12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful dark Beauty, November 30, 2008
This review is from: Enchanted Again (Paperback)
Nancy Madore has made a name for herself with her beautifully written and clever exploration of human nature through retold fairytales and, now, nursery rhymes. This new book, a sequel to "Enchanted", has darker corners and often unapologetically harsh turns. Based in modern times, it takes a no-holds-barred journey into the human heart.
The first tale, "Birds of a Feather" is the perfect example of emotion-exploring and Madore's talent with it. The "heroine", Pansy, is married to a nasty police officer and having an erotic affair with a dominating bad boy, who her husband later tells her is dangerous. Stuck between two apparently bad men, Pansy may seem like your average push-over victim, but she's not. When the stakes are raised and the pressure increased, Pansy proves to have a heart that is possibly just as hard and cold as her two mens'. I can't say anything else, but let's just say that if you pay close attention to the story's meaning, you'll be running the nursery rhyme at the beginning over in your mind, with brand new meaning..
The next tale, "Curly Locks", was one of the most disturbing tales I've ever read with an ending that I hated. It does have some fascinating character study and brilliant explorations, but one of the female characters was so rotten, selfish and heartless that I literally burned to rip every hair from her head! I won't go into all the details, but since I'm essentially warning you against the ending, I'll go ahead and tell you that a woman supernaturally steals another woman's life, identity, and body; once this is completed, the nasty b*tch parades around heartlessly in her stolen life, while the poor woman she stole it from is committed to a mental home. Yeah, not a comfortable tale; the character exploration had to do with the question of what a woman really wants and how badly she'll try to get it, especially if she's been hiding behind the mask of dominant feminist for too long. Still, I can't abide evil getting away unpunished.
Aside from "Curly Locks", there were only two other stories that didn't jive well with me, though these other two didn't purely because of sexual content. "Desperate Dan" was about a desperate sort of pervert who desired every woman in town and used objects instead of actual lovemaking to get them (GROSS). "Hot Cross Buns" was a story of male dominance and punishment spanking, both of which I hate. It was, however, more tasteful and a LOT more honest about such a relationship than all the male-spanker stories I've seen before; I just can't tolerate men like that. I will say, though, that there was a little turn of power near the end which I liked very much.
"Peter, Peter" was a brilliant tale of duality between a jealous husband and a wife who slowly learns that her husband's obsessiveness may serve her well. "Little Miss Muppet" was a wonderful story of relationship tangles with a chilling twist, and "Humpty" was a look at a woman's struggle to "fix" a man with bad committment issues who just refused to be fixed. "Georgie Peorgie" had a similar theme to "Humpty", but with a heroine who already realized she couldn't fix a run-around Joe and had a little revenge in mind. All in all, I found this book to be a brilliant and intriguing exploration of relationships and human desires. Madore has a unique talent for both retelling fairytales and expressing human nature, and the combination of them is irresistible! If you're open-minded, I highly recommend this book, as well as Madore's other work. You may want to skip certain graphic scenes, though.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointed, October 21, 2009
This is classified as an "erotic novel", but it's anything but! The small sex scenes were unimaginative, and the story lines quite boring. Her first book, "Enchanted", took fairy tale stories and gave them an erotic, arousing twist. "Enchanted Again" takes nursery rhyme stories and builds boring plots with quick sex scenes. I cannot imagine how this was allowed to be called sensual. It may not have been so disappointing if it wasn't followed by the first set of erotic fairy-tale stories. As it is, the whole concept to this sequel was extremely disappointing.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Breathtaking, February 4, 2009
This review is from: Enchanted Again (Paperback)
Enchanted Again is moving, clever, thought provoking, etc., etc. The characters are deep and full of surprises. The women in her stories are more in depth than the men. It is about women, how they love and how it makes them feel. I thought some of the stories were brilliant. Madore takes an idea out of a child's nursery rhyme and brings it to life. I thought Peter the pumpkin eater was fantastic. As was Curly Locks, Hot Cross Buns, Desperate Dan, Birds of a Feather, Georgie Porgie and so forth. This is erotica at its very best. The stories are exciting enough to take your breath away but you really get emotionally involved with them too. Best of all, each of the sexy stories are written in a way that doesn't insult your intelligence.
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