REVIEW: Hansel by Ella James
It started with a freebie... Hansel is a 4 part series, made up four short books. Book 1 was free so I threw caution to the wind and went for it!! Obviously I got pulled in to buying the whole series, which can only be a good sign!!
I did wonder how this was going to be like the fairytale or just a sexy retelling but I had the idea wrong and the alternative was great. Ella writes about a boy and a girl who were kidnapped and held captive by a crazy woman, known as 'Mother' who was aiming to recreate the fairy tale by collecting children that were similar to the kids in all the stories.
It was an incredibly creepy idea and sometimes I thought I'd be too creeped out to ever seen the romantic side of it. What Mother does to Hansel is incredibly horrible, sexual abuse and he's had such a hard life that it's a wonder he's not more messed up. You really do have to try and understand why he does what he does and the book is basically an unfolding of tryign to find out what happened to Hansel rather than Leah.
I thought this book would be more about the heroine, Leah, and it is at first. You really feel for her struggle and how she tried to cope after what happened. But the actual focus ends up being on Hansel and how the experience affected him. She's the one to save him I think, rather than the other way round.
I liked that at first Hansel seemed like a cold, hard, sexual predator who then gets broken down by Leah and becomes incredibly vulnerable. What you find out is incredibly heart breaking and, as usual with Ella's books, you're left with quite the hangover after!! She's great at keeping secrets and the ones at the end of this book will leave your jaw hanging!
I thoroughly recommend this read, I was drawn to it originally because I liked the idea of a twist on a fairytale but this book is so much more than just a novelty remake, it's a great story which will grab you and pull you along for all the ups and downs.
