Pricked by Scott Mooney

Posted August 12, 2019 by Robin in Book Review / 6 Comments

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


Pricked by Scott MooneyPricked by Scott Mooney
on August 13, 2019
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 328
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads
AmazonBarnes & Noble
One StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star

Briar Pryce has the power to change the emotions of others by handing them a rose. It is a talent that has done surprisingly little for her, besides landing her a dead-end enchantment delivery job and killing any chance she had with her childhood-crush-turned-roommate. Worst of all, her ability might be responsible for getting her best friend transformed into a cat via a cursed muffin basket. Needless to say, Briar is nowhere near happily-ever-after. But that’s just life as a twenty-something in the Poisoned Apple, New York City’s lost borough of fairy-tale wonder and rent-controlled magic.

When Briar reluctantly agrees to help find a princess’s kidnapped boyfriend in exchange for reversing the curse on her friend, she gets the heroic quest she never really wanted. Unfortunately, the life of a noble heroine is not all it’s cracked up­­ to be – the hours blow, and Briar suspect that the Royal family employing her might be evil, Republican, or both. To complete the suckage, a killer smoke magician is stalking Briar as she searches both the Poisoned Apple and Manhattan for the missing boy. As tensions between the Poisoned Apple royalty ignite and civil war looms, Briar must figure out how to write her own happy ending--or she’ll just be ending.

Pricked, by new author Scott Mooney, is a really fun idea. It sorta falls into the realm of Shrek, where we are in a fantasy world that makes fun of fairytale tropes while also giving us a brand new story.
 
Briar Pryce is just one of the twenty-something girls living in the Poisoned Apple trying to make her way as one of the less magical people in the city.  Her current job as delivery girl is interesting. Briar’s magic allows her to enchant roses with feelings that transfer to the recipient for a short time.  She also can scent people based on their emotions, making her like a magical bloodhound and a likely choice to find a missing person tied to the royal family with the help of a literal knight in shining armor. 
 
I enjoyed the storybook world set up and all the pop culture references intertwine with fairy tale satire. I could tell this was the author’s first book and could have done with a little polishing in a few areas. The imagination that went into this is top notch though, so I can forgive the small issues. 
 
The mystery was fun and this is definitely a solid opening book to set up to a potential new series. It looks like there might be a little bit of a love triangle that could happen in future books and I know who I’ll be rooting for if that happens. 
 
Overall this is a very cool idea executed decently.  I liked the side characters and how some of the fairy tales we know so well have been flipped on their head.  I’ll be looking for the next book in the series.
 
Molly Whuppie, one of the few worthwhile classic fairy tale heroines, and a personal role model of mine. The sculpture showed her holding up the ring she stole from a giant, after tricking him into beating his wife and killing his children . So she wasn’t the nicest fairy tale figure. At least she had spunk. Better than those boring , lay-on-my-back-until-I-get-rescued Sleeping Beauty types.
“So you’ve been snatched by monsters, held for three days, and you’re now on a heroic quest to rescue your true love? Do I understand that correctly?” Horace said to Rick.
“Uh…” Rick looked to me, and I gave him a swift nod. “I guess. Yeah.”
“Well. With that track record, you’ll be a full Apple citizen by the end of the week.”
Rating Breakdown
Plot
One StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Writing
One StarOne StarOne Star
Characters
One StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Dialogue
One StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Overall: One StarOne StarOne Star
Robin
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Posted August 12, 2019 by Robin in Book Review / 6 Comments


6 responses to “Pricked by Scott Mooney

  1. I really love the idea of the set up of this book, that is definitely rare to see in books. Sounds like a solid story for a debut. Hope her writing becomes more polished over time.