Locks

I received this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Locks:Rapunzel Unhinged is written by Sarah J. Pepper and is a modern retelling of Rapunzel.  In Locks, Rapunzel (or Zel) is determined to escape her tower prison but is brought back and put under watch by a Mercenary that she finds herself insanely attracted to, despite her better judgment.  

I was REALLY excited about reading this book.  I absolutely LOVE the cover art work.  I had to settle for The Death of the Mad Hatter while I was waiting for this one (which I ended up really enjoying).  Needless to say I came to this story without much time in between the two books written by Sarah.  While Death of the Mad Hatter is a young adult book, Locks is written for a vastly different audience.  

Locks starts out as Rapunzel has escaped and is cornered about to be caught.  The sexism of the book is really right in your face right away.  I have no problem with this, but I was caught completely unaware after the darker, yet much more innocent Mad Hatter.  Although the only actual “sex scene” in the book is more PG-13 than rated R, just a lot of sexual tension throughout the story.

Sarah has written a lot of creative characters that I was able to connect with on the level that I could know them through Zel’s feelings.  Unfortunately I feel that the description of the majority of the characters fell a little short.  I could talk a lot about how everyone made Zel feel, but if I had to draw a picture of most of them I would be left wanting.  The environment does lend itself to better descriptors though.  Flynn, is described in magnificent detail, as he is the object of much sexual tension throughout the story.  

Locks reads like a mystery novel, trying to constantly assess and reassess the allegiance of many of the characters and figure out how it will end.  With that being said, I feel like there was a lot of lead up to a slightly fizzle of an ending.  The wow factors of things missing from Zel’s memory were written superbly, but the battle was short and not overly detailed.  The biggest disappointment for me was the Epilogue…  I wanted to know what happened to the ancillary characters as well. 

My biggest negative points were the weird technology references that seemed thrown in.  If Zel has been locked into a tower and no one speaks as she does, I wonder where she learned some of her “potty mouth” language from.  It didn’t bother me, but may deter a more prudent reader.  My issues was with talk of things such as cell phones, and then have nobody use them, while the kingdom doesn’t really deal in technology, it seemed rather out of place, and like Zel wouldn’t know much about it since she spends most of her life in a tower locked away from people.  

Overall I give this book 4/5 stars.  Sarah has a lot of ingenious ideas; she created some really great ideas for characters and some crazy twists and turns to the story.  I love the spunk and fire in Zel’s personality, I love her development as a strong woman throughout the story.  I love many of the ancillary characters and the possibilities that could come about with them.  I love the twists and turns that the story takes.  I have to hold back a star for the seemingly out of place tech talk, the weak ending and epilogue.  Otherwise, it is definitely a story worth reading, there is a lot to love in it.  If you are into fairy-tales, especially Rapunzel, mystery, fantasy, mythology, Romance, etc., you will like this book.