What a quirky book!

In Charming by Jade Linwood, Prince Charming is dazzling, charismatic, and talented at slaying dragons. He’s also, however, a criminal, making a habit of traveling the world and snatching fortunes out from under people’s noses. So when a chance meeting occurs between three of his victims—Doctor Emilia Rapunzel, Marie Blanche de Neige, and Bella Luca dei’ Sogni—it could be that Charming’s days as a thieving scoundrel are coming to an end. Because these ladies are determined to get revenge.

Now this is a delightful idea for a fairytale retelling!

Firstly, I loved getting to see the altered takes on these three stories, especially Marie Blanche’s (Snow White’s). She’s given a lot more personality and authority within her own tale, and it was so fun to see her be not only capable but also pretty badass. Rapunzel is really fun too, with her magical powers. Bella (Sleeping Beauty) probably has the most similar backstory to the usual version of her tale, but she also probably undergoes the most character development of the three. That said, I did like watching these three very different women have to learn how to get along to work toward a common cause and become real friends.

I also thought, as sleazy and awful as Charming is, that he was a fun character too. It’s an enjoyable version of him because he’s such a smarmy yet effective con artist. And this is certainly more personality than he usually has in fairytales, which helps, too.

However, I think the plot is a little meandering, strangely enough. There are various flashbacks throughout, which was fine, as it gave context for certain characters. But as the women sought out Charming in order to exact their revenge, I felt myself not sure why they were doing certain things. And the way their plan was written kind of didn’t work for me. I wanted to see them plan it, not just watch it unfold without knowing what was part of their plot and what wasn’t. I’m sure that Linwood intended it to be shocking to see the twists and dramatic reveals as Charming saw them, but I wanted it to feel more like a heist or a con movie where you get to see them scheming first. After all, we’re supposed to be on the ladies’ team, so I wanted to see from their perspective more than we did.

That said, in the end, Charming is a clever romp. The women are capable but not without their flaws, but also so easy to root for especially in the face of a jerk like Charming. I think some tweaks to the perspective would have increased my interest in certain scenes, but I still had a great time reading this!