Red Hood's Revenge by Jim C. Hines

The Princesses are back!  This time they must battle the notorious assassin The Lady of the Red Hood, whose story you might know as Little Red Riding Hood.  The Princesses are lead to Talia's home country after an assassination attempt fails and it seems that someone is out to get Sleeping Beauty.

     "She's known as the Lady of the Red Hood," said Talia.  "Having failed to kill Beatrice, it looks as though she's coming for you."
     Danielle stared.  "You're telling me Little Red Riding Hood want to kill me?"
     Asked Cinderella of Sleeping Beauty," Snow added with a smile.  p.24

I love these books!  By the third book of any series, especially a longer one than a trilogy, I begin to feel wary.  But Hines seriously delivers.  I think this one is even better than The Mermaid's Madness and I was happy to get more on Talia and to see the repercussions of her actions and explore more of her background.  It was nice to see more of the "Sleeping Beauty" story explored and built on.  I enjoyed the resolution for Talia and thought it was well done. 

I loved the theme of Red Riding Hood and how that story was twisted so that the Lady of the Red Hood, Roudette, becomes someone both villainous and sympathetic at the same time.  So well done.  It was nice to see a match for Talia, but, of course, I always wanted Talia to win.  I liked the whole straying from the path and how is was taken from a literal idea to a religious one.  Roudette was a great villain and a great character.

I was also glad to see Danielle have a little more to do in this book.  She is becoming a really awesome character and living up to the greatness of Talia and Snow.  I can't wait for the next book since it seems to promise a bit more on Snow though I hear that it is the last book and that makes me sad.  But still a great series so far on the whole.

Hogwarts: History of Magic
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