**3.75 princess stars**

Prior to starting the book, Kimberly informs us that Lock is a dark retelling of the original story of Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm. So, instantly my dark little heart started to get a wee bit excited. The Brothers Grimm are not Disney, so it should be promising with the dark aspect. Now, I must admit that I was not completely familiar with this storyline, so I looked it up and Lock is indeed straight from the version of The Brothers Grimm.

Lock was a rather quick and easy read. There were many secondary storylines going on that could have been chaotic, but eventually added to the overall primary storyline. We see Zell through many stages in her life from beginning to end.

Zell is a very sheltered child that is living in a penthouse in the sky. Her whole world consists of her mother, bodyguards, a few other females and her weekly trips to feed the ducks. Other than that, she is locked in her tower/penthouse in the sky. The first interaction with Zell is when she’s twelve years old. She is growing and changing, and despite being homeschooled, there are many things she is unaware of. We next see her at seventeen. Things have changed in the past five years and she is now working for her mom doing different things around the house. Zell is Imminently worried that when she turns eighteen her role around the house will change.

One night, a father/son walk into Zell’s little world. This is where she meets Frankie and her life isn’t the same since. Frankie’s father is Frank Sr and senior is extremely happy and proud that his son is following in his footsteps. Frank has been waiting for this day for a long time. Little does Sr know that there are nefarious intentions running around.

I’m sure your saying, ‘well, Sue, what happens’? Well my little lagers, that is not my story to tell. You need to hear it from Frankie and Zell. What I will say, is that it was a unique retelling on a Disney-fied character. It promised to be dark and there were elements of that process, but for me it didn’t seem to be dark enough. I was waiting for the story to have a little more grit. One thing that really bothered me was the flip-flopping of perspectives. Like I said earlier, there are many secondary characters and they want to be heard as well. I had to go back quite a few times to see which character was ‘talking’.

Despite all that being said, Frankie and Zell, learn how to fight for themselves, stand up for themselves and to trust some people. I was intrigued, captivated and mesmerized enough to read this book in one sitting.