Blog Tour: Book Review, Interview & Giveaway for Cornelia Funke's RECKLESS

By: Cornelia Funke

Published by: Little Brown

Released on: September 5th, 2011

Source: book from publisher

4 stars- I Really Enjoyed It & Recommend Picking It Up

Purchase from: Amazon| Barnes & Noble| Indie Bound

Beyond the mirror, the darkest fairy tales come alive. . .

For years, Jacob Reckless has been escaping to another world--a world behind the mirror, where witches haunt the forests and fairies and dwarfs roam. A world for treasure hunts and magnificent quests--but also a world locked in a deadly war.

Jacob's secret seems safe, until one day his younger brother Will follows him, to disastrous consequence. Faced with a curse that is quickly turning Will to stone, the Reckless brothers are thrust into a race against time to find a cure before one of them is lost forever.

Inspired by the Brothers Grimm, master storyteller Cornelia Funke introduces a lush, enchanting landscape of fairy tales and legends re-imagined as never before. Reckless is a thrilling adventure and a tale of heroism, filled with danger, mystery, and above all, magic. - quoted from Goodreads

I'm not sure what I was expecting to read when I picked up RECKLESS, but I got was an incredible journey to an enchanted world were dark magic rules, magical creatures exist, sacrifices are made and love pays the ultimate price.

Take a magical mirror, add to brothers, and place them into a world full of the unimaginable and you've got the perfect recipe for an engaging, fast paced read that left me wanting more. This is such a creepy, intriguing story that had all the right elements for the makings of a Brothers Grimm fairytale. There's shape shifting characters, two brothers, a girl, fairies, witches, dwarfs, and of course the beloved classic fairy tale characters like Sleeping Beauty and I can't forget the Goyl, the creepy stone like creature that is featured on the cover of some of the RECKLESS books. I really enjoyed this creative mix of characters. Together, they all made this story fascinating for me.

Normally for me I need to feel a connection to a character or characters to really enjoy the book, but with RECKLESS I didn't feel that connection nor did I feel like missed the connection with the characters, because Cornelia writes them in such a way that brings her unique, well crafted story to life. The story is centered on the two brothers, Jacob and Will. These two broken boys pulled at my heart strings. Jacob's in a rush to save his brother Will from the flesh eating stone that's consuming him. That's only one of a many things that are going wrong for these boys. My favorite character from the story is Fox, the shape shifter who's followed Jacob around for years, or should I say from the moment he entered this dark, dangerous world years ago via the mirror in his father's office.

Cornelia Funke has done a suburb job at crafting together a story that totally lured me leaves me wishing her sequel was already out. Her writing is creative and her plot line flows beautifully as she writes the story from multiple points of views. I loved this and I'm in awe that she was able to do this in a way that was one, not confusing to me at all and two, gave me such a unique perspective on reading the story from all these different angles, from the heroes, to the victims to the villains. Wow, is there a great villain in this story!

Talk about creepy, this book definitely brings the creepy factor up a notch. I don't know if I was more intrigued by the bizarre, freaky characters that were in the story, or a little grossed out or terrified by them that I couldn't stop reading about them. I know that doesn't make sense, but believe me, you'll get get what I'm saying when you read about them. Well, I shouldn't say terrified, but if I was a character in the story I would have been.

If you're a fan of fantasy, adventure and The Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales, than this is a book you need to pick up! It's an adventure unlike any other I've read before.

How would you describe Reckless in 3 words or less?

Fur, skin and stone

If you could be on of your characters in your story, who would want to be and why?

I think I AM Fox. I never felt closer to one of my characters. But Jacob is my male alter ego. In him I can live the secret wish to be thoughtless, reckless, irresponsible and absolutely fearless.

What's the most "reckless" or fun thing you've ever done?

Catching my two wild iceland horses on the meadow maybe:) zip lining over the jungle in the Carribean ( Jacob just smiles about all this...yes, I know, neither of it dangerous at all:))))

What authors inspired you as a young writer?

Astrid Lindgren first of all, with her writing and her deep humanity. I just visited the wonderful museum in her honor in Stockholm that brought me back to all her magical worlds. ( my favorite book is The Brothers Lionheart) Then Michael Ende, especially his Jim Knopf books and C.S. Lewis with Narnia.

If you could take a writing retreat anywhere in the world, where would you want to go?

Hmmm. Either Hawaii or Scotland- as you see I have a Northern and a Southern soul:)

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Thank you Cornelia for being with us today!

To find out more about the RECKLESS series, please visit The RECKLESS site

Little Brown's site here

Read the 1st 18 chapters on Netgalley

Be sure to follow the rest of the tour here:

Tuesday, 9/27 – Lisa is Busy Nerding

Wednesday, 9/28 – WORD for Teens

Thursday, 9/29 – Tiger's All-Consuming Books

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Thank you to Little Brown, we're giving away 1 copy of RECKLESS along with a poster!

To Enter:

- please fill out the form below

The Rules:

- this is for residents of the US only

- you must be 13 yrs & older (if under 12 yrs old, you HAVE to have your parent/guardian's permission to enter)

- 1 entry per person, duplicates will result in all your entries being removed

- this giveaway ends on 10/12/11