Regina Rising by Wendy Toliver
Series: Once Upon a Time #4
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Retellings
Pages: 400
Published By: Titan Books on 5th June, 2018
Format: Paperback
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Book Synopsis:
A new Once Upon a Time novel that reveals a previously unseen adventure from the hit ABC series!
Sixteen-year-old Regina is very different from the Regina known by fans of ABC’s Once Upon a Time. She seeks romance, adventure, and approval.
Of course, getting approval from a mother like Cora is next to impossible. For Regina, friendships have always been a rare commodity. Could it be that Regina has finally found a true friend? Or is it too good to be true? As Regina struggles to find her own identity and create her own destiny, she discovers that her fate might just be to become everything she despises.
Book Review
After watching the Once Upon a Time television series and becoming a big fan, I was so excited when I stumbled across this book. Regina is my favourite character! So the fact that we get to dive into her backstory had me immediately sold on reading this book. Also, I love that this book series has standalones so you don’t really have to read them in order.
This book definitely reads as YA and tells the story through Regina’s diary entries. I really like that the author chose this writing style because it made it easy to read. It’s also a nice change to the typical story writing. It felt more personal to myself as a reader and allowed me to connect more with Regina as a character.
The book has a fan-fiction-like feel, but that’s not a bad thing if done well. For the young adult audience it targets, Iโm not bothered by the writing style.
I liked exploring Regina’s relationship with her father, which isn’t as prominent in the TV show. However, I was disappointed by the lack of her mother, who plays a key role in shaping Regina’s character.
The book had good pacing, but the ending felt rushed and a bit predictable, especially regarding one character. Me personally… I would have liked to have had a couple more chapters added into the book just to polish off the story a little more.
Some parts of the story didnโt align with the TV show, like the stable boy being named Jesse instead of Daniel, which bothered me more than it probably should have. Another issue was that the setting felt more regency-era, with mentions of society rules, smoking rooms, and certain foods, rather than medieval, which is supposedly the intended time period.
Nonetheless, this was nothing ground-breaking but I still had a fun time reading it as a fan of the TV show. I’d check out if you have watched the show before as it’s a nice little story for afterwards. I also think this would be good to read to get out of a reading slump.
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