Book Review: Skipping Midnight by Laura Kenyon

Title: Skipping Midnight (Desperately Ever After #3)

Author: Laura Kenyon

Published: November 16th 2016

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: One part Sex and the City. Two parts Desperate Housewives. Three parts Brothers Grimm.

For the women of Marestam, “happily ever after" has always come with a grain of salt. Be it infidelity or aging, deferred dreams or lost love, or even the pressures of raising a family, they have always seen each other through life’s trials with laughter, wine, and a brand new take on old-fashioned chivalry. But when rage and treachery take over, everything they hold dear comes under attack. 

Suddenly, the monarchies are crumbling, Cinderella is missing, Belle is harboring the secret of all secrets, Rapunzel is facing the one dilemma she spent her whole life trying to avoid, and Dawn could lose everything she’s finally learned to love. In order to save everyone and unmask the wolf in their midst, this iconic group of friends must follow a dogmatic fairy no one trusts, invoke a magic no one understands, and face a past they thought they had buried long ago.

Rapunzel, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and the rest of Marestam’s favorite females return in this third and final novel in Laura Kenyon's Desperately Ever After series, which takes a whimsical look at our most beloved fairy tale princesses several years after true love’s kiss. 

At heart, it’s a tale of ordinary women coming to terms with how their lives have turned out. They just happen to live in castles.

Review: A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of reading Desperately Ever After, a super fun book that caught up with some of my favourite Disney princesses a few years after their happily ever after. I found the idea genius so I have been following the series and getting to know the princesses in their new roles ever since. With Skipping Midnight we reach the end of the series so all characters are getting a bit of closure in their stories.

It had been a long time since I had finished Damsels in Distress, the previous installment, but I remembered it had ended with a huge cliff-hanger, with pregnant Belle rushed to hospital. When I started Skipping Midnight, I was a bit lost though. So many things were happening at once and I wasn't sure who was who any more. But as I got to know the characters again, it all came back and I started enjoying the story again.

I think this one is the most ambitious book of the three. All stories are open and the author even manages to open a few more before we slowly start reading about the endings (and what endings!). But I think that this installment has lost the fun spark that I enjoyed so much in the other books, especially in the first one, and it's probably the one that dragged the most. However, it was great fun being back with the princesses again and I was really happy with most of the stories, it definitely makes for a very entertaining story.

If you are a Disney fan yourself and haven't picked this series yet, I'd highly recommend you do. There are so many surprises in store for you!