Cloaked - Alex Flinn

Summary:  I'm not your average hero.  I actually wasn't your average anything.  Just a poor guy working an after-school job at a South Beach shoe repair shop  to help his mom make ends meet.  But a little magic changed it all.

It started with a curse.  And a frognapping.  And one hot-looking princess, who asked me to lead a rescue mission.

There wasn't a fairy godmother or any of that.  And even though I fell in love along the way, what happened to me is unlike any fairytale I've ever heard.  Before I knew it, I was spying with a flock of enchanted swans, talking (yes, talking!) to a fox named Todd, and nearly trampled by giants in the Keys.

Don't believe me?  I didn't believe it either.  But you'll see.  Because I knew it all was true, the second I got Cloaked.  (Summary from book - Image from www.harpercollins.com )

My Review:  I've read a few Alex Flinn books (A Kiss in Time and Beastly) and I have to say that I think that this is the last one I'll be reading.  There wasn't a great deal that was wrong with it, as far as YA fairytale retellings go, but I have better books to read (theoretically, anyway).  Like the other Flinn novels I've read, Cloaked offers a male perspective on a modern-day fairytale, but instead of just sticking to one fairytale, this book was a combination of seven.  That's a lot.  The characters bounced about quite a bit and everything just moved too quickly.  I felt like I was reading a book on speed (not me, the book).  While each scenario was a interesting on its own, taken as a whole -- well, I kind of got a headache. 

I will say that the Cloaked reminded me of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, with its combination of modern and mythological.  Each book had questing heroes with difficult tasks, but where Olympians had gods, monsters, demigods, and magic, Cloaked had witches, royalty, talking frogs, and enchanted swans. 

Overall, this book would probably be entertaining for a younger young adult, but I think it would leave the average adult mildly amused, but mostly dizzy and unsatisfied.

My Rating:  3 Stars

For the sensitive reader:  Not much to worry about here.  There's a bit of romance and talk of making out that elevates this from children's fiction to young adult, but it's all very tame.

Sum it up: A modern (and mildly entertaining) mish-mash of fairytales.