Jemology

I downloaded Crumbs for free from Amazon.com (it is still free). With an author named Elora, I was expecting a mindless, erotic rehash of Hansel & Gretel. But it's the exact opposite. There was barely any sex. The only thing resembling the fairy tale are the names and the tooth-decay-inducing sweets. Our hero siblings live in a garbage heap in a bleak, grungy, post-apocalyptic world gone to pieces. Told from a very effective first person POV, you can really feel the fear and despair as the siblings try to escape hunger, battle raging zombies and figure out the mystery of the lady in the gingerbread house. I was very pleasantly surprised with this novella as most Amazon freebies are barely readable. I love the author's lyrical prose. It wasn't until I got to the credits that I found out Elora Bishop was really Sarah Diemer. No wonder. But I do wonder why she needs to market this book under another name when it's the same genre as her popular 'The Dark Wife'.

Like Crumbs, Seven is just 'inspired' by Snow White. The author turns the whole fairly tale on its head. Snow White is a goth witch (well maybe not really goth as per the author's description, but i can't help visualizing her as Neve Campbell from the 'The Craft'). The step mother is the damsel in distress. The huntsman is powerful like a god. And the father is . This is a heavy fantasy tale with lots of moments of dread and suspense.

Braided, the Rapunzel story was the best developed romance of the three. In the other two stories, especially Crumbs, the romance was too fast...considering Gretel was practically skin and bones, and came straight from a garbage pile. The only part I dont like is a portion of the quest to free Rapunzel read like a drug-induced hallucination or a dream sequence.

What I liked best: Well-developed original fantasy worlds despite the limited novella length, effective use of 1st person pov to achieve tension and anxiety, lovely lyrical prose, 3 novellas for just $6 -- a bargain.

What could have been better: development of the romances. This was probably limited by the novella length or the author chose not to let up on the tension/suspense.