I love time-travel, and although I had one major problem with it (see below), the time-travel in Once Upon A Curse was executed nicely, if not as Back to the Future-ish as it could have been. Baker continues to use her characters in such a way that absurd situations never seem absurd, just humorous. Every character is used for some sort of humor, and it makes the whole story very fun to read (the fight with the dragon is especially humorous).I absolutely adored the ending. I thought that Emma was going to fall to the curse and Eadric would break it, but the way Baker worked it out was just so absolutely perfect and so sweet. I also like how Eadric doesn’t really take center stage at all and how Emma’s position as the Green Witch compromises their relationship (the premise of the next book, where Emma must—gasp!—not use magic!).Okay, so when Emma first went back the past and started changing things despite always thinking about how Dyspepsia had warned her not to do that, I thought for sure that when Emma went back, something big was going to be messed up and she would have to fix it. And I know that’s sort of obvious, but I thought, “Why have Emma remember every time not to change the past while she’s changing things in the past when something big like that is not going to happen?” But then nothing did happen, and I was just disappointed. Emma’s trip to the past was just a convenient excuse for her to hear the curse, and Dyspepsia might as well not have bothered warning Emma when absolutely nothing happened.(I suppose that you could argue for the J. K. Rowling route; that is, Emma didn’t change the future because she had already done those things in the past; i.e., the first dragon going to the mountains to set up a home where, in the future, the dragons reside. But I still think letting the servant out of the oubliette was a bad idea, because she learned some information about the past from his skeleton in the oubliette, which would not have been there since she freed him in the past, preventing her from learning that information in the future. Or perhaps I’m just overthinking this.)Also, the plot was fairly simple and I finished the book feeling a bit let-down and wishing that it had been more complicated.Read more book reviews at https://leafsreviews.wordpress.com/
haha, i started last night...discretely ;Dsadly i forgot the story...but luckily the beginning is like a heads-up or reminder of what the story was talking about beforeokay, so emeralda (or emma) is reaching her 16th birthday in a week, but there was this curse put on their family by a fairy, starting with princess hazel, saying that by touching a flower from age 16 onwards, all of their kindness, beauty, and good disappears and changes them to irritable witches :Ponly the girls of the family are able to be witches and casts spells and stuffin addition, emma is to be married (not arranged...not exactly at least) with the love of her dreams, eadric, in whom she's spent the last two books with traveling in adventures :D but she doesn't want to burden eadric with the possibility of turning mean and driving him away, so she tries to find a cureShe learns the cure must be found in the original spot that the curse was placed upon, an item from the king's reign to time travel back in order to find the cure and stop all this acursed-ness from continuing on generation by generationokay, so i only got to page 109 so far :]they've time traveled and met the royal family alreadybut they landed a bit too early, about 2 days, so they just chill out and wait for the time to come :DHUZAAAHHH!!! :]i'm done! though the ending sounds more like a movie adapted scene where it ends with a kiss :Pother than that its pretty awesome...like hazel is an arrogant little b*tch so the swamp fairy casted that spell to her family, as mentioned above :) and she didn't believe her, thinking that its just a bluff and buried herself in flowers...when she turned around, she was no longer the beauty she once was, but instead like those cartoon shown witches who cackle and have extremely bad acne XDso once emma learns this, Li'l<and yadiyadiya and on forthbut i WILL say that the frog princess definetely POWNS this :) and well, i'm guessing the 4th book talks about eadric and emma's marriage .______. boy, i wonder what's going to happen *coughproblemsdramsetccough*
I'm getting through these really quickly, they are really easy reads. This is book 3 in the series. Emma has been told for years about the family curse, any female over 16 in her family must stay away from flowers. Years ago Princess Hazel insulted a Fairy who cast the curse on her, now Emma's Grandmother is a bad tempered, mean spirited old witch, and has been for a few years, but now it's worse - her fun loving friendly aunt Grassina has been turned bad. Instead of the helpful jolly Aunt she is used to Emma now has to deal with moods, moaning and mean tricks. Everyone thought her gran was bad, but Grassina is much worse.Determined to find a way to break the curse Emma sets off on an adventure with Prince Eadric and L'il. She travels back in time, hoping to prevent the curse from ever happening. She meets her ancestors and sees time unfold before her. Although she doesn't stop the curse she does find how to break it - but this brings a whole new set of complications. Only weeks away from her 16th Birthday Emma knows time is running out.Another quick read. I love Prince Eadric's devotion to Emma and his willingness to do anything for her and her Kingdom. A strong bold knight with a sense of justice and a deep love for the Kingdom. I loved the new characters - Emma's ancestors. Millie the princess is lovely and a perfect companion, Hazel is spoilt and ill tempered but the sort of person you love to hate. She's like a combination of all the mean girls you met in school, the ones that got away with everything because they were 'cool', but then got what they deserved in the end - oh sweet justice! heheAunt Grassina turning bad did make for a good storyline but I must admit I missed her warm presence throughout the book, it was like a friend going away. I liked this one better than book 2, the pace was better and more exciting, but book 1 is still my favourite.
—Becky
Furiously seeking to deal with the latest turn of events in her now chaotic life, Emma has become the protector of her Kingdom. Closing in on her 16th birthday, and the family curse, she desperately hopes to find a cure, but everywhere she turns finds nothing. Pitting her wicked relations against one another, she is able to draw from them information to help her find what she needs. And so she and Eadric find themselves traveling back in time. And while she was told not to meddle, of course she does, causing this book to nealy keep me up at night--not from reading, but from worry about how in the world she was going to get out of this. However, interference had no impact on the final results of things, the curse was still cast, and Emma now had the answer she was looking for, though little hope of bringing it to life, but with enough determination to make just about anything possible
—Jaemi
All right. So this is the third installment of the Tales of the Frog Princess, after The Frog Princess and Dragon's Breath. In the last book, Emma and Eadric were concerned with turning Grassina's fiancé, Haywood, back from otter to human... and they were successful, except there was a slight glitch in the end, involving flowers, the family curse, and a big personality change. Emma finds herself with the title of Green Witch and more responsibility than she really cares to have. SO, in Once Upon a Curse, Emma must find a way to break the curse. And of course, this involves time travel. ;) I love time travel.... heehee! Emma must go back in time to when the curse was placed on her ancestress, Princess Hazel, many many years ago to find out how to break the curse (which the person who placed it would have to stipulate during the casting of the curse). Eadric tags along, of course, as does her bat friend, L'il. All sorts of strange and crazy things happen, of course, but will Emma be successful? Will the curse be broken and her Aunt and Grandmother be turned back into their former pleasant, beautiful selves? Will Emma EVER agree to marry Eadric? Read and find out!
—Sara ♥
