Wytch & Prinze seemed to me to be an LGBT M/M romance retelling of the Princess and the Pea and I loved it. The relationship between the boys, the banter between Wytch and his fairy godmother was brilliant. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed this book. It was a decent YA fantasy. It wasnt anything outstanding, but it was a good read.

The pining! The miscommunication! I love cute romances and this was perfect, with the fair amount of witchy vibes. Lacked a bit of character depth and backstory but nevertheless pretty enjoyable.

3.5/5

An eARC of this book was given to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis: “Medium Jacob Wytch lives in the forest with his fluffy dog Gruff and his ghostly fairy godmother Amelie. When he gets a call from his friend Renwick Prinze, he panics. Jacob has been pining for Renwick longer than he cares to admit. Instead of admitting, however, he listens to Amelie and begins to sabotage Renwick’s beds in hopes of inviting his dashing friend to sleep with him.”

Once again, a synopsis that tells the story from start to finish. It’s cute, well written, and the plot was sweet. Although, when I was reading it I couldn’t NOT think of how much it reminded me of another short story: The Errant Prince by Sasha L. Miller. There is a magician, a soldier, they fall for each other, they try to tell their feelings to one another, they end up becoming lovers; Fin. There is a similarity between these two stories.

Could it have been a better story? Sure, but the way Jacob sabotaged those beds could have been less clichéd. I mean, marbles?

The only character that I liked was Gruff. He was the only sensible one in the whole story – after all, he is a dog. Amelie was childish, even though she is supposed to be around 16-17. Jacob is an introvert without a backbone. Renwick is a skittish teenager with confidence problems. It wasn’t a really good story. It was cute. Nothing more, and that’s the problem. It didn’t really have a sound structure that made the story memorable.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Medium Jacob Wytch lives in the forest with his fluffy dog Gruff and his ghostly fairy godmother Amelie. When he gets a call from his friend Renwick Prinze, he panics. Jacob has been pining for Renwick longer than he cares to admit. Instead of admitting, however, he listens to Amelie and begins to sabotage Renwick's beds in hopes of inviting his dashing friend to sleep with him.

Wytch & Prinze by Kassandra Lea is a retelling of the Princess and the Pea fairytale turned M/M romance and it's a fun one. Successful medium Jacob Wytch and his dog Gruff live alone in the forest, an outcast in town due to the nature of his gifts and his name which is of no comfort at all to his superstitious townspeople. His best friend, living that is? Renwick, a chef gaining favor and success, due in part to Jacob's help. But there's more to it, Jacob's fallen in love with Renwick but is too scared to change the status quo of their current friends relationship.

In a cute turn, Lea has his fairy godmother be a ghost, Amelie, a young girl killed during a fire at a Rave. I really loved the character of Amelie. She's quirky, determined and I honestly wanted to know so much more about her. I could actually see an entire series built around Amelie and the people she decided to help.

Which brings me the reason why a story I found so charming wasn't rated higher. I loved the premise, the setting, the dog, and absolutely adored Amelie. Jacob Wytch, who was a wreck when we meet him, I liked him too. Not adored, liked. Ditto Renwick. I wish I had more of a feeling of them together, their friendship prior and who they really were as people. As characters, the author didn't give me enough of a connection to them as I would have liked to have had.

There are some missed opportunities to do just that here. The author brings the characters together, but the readers only get a few scenes (not talking of sex but connectivity) to see any chemistry. Instead it's more conversations with Amelie or internal arguments with themselves, which would work if the story itself had been much longer. Which it isn't.

Those are the places where I feel the author missed the mark. Overall, the story is a sweet, cute, romantic fairy tale. I enjoyed it and wish the author would revisit the characters and universe again to give us an update on them and of course, Amelie!

Cover artist Natasha Snow: Cover art tells us immediately we're in fairy-tale land. I liked it.

Goodreads preview:
"Romantic, funny, charming and beautiful.
I had some boring parts that seemed to go nowhere, but it was also filled with many different scenarios that mad me fall in love with the characters, their emotions and the way the felt about each other.
Full review to be posted on the blog!"

**ARC received from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

c/p from Goodreads review:

I requested this book for review because the cover is unarguably gorgeous, and I'm pretty much always down for a fairytale retelling. I think it needs to be pointed out that in the blurb and in the text itself, the author and publisher draw explicit parallels to the fact this intended to be a Princess & the Pea retelling. This is important.

This is a short story, which again was just what I was in the mood to read (to break up reading a couple longer books I've been working on for #tometopple). I won't rehash the blurb w/ my own summary because, honestly, the blurb says it all.

I'm really sad that I had to give this a 1-star but in all honesty I cannot rate it higher. My rating takes into account a couple of categories: writing quality, story cohesion/pacing, characters, general enjoyment. Unfortunately, this short story didn't deliver in any of these categories.

Things I liked: The cover is really pretty.

Things That Didn't Work For Me:

1. The Story: I'm going to lead with this because it was a glaring issue that just distracted me throughout the entire story. Like I pointed out above, it was clearly stated in the actual story text that this is riffing off of The Princess & the Pea (at several points the two protagonists have a COPY of the Hans Christen Anderson fairytale and read it/reference it), but the way this is executed was not only insipid and a little creepy, but also showed that no one involved in the writing or editing process really understands what the Princess & the Pea is about??? Like....in this short story, the protagonist (Wytch) goes about sabotaging every bed in his house in an attempt to drive his love interest into bed with him. The Princess & the Pea is about separating royalty from peasantry????

Let me break this down a little (like I said, I love me some fairytales). Essentially, the Princess & the Pea is about a prince who needs to/wants to marry a princess of real royal blood. He's encountered several women at this point who claimed royal blood but revealed their uncouth heritage through a series of social blunders. When he meets the Princess of the title, he decides to subtly (key here again is SUBTLY) put a pea at the bottom of her bed, because only someone of truly royal lineage would have the well-bred, nearly divine ability to detect the (undetectable to peasants) discomfort.

The point was not to make her bed so horridly uncomfortable she had no other recourse than to fall into bed with him. It was about identifying someone of true nobility. So, the plot of Wytch & Prinze sort of falls apart as anything to do with Princess & the Pea, ESPECIALLY when the protagonist has a copy of the fairytale, is seen reading it, thinking about, and deciding to implement it. It would have possibly stood on its own WITHOUT this really hammered intention to make it a retelling/riff/remix, but since that's so central to the story and the blurb I feel it's justified holding them up to one another.

2. The Characters: the whole plot hinged on two characters not speaking to one another, which CAN WORK, I can be total trash for miscommunication, but....eh. For such a short story, I think the author gutted the possible tension by revealing the fact that both parties were already pining for one another. It just came across as frustrating and insipid. Also the dialogue between the two men was incredibly stilted.

On top of that, Wytch's behavior was just unpleasant. His attempts at forcing Renwick into his bed weren't cute or charming. If the relationship between them had been less weirdly predatory I probably could have ignored some of the other issues, but *shrug*

3. The Writing: Lot of mixed imagery, verging on mixed metaphors. The dialogue between the men was incredibly odd and stilted. Lots of awkward phrases. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to quote from a netgalley arc, esp since it might still undergo editing. There weren't any typos, but definitely some head scratching constructions that could have been smoothed over. Not my cup of tea.

I mean yeah, it was a ridiculous concept, but it's a retelling of The Princess and the Pea, a.k.a. the most ridiculous fairy story of all time, so nobody should really be surprised. I'm the first person to rate this above three stars on Goodreads, so I guess I'm in the minority (nothing new there, then) but I thought this was pretty entertaining. I'm not sure if I would have bought it if I hadn't have received it from Netgalley, but I very rarely (read: never) buy short stories anyway

As I didn't enjoy this very much, I probably won't cross-post my Goodreads review to my blog (unless I run out of reviews to schedule).

I read two queer short stories today, and this was the less disappointing of them. (Because apparently it was a day full of short fiction that I'd expected to be full length.) This one, at least, had reasonably strong writing and solid pacing. It focused on events unfolding over the course of a couple of days, so the length worked reasonably well as a window onto a longer relationship, with a few memories and flashbacks to help give it depth, and it avoided the 'outline' feel that some short fiction has.

However, the premise didn't make a lot of sense. This character has a crush so he... messes with his guest's bed so he'll end up sleeping in his bed? Idk man. There are definitely easier ways of doing that and they mostly involve COMMUNICATION, aka the basis of any decent relationship. That didn't convince me, I have to admit, though maybe I just don't understand the weird lengths people go to when they can't admit their crushes.

Actually, I once made a dragon out of clay for someone I had a crush on, and went to great lengths to pretend there was nothing extraordinary about casually giving to to him, so maybe doing completely illogical things because of a crush is entirely convincing. However, while the same relationship developed through a longer piece of writing might have won me over, the brevity of the piece meant I didn't really engage with it.

I think the conclusion to be drawn here is that short fiction isn't my thing and I need to stop accidentally requesting it from NetGalley...

This was my first book by this author, and it will most likely be the only one. I didn’t connect with the story at all. I found the writing to be strange at least. It was this weird blend of Victorian era and modern slang. It just didn’t work. The story itself was insipid, there was just nothing there and the whole book could easily be replaced by the blurb – you won’t miss anything.
Underwhelming to say the least.

I love the cover of this novella, it's gorgeous! Unfortunately, for me, the story just didn't live up to it.

🛏️ It's a m/m Princess and the Pea retelling, which sounded awesome. Princess and the Pea is a fairytale I haven't really seen tackled as a retelling, and it's nice to see something other than Beauty and the Beast, Snow White etc.

👻The problem is that the plot just comes off as creepy. Instead of just talking, Jacob is a coward, and tries to manipulate Renwick into his bed exactly as the summary describes. It's also a very stupid plan because who wouldn't be pissed off once they figure it out? I still don't understand why Renwick didn't high-tail it out of there. Jacob even considers the fact that three sleepless nights might cause Renwick to lose his lecturing post, or even have a car accident, and does it anyway!

🍰 There are some cute fairytale details scattered through the story - Gruff the dog, a gingerbread style house etc. - and the Ghost Whisper with baker boyfriend has a lot of cuteness potential. However, we never actually see any evidence of Jacob's witchy creds (except for chatting with Amelie) or Renwick's supposed genius in the kitchen. This, together with the plot (and what it shows of Jacob's character) and some very stilted, archaic dialogue just ruined this one for me.

This review will go up on my blog, Foxes & Fairy Tales on 12 April 2017
https://foxesfairytale.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/review-wytch-prinze

Jacob is excited because his best friend and crush, Renwick, is coming to visit. He's nervous too, because this time for certain he'll be able to tell Renwick his feelings. Except, nerves get the better of him, so instead of telling Renwick he starts a game of Princess and the Pea to potentially disastrous results.

I thought the story was short and sweet with just the right amount of relationship building to make the romance believable. The tie-in with the Princess in the Pea had me giggling as Jacob continues to sabotage where Renwick is sleeping. While the plot was completely predictable, I did enjoy reading it.

However, this story suffered from a severe lack of editing. I don't mean spelling and grammar. (I'm assuming the spelling and grammar issues will be fixed for the actual release, as I was only reading an arc, so those didn't effect my rating here.) There were a number of continuity issues that the author and editor should have fixed. For example: one moment the dog is reacting to his name, eager for attention, but within thirty seconds the dog is so heavily asleep he's snoring. Or how Renwick is first introduced with the last name Charming and it's only at the very end of the book that we're informed it's actually Prinze. And how Jacob states that he decided to call Amelie his fairy godmother, but later it's stated that she was the one who told him she was his fairy godmother. Those are the three big issues that stood out to me, but there were more.

I also didn't like how Jacob's powers were never explained. He talks to ghosts, but how and why he got that ability was never provided. That would have given his characterization a bit more depth, as the story was definitely lacking in that, as well as provided some world building, which was also totally absent from this story.

Book – Wytch & Prinze
Author – Kassandra Lea
Star rating - ★★★☆☆
Word Count – 10k
Cover – Gorgeous!
POV – 3rd person, one character
Would I read it again – No
Genre – LGBT, Fantasy, Short, Ghost, Fairytale


** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **


This is my second story by Lea and, unfortunately, it's another one that could have really benefited from a few experienced beta readers.

The story is a play on The Princess and the Pea, but if you're expecting anything not mentioned in the blurb, then you're going to be disappointed. This is one story that does what it says on the tin and no more. The blurb is basically all set up and fulfilled within the first page. The part where Jacob and Amelia get together to sabotage the bed didn't make sense to me when I read the blurb, as it sounded like it needed some editing, but it does make sense once you've read the story and know that it's basically The Princess and the Pea.

Sadly, though the POV was well chosen and implemented well, there were a few disconnects where it felt like we were being read a bedtime story and there was no true POV, such as the beginning and end, when it felt like we were being spoken to directly, which is a pet hate of mine. Another pet hate is starting with “Once upon a time” even though I get that it's a fairytale retelling, I don't find it necessary.

There are editing issues, but not as severe as the previous book I read by Lea, so that's an improvement. However, there are still little things that don't make sense like “just for a chase to get” and consistence error, example: repeatedly reminding us that Gruff is a dog, which is unnecessary, and the lack of consistency in description. At one point, we're overloaded with detail and the next there's a lack of detail that makes it confusing to follow.

My biggest problem is the language. The story starts off like a fairytale, with modern words, slang and phrases, that make it feel like a real retelling in a contemporary world. But, honestly, if Jacob hadn't used a mobile phone and talked about Amelie attending a rave party, I would have thought this story belonged in the 1800's from the way the characters spoke to each other. The modern phrasing only took place within the main text of the story, and felt forced, while all the dialogue belonged to old men:
“My beloved Jacob,” Renwick chirped. “It's always so wonderful to see you. And let me tell you, I just do not see you often enough.”
That ^ happens a lot. It comes across as the author being more comfortable with a historical genre, but attempting to make it a modern story. Honestly, I'd have been more convinced if this was a Victorian story. Maybe then the plot of sabotaging Renwick's bed, the uncertainty of revealing his feelings and the tip-toeing around the issue for so long would actually make sense. In fact, all of my issues with the story would make more sense if this was a historical story.

Overall, though, the story just wasn't consistent enough. The premise was great, but the execution just wasn't where it needed to be to do the story justice. With the editing issues, the serious consequences of Jacob's actions being so easily dismissed (“What if this little game of his cost Renwick his lecture spot? Or even worse, what if he nodded off on the drive there?”) meant that I couldn't give this more than a 3. For me, the 3 is for the potential of the story and the characters, but if I'd been judging on execution alone, it would have dipped to a 2 star.