender voices. Ms. Kelly’s list of credits is extensive which makes sense because she is talented.

If you like Fairy Tales revisited, you will enjoy this book. If you enjoy well written Fantasy with characters to get invited in and surprises at every turn, you will enjoy this book. If you just like reading, or listening to a great story, you will enjoy this book. So, get the book. This audio version is excellent and I believe the narrator truly added to my enjoyment of it!

Hmn...

Everly Morrow has oozed a bad aura since she was a child, and everyone she comes into contact with is suspicious of her. In contrast, her sister, Hartly, unites humans and animals of the like. Everly is content with looking at magical images that form in her compact mirror and plans to open her own business to take care of herself once she finishes high school. Unfortunately, Everly is whisked away to the other world of Enchantia where she is told that her fate is tied to that of the prophecy/fairy tale, Snow White. She hopes that she isn’t the Evil Queen in the scenario, but all signs point to her.

The narration is performed by Caitlin Kelly. I was not fond of her performance when she narrates Everly’s lines and thoughts. I did like the portrayals of other characters, especially Prince Roth.

There are far better retellings of fairy tales for teens. The Evil Queen faced a tonal problem. The plot dictates that Everly spent her childhood in the mortal realm, which is a non-magical realm and similar to our reality. When she travels to Enchantia, her modern jargon, slang, and thought process was jarring. There was no benefit to Everly and her sister Hartly living in the human world other than to try and make contemporary teens sympathize with Everly through catch phrases like “spoiler alert.” The attempt was a hard miss, and Everly would have been better off being raised in a remote land in Enchantia rather than introducing a modern world that is not relevant to the rest of the plot. The plot itself was confusing and riddled with plot holes. This novel could have benefited from a better editor and some major cuts to whittle down a 20 hour audiobook to a more satisfying 10 hour book with a clean, better thought out story. The Evil Queen did have potential, but it felt sloppy and rushed. As such, I would recommend other retellings of fairy tales such as Entwined by Heather Dixon or The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale.

AMAZING!!!! And no cliffhangers !!!!

I seriously hate cliffhangers. This book was riveting all the way through, didn't leave a cliffhanger, but left me so excited for the next book which I've already preordered!!

Interesting take on the fairytale but...

Somewhere I missed that this was an over the top teen romance, light on action and way too heavy on the childish innuendo. If I got a dime for every time this book made me roll my eyes it would have paid for itself.

I love the E queen!

I started this book months ago, and I only listened to the prolouge and then put it away. I didn't go further thinking it was just another snow white story. I decided to give it another try as it was sitting in my library, and I'm loving that I did. I laughed, and I cried, and I worried! Must read!

Took me on a ride I'd never forget

An emotional rollercoaster that will have you laugh,cry get angry and overall fall in love. The best rendition of the snow-white fairy tale I've ever heard. The performance was superb. You won't regret it

Sorry, Not Sorry, great concept horribly executed

This is hard to rate as I loathed the first 5hrs, tolerated the next 10, and liked the last 5. I was crafting my 1⭐️ rating right up till the final quarter. As-is, I’m rating this 2⭐️ okay as a sale purchase.
Oddly, I think this book might have worked better for me if I’d listened to book 2 first, because I enjoyed that book a lot more. Book 2, Glass Queen, had a lot of the same ingredients as this book, yet somehow managed to bake a better cake. Things that grated on me here:

1) All the millenial jargon took me completely out of the fantasy. Whether the phrases like “spoiler alert” or cringey jokes involving tampons, the mortal fish out of water gags mostly fell flat.
2) The whole plot about Everly being raised on Earth, unaware of Enchantra, made no sense and only detracted from the story. I think I would have preferred a plot where Everly was raised in obscurity somewhere in Enchantra.
3) Once Everly gets to Enchantra, she is an unbelievably quick study when it comes to using her powers, fighting, or choosing friends/loves. Yup, a whole lotta insta … especially the insta-lust stuff.
4) Much of the book felt Disney Descendants tween, right down to the cringey-cheesy innuendos and sex-pun-flirting (picture Beevis and Butthead) … “I’d love to hire you, so I can have you on my staff…”
Get it? He said staff, huh huh,
5) But then it has large chunks of young adult with death, torture, and a single cringey get together with awkweird talk of condoms vs magical protection (ch 44, after 18 hrs)
6) My biggest gripe was the stupidly cryptic story telling:
-starting at the end, then telling a looooong jumbled story to return to the ending (because, why?)
-Everly’s internal monologue constantly debating whether she’s evil
-The flashes into the past, future, and possible futures
-Folks becoming arch enemies due to rash assumptions, pig-headedness, or failures to communicate
-All the characters speaking in riddles… and all the characters blindly following the instructions of those speaking in riddles

Better fairytale variations, in order of maturity level:
🥀Once More Upon a Time by Roshani Chokshi (delightful and fit for kids in with Shrek level humor)
🥀Brother’s Grimm Mysteries (clever YA featuring Gretel, a trope defying bodacious babe)
🥀Lunar Chronicles beginning with Cinder (YA series with steampunk and sci-fi, fantasy flair)
🥀Glass Queen (as mentioned, book 2 in this series was a more engaging YA Cinderella twist)
🥀Uprooted and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (haunting Brother’s Grimm vibes with Russian flair)
🥀Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy by SJ Maas (even longer books, but more engaging)
🥀Dirty Fairy Tales trilogy by Lauren Landish (naughty romance with fairy tale themes)

excruciating

I have always heard good things of Gena Showalter, so I was anxious to begin the series, and hopefully find a whole new writer and genre and series to love and explore. Alas, this story was so painful I could not even bring myself to finish it. The premise seemed to be that the narrator was not sure if she was the evil queen in the snow white story, or snow white herself. Less than a third of the way in, all the signs pointed to evil queen to me, but she continued to deny it, then do something bad, then deny it, then do something bad, etc. Get on with the story, and if there is some lovely wrinkle that would make me root for the narrator, it needs to show up a little earlier. Painfully bad.

Looked Great From The Description, What Happened?

This had the "Terrible Trifecta" of bad audible books - characters actions that didn't match their motivations (when characters don't make sense, there's no buy in from the reader), extensive inner thoughts with little doing or action (couldn't stay awake), and a narrator whose voice didn't change to match the pace of the story or personality of the characters (bad narration). Another reader said this was "excruciating" to listen to and I couldn't agree more.

WOW!!!

Oh my God what a well a poster set a good book which you from the highest prize to the lowest lows great job can't wait for the rest of the series

gets confusing

there is a lot of tooing & froing with this book and although it captures your attention at points it gets a little confusing as to where every what is actually going on. it was an enjoyable read but I won't be remembering it in great detail 4 years.... meh!

awesome book was on the edge of my seat

loved this book was on the edge of my seat
so looking forward to reading the next book

Loved it

I loved this (audio) book. It was very well written and read. Kudos to both Gena and Caitlin for successfully taking me on a ride full of joy, wonder, pain, fear, hope and love.

Pretty dissapointing

This was for my daughter who didn't finish it. She concurs with one of the other reviewers
Painful story. really slow...