Book Review - Cloaked

Title: Cloaked
Author: Alex Flinn 
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: 5 Mar 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0060874247

Synopsis
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.

My Review
When Beastly got made into a film last year I read the book and really enjoyed it (much better as a book anyway) and I really liked Flinn's writing style. I intended to read all her other books but just never got round to it, then I heard this one was coming out and i requested it at the library. It took absolutely ages to come in.
My friend and I tried to guess which fairytale this would be based on and of course we both guessed Little Red Riding Hood. We were both wrong, this is actually inspired by quite a lot of fairy-tales, but mainly The Frog Prince. Though a very different version.
Johnny works in his family's shoe repair shop on the Beach front, with every spare minute he has. It's just him and his mum now and bills are piling up, he knows he is likely to spend his entire life stuck there. That is until super beautiful,famous, Princess Victoriana comes to stay at the hotel and asks him for help on a quest. He needs to find her brother the Prince who has unfortunately been turned into a frog. 
He must embark on a dangerous quest, there is much at stake and a whole new world of magic opening up to him. 
I really liked Johnny as a character, he has moments suited to a typical teenage boy, but he is also sweet, thoughtful and hardworking. He is very endearing and you can't help but want him to do well.
In fact all the characters were very well written and very realistic. I felt like I knew them all. I think my favourite character was Meg, Johnny's life long best friend, sassy and refuses to be the weak girl, she wants to fight for herself.
I read this in less than 24 hours and I struggled to put it down. I am definitely going to find Alex Flinn's other books.
I love fairytale retellings and she does it wonderfully, opening up a whole new world full of endless possibilities.      


 My Rating