Never After (Paperback)

~ (Author) "VERDANT FORESTS GREW up and around the mountains, covering most of the low foothills..." (more)
Key Phrases: thoughts befoul, princess test, twenty feather beds, Prince Althelstan, King Abelardann, King Lazare (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In Lickiss' charming, clever, and surprisingly substantial slice of fictional cake, Princess Vevila, having had enough of dancing with doltish prospective husbands, would rather seek out adventure. Meanwhile her cousin, Prince Althelstan, has fought through yards of brambles into a somnolent castle to discover three sleeping princes instead of one spellbound princess. "It has to have been a transcription error," he muses, just as he notices a slender beauty dozing near the throne. Captivated, Althelstan decides to inveigle his cousin into waking the princes, which, he hopes, will simultaneously free the object of his affection. Aiding Althelstan are three recent graduates of magical Recondite University, all gearing up to confront the witch who, claiming to be protecting the innocent princes, cast the sleeping spell. Figure in a mysterious little man with mismatched clothing and handfuls of gold, and an insecure princess with two sallow stepsisters, and, well, you see where we're headed. A welcome addition to the fractured fairy tale genre and perfect reading for the beach or an air-conditioned castle bedroom. Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

Take a princess, two bumbling wizards, an enchanted frog, a wicked stepmother, a handsome prince, and you have the most delightfully non-Grimm fairy tale of the year.

"A strong new voice." (Kristine Kathryn Rusch)

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Ace (June 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441009077
• ISBN-13: 978-0441009077
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #855,652 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fairy tale's fairy tale, November 27, 2002

By	Brittney Hinson "garnet17" (Ashford, Alabama) - See all my reviews

Never After is a fairy tale within a fairy tale...several times over. If you are looking for passion, high drama, intrigue, or mystery...find another book. But, if you are a fairy tale lover with a funny bone, you've found what you're looking for.

I was afraid that I would not like this book at first, but as soon as I met the main heroine, Vevila, I was hooked...

The story starts out with a prince, who can only marry someone of equal or higher rank, on the hunt for a princess. He unfortunately lives during a time of severe princess shortages. He reads about a princess, cursed into eternal sleep, and goes on a quest to rescue her with his kiss. But even the best scribes can blow it, as the prince finds out. It's not a princess, but three identical princes who need a royal to awaken them with a kiss. But there is a lovely maiden asleep in their castle, so our prince, Athelstan, asks his cousin, Vevila, to break the curse for him. Since this will take her away from all her suitors, handsome yet boring certainly included, Vevila agrees. But the princes are guarded by their fairy godmother, and she will allow no one to kiss them until they have undergone a princess test...or two. So Vevila is locked up with a pile of straw and ordered to spin it into gold...and that's only the beginning.

Includes spoofs of The Frog Prince, Cinderella, The Princess and the Pea, and lots more. It was hilarious...especially the fairy godmother who happens to resemble a wicked witch and is slightly, well, nuts really. Try this book! It's great.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cheerful & Witty but. . ., September 16, 2004

A Kid's Review

A Twelve-year-old reading fanatic
I thought this story was really good, but I thought Prince Alth(how do you spell it?) really dropped the whole story down a notch on the enternainment level. I was reading the other reviews, and I think that "something" that it's missing is the climax, it's good and all, but there is no part where they're rushing against time, they simply talk and do amusing things and then suddenly the curse is broken and we're to the conclusion. Another thing that I found dissapionting Vevila's ending, she just agrees (if you've read it you'll know what to)too easily at the end. The "Library's Review" (one of the reviews, I'm not sure if that's the correct one)said that the wizards don't do anything, and I disagree they let you know what's going on, because the prince is far too stupid to know or bother to tell anyone, so All in all I'd recommend picking this book up at the library to read once, but not to buy.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Take a rest from big serious books; try this fun little gem, June 25, 2002

By	Dawn M. Smoker (Mechanicsburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This a short book, but if you are a fan of fairy tale retellings with a little romance and humor, you should like this one.

A rather dim-witted but nice prince finds an enchanted vine-covered castle full of sleeping people including a very beautiful woman that he falls for. In this castle, though, it is a prince that needs kissed and awakened before this beauty and the rest of the castle can be roused. Against her will, he recruits his smart, tomboyish cousin, Vevila, (whom he finds trying to run away from her suitors) to help him wake the prince with her kiss. From that point, much of the story focusses on the strong-willed Princess Vevila and the Princess Tests she is put through by the prince's "protectress", a fairy godmother with a few psychiatric problems. A mysterious swamp dweller, a cute, nameless, short man, an imposter perfect princess, a wicked stepmother desperate to find princes for her daughters, and a trio of pompous, greedy wizards round out the cast.

There is a lot of story packed into this small package! There are shades of Sleeping Beauty, the Frog Prince, Rumpelstiltskin, The Princess and the Pea, Cinderella and more, all with a bit of humor and a twist. And they all lived happily ever after...