Book Review: Bewitching

TITLE: Bewitching
Book 1 in the Kendra Chronicles
AUTHOR: Alex Flinn
PUBLISHED: 2012
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: retelling, urban fantasy
PREMISE: Kendra from Beastly tells her part in the fairytales.
MY REVIEW: Sigh. I had such high hopes for this. Let me be clear, there is nothing really wrong with this book or any of Flinn's other books. Writing/storytelling wise they're okay. It's just...I find them mediocre and just...lacking I guess you could say. They're like that student who you feel can do better then they are doing and so you feel disappointed with them when they give you a average project. That is how I feel with Flinn. I feel she can do better then this and keep hoping that maybe this book will be when she brings her writing talent to the table and thus I wind up disapointed with her stuff every time. Probably my own fault, I know, I just wish her stuff wasn't so stock and boring and predictable. That said, I think this will be my last Flinn book.
One of the problems for me is that for something called The KENDRA Chronicles, Kendras hardly in it! She was the sole reason I picked up this book because she was one of the few things that actually intrigued me in Beastly so I was hoping this would give me more time with her character and help me understand her motivations. While we do get the semi-plausible backstory for her in the beginning that is a small bit and mostly this winds up being about a girl she helps who frankly annoys the hell out of me. I'm sorry, I did not care one bit about this girl. I wanted to know more about Kendra but that backstory was literally all we got. In which case, why are you calling this the Kendra Chronicles? Call it random fairy tale theatre instead because that's more accurate.
So for me this was a disappointment and the third try with this author and she has failed to capture my interest in the three books of hers I've read so sorry, Flinn you are just not for me.
WHO SHOULD READ: Beastly fans, Alex Flinn fans, retelling mashup fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five bungling witches