The Villains Series

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC!

I am so happy that I stumbled upon this book because it was the reason that I decided to read the entire series.

Anyways, as for the book it self. I felt it was underwhelming in a way when compared to the other books in the series. But this also may have been due to the fact that the beginning was so drastically different than the others. This one began with a call for help from Cinderella to Fairy Godmother and Nanny. And because the Fairy Godmother was hesitant to answer Cinderella’s call for help to assist the Evil Stepmother and the Stepsisters, Nanny began recalling Lady Tremaine’s backstory. Typically in the other books the backstory sort of just begins at the start of the book (with few exceptions). Now, this backstory was one that went back to the very beginning, almost immediately right before Lady Tremaine met Cinderella’s father.

Once Lady Tremaine and Cinderella’s father meet, the story suddenly picks up speed and Lady Tremaine is abruptly moving her and her two daughters across all the Many Kingdoms to come live with Cinderella and her father. Which was sort of okay because all in all it was the ideal situation for Lady Tremaine: here was a single, rich father with a young daughter around the same age as her own two daughters looking for a significant other because he was lonely. But, once Lady Tremaine arrives she realizes things were not at all what she thought them to be. Things are now not adding up. Not only is Cinderella all her father cares about, but now Cinderella is talking to mice in her pockets. A fact that Lady Tremaine finds mental but it is supposedly a normal thing in this Kingdom. And to make matters worse Cinderella’s father actually hates Lady Tremaine—he only wanted someone to maintain his house and watch Cinderella while he was away. But as Lady Tremaine is slowly losing her composure Nanny appears trying to stop Lady Tremaine from doing anything drastic that would make her become the villain. Nanny attempts to tell Tremaine how she is meant to become the villain but that it was not too late to change. Nanny even goes as far as telling Lady Tremaine about the Book of Fairy Tales (you know, the one that outlines each and every fairytale and their outcomes). But Nanny is abruptly swept away and Lady Tremaine does not know if she can believe Nanny without proof, but she knows that she has had enough. So she decides to take matters into her own hands and ultimately finds a way to deal with her husband. The story then unravels as we know it: Cinderella is now a bit older without her father, living each and everyday doing the same chores as her father once made Lady Tremaine and her daughters do, years prior. But, whatever happened to Lady Tremaine and the Stepsisters after Cinderella got her happy ever after? Thankfully Valentino has an explanation. Because Lady Tremaine created such a miserable childhood for Cinderella after her father’s untimely passing, the Fairy Godmother spelled their home: forever preventing Lady Tremaine and the Stepsisters from ever leaving. And because Cinderella was worried about her Stepsisters, she contacted her Fairy Godmother which finally was convinced by Nanny to help the Stepsisters. In the end Lady Tremaine became a statue and the Stepsisters were released to live their life as they wished.

My thoughts are as follows: I am beyond happy Lady Tremaine decided to stand up for herself, because she did not deserve the hell she was receiving day in and day out. And I despise the fact that Lady Tremaine standing up to Cinderella’s shitty father meant that she ultimately became the villain. And to me it was underwhelming because the reason Lady Tremaine became the villain was because Cinderella’s father and Cinderella herself were so shitty to her? Whereas in the other ones you had situations like Triton ruining Ursula’s life and taking away the right she had to rule Atlantis along Triton like their father wished. I cannot say I did not enjoy it, because I did. I just think it is not only a bad reason for Lady Tremaine to end up the villain but it is also unfair she ended up as stone while her daughters got to live out their lives. Because in the end, all Lady Tremaine even wanted was to return to her home and get her daughters married off like they were meant to. 

My favorite one. Also quite possibly made Maleficent my favorite Villain. I honestly wish that Valentino had decided to steer away from how Sleeping Beauty ended and instead allowed Maleficent to live. She deserved so much more than she received. I truly believe for one, her evil was justified, and two this time her evil literally was not because of her doing or her succumbing to the treatment of others.

Valentino did such a great job with Maleficent’s backstory. For starters, she created a relationship between the Three Good Fairies and Maleficent that begun way before Aurora. A relationship that was anything but good. Then she threw Nanny into the mix by making her Maleficent’s adoptive mother because no one “wanted” Maleficent due to her being different looking. Then Valentino decided to add Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother in as not only Nanny’s sister but also the headmistress of the Fairy School in which Maleficent and the Three Good Fairies all attend. Although, Maleficent did end up leaving her fairy education behind, the decision was not influenced by the regular bullying that she was subjected to. Instead she decided to leave the school to further pursue her education considering she was far more advanced than the other fairies, a decision encouraged by Nanny. A fact that did not gain her any popularity among the other fairies.

Fast forward and its time for Maleficent to meet Nanny’s friends: the Odd Sisters. Now, at this point I do not believe they were mean but they also were not trying to be nice. The day after Maleficent meets the Odd Sisters, Maleficent’s world is flipped upside down. As is every other witch/fairy in the Fairy Lands. Now, I would not say what happened this day was the result of the Odd Sisters. Instead it was more a result of Circe, unknowingly, and the Three Good Fairies who caused a domino effect. First the Three Good Fairies stole Maleficent’s crow(?), then Circe decided to attempt to help Maleficent inadvertently find her crow which caused the chain reaction that led to the Fairy Lands being destroyed at the hands of Maleficent.

After Maleficent flees in her dragon form she is utterly alone. That is until the Odd Sisters decide to stick their noses into her business and bring Aurora into Maleficent’s life. How you might ask? Oh, by taking everything that was ever good about Maleficent and using it to create her a daughter: Aurora. Which left Maleficent as all her bad characteristics, while Aurora was all of Maleficent’s good characteristics.

The movie begins a little after the Odd Sisters created Aurora for Maleficent. Maleficent then gave Nanny Aurora but then Nanny turns around and gives Aurora to the Three Good Fairies which is how the King and Queen ended up with her. Then Maleficent’s actions throughout the movie, were explained to be a result of her attempting to protect Aurora from ending up like Maleficent ended up: evil.

Overall, I just feel as if Valentino made her phrase “evil is created, not born” as a result of Maleficent because honestly Maleficent was never evil until the Odd Sisters “attempted” to “help” Maleficent by making her a daughter so she was never alone. My reasoning for believing Maleficent’s evil is justified is due to the fact all she was trying to do was ensure that her daughter would not be subject to the same fate as Maleficent was. EVEN THOUGH, Maleficent literally has every ounce of the good in her heart removed to create Aurora, she was still trying to protect her daughter.  

SPOILERS BELOW

God this book had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. But I feel it was ALL wasted.

Considering this is book three I felt I had a decent idea of the concept that the author was going in by dedicating predominantly the entire novel to the history of the “villain”. Which is what I was expecting but honestly this novel disappointed me so much and I should have rated it way lower than I did.

The backstory was contained in the first chapter, during a brief recollection of what transpired between Ursula and Triton, several years earlier, along with glimpses of others mentioning their relationship. Whereas in the previous two novels the majority of the book was detailing how they were made into the villain we all knew they would end up as. This entire book was essentially a prequel to the Odd Sisters (book five), at least in my opinion. You spend more time with Circe and the Odd Sisters than you do with Ursula or even Ariel. I understand using the Odd Sisters as a staple point Ursula’s upbringing but I feel it did not mention how they are the reason Ursula became a villain. The legit only reason Ursula became the villain was because her father had died and Triton refused to let Ursula rule along side him even though that was their deceased father’s wishes.

I really do not have much to say about this novel. One aspect of the novel that I enjoyed was the Ursula made Circe one of her souls trapped in her garden of souls.

I just expected to receive more of a backstory for such a recognized villain. I feel the novel should have depicted Ursula’s childhood: describe her fathers death in detail, let us read step by step the events that led to his death, how the Odd Sisters were the reason behind his death, describe how Triton left her, how she was left alone and how she cared for herself and why Triton’s actions caused Ursula to have such a negative view of her brother.

I would have preferred a book 300 plus pages which not only showed how the Odd Sisters were helping Ursula in exchange for their sister Circe, who they did not know was trapped in Ursula’s soul garden, but also Ursula’s actual background story.

Here we go, my absolute favorite Disney Princess.

Let me start out by saying that I loved how the Beast could not talk to the servants once they were turned into inanimate objects yet the other still human servants were able to talk to the inanimate servants. I believe this vital detail was SO important to the story and the Beast’s curse because it is testament to the fact of the Beast slowly having to face a life alone for all his rude and mean behavior. And the meaner and nastier he treated those around him the more his servants began turning into objects and the more he became the Beast.

I also ADORE how Gaston was the Beast’s best friend and the only reason they turned on each other was because the Beast became more of a beast as the days went on and he slowly forgot Gaston and Gaston slowly began not to recognize or remember the Beast for who he once was.

Now, let me just say this is a close second to my favorite in the series BUT I feel the back story to the reasoning as to why the Beast became the Beast was not as strong as it had potential to be. My reasons are as follows:

The Beast’s backstory flashed back into a weird spot, although I can understand the reasoning but I could have done with a backstory a little farther back. Such as, where are his parents, aka the King and Queen? Because during this novel, the Beast is really just Prince Adam, is he not?

Although I feel that it is a shit reasoning I can appreciate the reasoning the Beast was cursed due to, essentially, bad karma for treating Circe badly. But if it is viewed from the Beast’s view point, he knew Circe to be someone so beautiful (and kind? I cannot remember) and that was all her knew of her. But the Odd Sisters had to step in and show how heartless, and careless the Beast truly was by tricking the Beast into finding Circe in the position of being a pig farmer. Which from the Beast’s point of view it just depicted Circle as deceitful because she did not openly share who she was (or who the Beast was informed she was). Although it is stated in the book that the Beast did not ask Circe who she was, it was still deceitful to trick the Beast into believing Circe was not who she appeared to be. Where as the Beast did not lie or deceit Circe into believing he was anyone else but who he was. He showed her his true colors from the start; the Odd Sisters just did not want Circe with the Beast out of fear he was not enough or deserving enough for her love. Essentially the Odd Sisters forced the Beast’s hand in this “game” by created a false image of who Circe was in order to cause harm to the Beast and his relationship with Circe.

But I do appreciate how it was Circe who cursed the Beast in exchange for him breaking her heart (even though her heart was broken due to the Odd Sisters meddling in Circe’s love life).

I liked how Belle being attacked by the wolves in the woods was a result of the Odd Sisters arranging it instead of just a random occurrence happening. Valentino did an exceptional job at creating explanations for why things happened the way they did. (i.e. the Beast cursed because he was a cruel man to Circe; Gaston and the Beast hating each other because they did not recognize who they once were to each other).

Then once more Valentino finished her backstory explanation by briefly describing the ending as we knew it to be in the movie. My only issue is I still believe this novel should have been about Gaston and I say this because the Beast ended up happily ever after so how can it be argued that he truly was ever evil? Valentino states “evil is made, not born”. Which is so true, but HOW was he evil? Where as if it was Gaston’s story it could have been argued that he was made to be evil because he loved Belle and Belle left him for the Beast who did not deserved her or something along those lines. Nonetheless, I pleasantly enjoyed this novel. 

I am not sure what I was expecting from this book, but wow I loved it so much. For starters, I know I was not expecting for it to be solely from the prospective of the Evil (Wicked Queen) but yet that’s what this entire book was. 

Valentino did an extraordinary job by creating a detailed and convincing back story for the Wicked Queen. I am unsure as to whether this novel was written based off a predetermined backstory from Disney or if Valentino took the Wicked Queen’s story and created an explanation for her actions and behavior, but nonetheless it was so much better than I could have expected. 

As a reader you actually see evil and insanity encompass the Wicked Queen from start to finish. At first you learn of the Wicked Queen’s upbringing with her father - the creator of the best mirrors in the entire kingdom (whom you learn so much about later in the novel), which leads you to how she met the King. Then comes young Snow White who had lost her mother which was all too perfect for the Wicked Queen who had no children of her own yet. I understand that sounds negative but it was truly all too perfect: Snow White loved her new Mommy the [Wicked] Queen and the Queen loved her. They would go on picnics, and walks, and when the King had business and battles to attend to it left the Queen and Snow alone which inevitably led to the bond between them to grow and grow. 

My ONLY significant complaint is who was the reason the [Wicked] Queen began her descent into evilness. Which *Spoiler Alert* was the Odd Sisters. Now do not get me wrong, the idea makes sense in the way it was not the Wicked Queen’s fault per se for the reason she became who she was destined to become. Because in essence: “evil is made, not born”. But I do not like how she became evil as a fault of someone else’s doing. I feel it should have been something like her stumbling upon the magic mirror which in return set the ball rolling that inevitably ended with her being evil. Instead the Queen became the Evil Queen as a result of the King’s cousins, the Odd Sisters, giving the Queen a mirror that had the spirit of the Queen’s mean father trapped inside, forever destined to be in servitude to the Queen. But it was not the fact he was trapped in the mirror that became her undoing, instead it was her slowly slipping into insanity due to believing she was going crazy seeing her father in the mirror. This then led to her finally (in a way) accepting that her father was in the mirror and utilizing it to the Odd Sister’s purpose which was for her to ask questions such as “who is the fairest” which was the Queen. The Queen’s reasoning for her constant obsession of being the fairest is quite simply: her father made her feel as if she was ugly and not worthy of love let alone the love and attention of a King. Then slowly the Queen’s sanity kept slipping and her beauty began suffering due to her becoming obsessive over knowing who the fairest was, which slowly led to Snow becoming the fairest. Then THIS was when the childhood movie we all know and loved unraveled. Valentino did a great job not completely retelling the movie but instead highlighting the bits and pieces such as sending the huntsman out to collect her heart, becoming the old woman and giving Snow the apple. 

During the entirely of the novel you only see it from the Wicked Queen’s perspective. You may get a glimpse from someone else’s view but it is predominantly the Wicked Queen’s.

As of the date of this review, I have finished the entire series including Cold Hearted, and this is quite possibly my favorite out of the eight books in the sense that the back story was such a practical and believable explanation for the Wicked Queen’s behavior. The entire novel details a great step mom with a mentally abusive upbringing who slowly loses her sanity due to another’s (the Odd Sisters) actions which slowly resulted in an obsessive nature to be the fairest (due to her father not believing her to be beautiful or worthy). Then upon learning she is no longer the fairest the Wicked Queen being her borderline insane and obsessive self, listens to the Sisters advice to kill Snow White, her beloved daughter; which inevitably back fires leading to the untimely death of the Wicked Queen. Then the story comes full circle and it is now the Wicked Queen trapped in the magic mirror: forever destined to be in servitude to the new Queen of the kingdom: Snow White.