(Review) Cloaked

Title: Cloaked
ISBN:9780060874223
Author:Flinn, Alex
Publisher:Harper Teen
Publication Date:February 2011
Pages:256

Source: This copy was an arc and was passed on to me by another blogger, Tina. If you click on her name it will take you to her review of this book.

About the Book:
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 all 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 fairy tale 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 Everglades.

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.

My Thoughts:
I only recently heard about Alex Flinn. Alex has several books out. I currently have two of them sitting in my TBR pile. The first one is Beastly, its a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast which is being made into a movie and the second book is A Kiss in Time, an edgy twist on Sleeping Beauty.

I have to say at first I thought this would be just the retelling of The Elves and the Shoemaker but Alex has also incorporated The Frog Prince, The Six Swans, The Golden Bird, The Valiant Tailor and The Fisherman and His Wife into this book.

Growing up for me I loved The Elves and the Shoemaker and The Frog Prince. For some reason I don’t remember the other fairy tales. I think it will be a task for me the next time I am at the library to look for those other books.

You would think that is alot for this one book but Alex did a fantastic job of incorporating elements of each of the books into the story line. She weaved the perfect story in my opinion.

I loved fairy tales growing up and when I heard about the retelling of them I have to say I was very curious and wanted to check them out. How would they spin the fairy tales into the modern world?

One of the things I loved in the book was that each chapter began with a quote from the above fairy tales so it gave you an idea of what was to come in that chapter. I love when an author does that.

Johnny is the main character in Cloaked and he is a seventeen year old teenager working in his mother’s shoe repair shop at a local hotel. He is working to help his mother with the bills because his father walked out on the family when he was a very young boy. Johnny has no real life because he is always working. Johnny has dreams of one day becoming a shoe designer but wonders if it will ever happen. Whenever he gets the chance he is drawing designs of shoes in his note book that he keeps hidden away.

He doesn’t have the money to buy the material for the shoes so what he does is takes whatever scraps he can from old shoes that he can’t repair. He has managed to get enough to make a pair of shoes as his sample.

Sadly Johnny realizes that he has the talent to succeed but knows he will never be able to afford to go to school and just hopes for that one break that can help him achieve his dream.

The answer to his prayers is a visiting princess named Victoriana. He realizes that if he can get his sample shoes to her that perhaps she will wear them. He could possibly end up making enough money that he or his mother would never have to worry again. Its a long shot and you kind of root for that to happen but we all know its a work of fiction and Johnny will have to work hard to make that happen.

Little does Johnny realize but Victoriana has a much better offer, she offers to marry him. Problem about money will be solved right? Nope in order for that to happen she tells Johnny that he must look for her brother and rescue him because he has been turned into a frog by a witch. She gives him a magic cloak and a warning that he must be the only one to use it.

Johnny quickly realizes that this won’t be as easy as he thought it was because along the way he encounters others who will help him only if he helps them. What will he do? Thankfully his best friend Meg comes along for the ride when she is summoned to him by a ring. She helps him over take some Giants, helping him escape and so much more.

Will Johnny be able to rescue the prince and get to marry the princess or will he realize that what was under his nose is what he really needs?

I really enjoyed this book and I am so anxious to start reading Beastly and A kiss In time very soon. If they are anything like Cloaked I am sure I won’t be disappointed.